1930s
Peter Mehringer, 1932
In the fall of 1931, Peter Mehringer was a star guard on the KU football team. He brought that same grit to the wrestling mat for the 1932 season, going undefeated and winning the Big Six heavyweight championship. Mehringer finished second at the national meet and failed to qualify for the 1932 Los Angeles Olympics as a heavyweight. Instead, he competed as light-heavyweight and won the gold medal. After his time at KU, Peter Mehringer spent time as a professional wrestler and played professional football for the Chicago Cardinals.
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Glenn Cunningham, 1932 and 1936
Long considered the greatest American miler of all time, Jayhawk and Kansas native Glenn Cunningham’s personal best for the mile was 4:04.4 – but it took him much longer than that to get there. While growing up in Elkhart, Kansas, at the age of eight, both of Cunningham’s legs were badly burned in a fire at his school – which also claimed the life of his older brother Floyd. It was two years after the fire that Cunningham began to walk again, and running came not long after. Then it was off to the races – literally. Cunningham started setting at the University of Kansas even before becoming a student. In 1930, as a high school senior, he attended the Kansas Relays - where he would later have an event named for him - and set a high school mile record of 4:31.04. While a student at KU, Cunningham attended his first Olympics in 1932. He competed in the 1500m event and placed fourth.
Not medaling at the 1932 Olympics did nothing to damper Cunningham’s stride, however. In 1933 he won the James E. Sullivan Award as the top amateur athlete in the United States. In 1934, by a whole second, he set the world record for the mile at 4:06.8. This record was held for three years. In 1936, in addition to setting the record for the 800m, Cunningham headed to Berlin to compete in the Olympics. Once again running the 1500m, Cunningham won the silver medal. Cunningham later set the record for the indoor mile in 1938, making him only one of five athletes to hold the world record for both the outdoor and indoor mile.
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Jim Bausch, 1932
Nicknamed “Jarring Jim” while at the University of Kansas for the ferocity in which he played football, Jim Bausch was also know by another moniker during his brief athletic career – “world’s greatest athlete.” Bausch was a letterman in football, basketball, and track at both Wichita University (now Wichita State) and the University of Kansas, which he transferred to during his sophomore year. After leaving KU, Bausch stayed in Lawrence and continued to train with KU track coach, Bruce Hamilton. At the 1931 Kansas Relays Bausch competed in his first decathlon and set a new Relays record, nearly beating the American record for the event. Having established himself as one of the nation’s best decathletes, Bausch tried out for the 1932 Olympic team. He not only won the trials but set a new American record in the process.
Even after doing so well in the trials, neither Bausch nor any of his fellow US teammates were favored in the Olympic event. Finland’s Akilles Jarvien was far and away the favorite for gold, due to him setting a new world record at his own Olympic trials. After the first day, Bausch was ranked only fifth. He placed sixth in the first event of the second day but, in a stunning comeback, went on to win the next three consecutive events – the discus, the pole vault, and the javelin throw. The last was possibly the most stunning upset. The javelin throw was Jarvien’s best event, and Bausch beat him by nearly two feet, establishing a new Olympic decathlon record for the event. The final event , the 1500-meter run, was a somewhat tame conclusion to the decathlon. Bausch needed only to finish the race, which he did in second to last place, as he already had the points needed to win. The 500 points he gained from finishing the race boosted his decathlon score to 8,462.23 points. This total not only shattered Jarvien’s record, but beat the unofficial world record of 4, 412 points that had been set in 1912 by Jim Thorpe.
