This book is a publication of
INDIANA UNIVERSITY PRESS
Office of Scholarly Publishing
Herman B Wells Library 350
1320 East 10th Street
Bloomington, Indiana 47405 USA
© 2020 by David Woods
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No part of this book may be reproduced or utilized in any form or by any means, electronic or mechanical, including photocopying and recording, or by any information storage and retrieval system, without permission in writing from the publisher. The paper used in this publication meets the minimum requirements of the American National Standard for Information Sciences—Permanence of Paper for Printed Library Materials, ANSI Z39.48–1992.
Manufactured in the United States of America
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from the Library of Congress
ISBN 978-0-253-05007-6 (cloth)
ISBN 978-0-253-05009-0 (Web PDF)
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CONTENTS
Preface
1 BASKETBALL
Steve Alford, 1984
Quinn Buckner and Scott May, 1976
Walt Bellamy, 1960
2 TRACK AND FIELD
Derek Drouin, 2012, 2016
David Neville, 2008
DeDee Nathan, 2000
Bob Kennedy, 1992, 1996
Jim Spivey, 1984, 1992, 1996
Dave Volz, 1992
Sunder Nix, 1984
Willie May, 1960
Milt Campbell, 1952, 1956
Greg Bell, 1956
Fred Wilt, 1948, 1952
Roy Cochran, 1948 93
Charles Hornbostel, 1932, 1936
Don Lash, 1936
Ivan Fuqua, 1932
LeRoy Samse, 1904
3 SWIMMING
Lilly King, 2016
Cody Miller, 2016
Blake Pieroni, 2016
Gary Hall, 1968, 1972, 1976
Jim Montgomery, 1976
Mark Spitz, 1968, 1972
Mike Stamm, 1972
John Kinsella, 1968, 1972
Charlie Hickcox, 1968
Don McKenzie, 1968
Chet Jastremski, 1964, 1968
Kathy Ellis, 1964
Fred Schmidt, 1964
Frank McKinney Jr., 1956, 1960
Mike Troy, 1960
Bill Woolsey, 1952, 1956
4 DIVING
Michael Hixon, 2016
Mark Lenzi, 1992, 1996
Cynthia Potter, 1972, 1976
Lesley Bush, 1964, 1968
Ken Sitzberger, 1964
5 SOCCER
Brian Maisonneuve, 1996
Steve Snow, 1992
John Stollmeyer, 1988
Angelo DiBernardo, 1984
Gregg Thompson, 1984
6 OTHER SPORTS
Michelle Venturella, Softball, 2000
Mickey Morandini , Baseball, 1988
Dick Voliva , Wrestling, 1936
Sources
Indiana University Olympians
PREFACE
INDIANA UNIVERSITY HAS LONG BEEN KNOWN FOR BASKETBALL, AS it should be. Only UCLA (eleven), Kentucky (eight), and North Carolina (six) have won more NCAA championships than the Hoosiers’ five.
But Indiana’s legacy at the Olympic Games is no less impressive. The Hoosiers have collected fifty-five gold medals for the United States since the modern Olympics debuted in 1896, a figure exceeded by just seven schools: Stanford, UCLA, the University of Southern California, Texas, Michigan, and Florida. Indiana’s ninetyfive total medals rank eleventh.
This book has profiles of forty-nine IU Olympians. In the following pages, you will read that:
· The greatest athlete in IU history was not actually recruited by IU.
· A long jump gold medalist had such humble beginnings that he grew up in a chicken house.
· The Hoosiers produced the first African American gold medalist in the decathlon.
· A diver who had never before competed on the 10-meter platform won a gold medal a few months after she first tried it.
· The soccer player who helped build the Hoosiers’ dynasty was discovered on Chicago playgrounds.
· A swimmer later became head valet for a Saudi Arabian prince and then a master chef.
· A swimmer was part of rescue missions for astronauts who walked on the moon.
· A double gold medalist won a Silver Star for heroism in the Vietnam War.
· Two distance runners became FBI agents.
Those athletes, in order, are Mark Spitz, Greg Bell, Milt Campbell, Lesley Bush, Angelo DiBernardo, Mike Stamm, Fred Schmidt, Mike Troy, Don Lash, and Fred Wilt.
The event in which the Hoosiers have the most gold medals (ten) is swimming’s 4×100-meter medley relay: Frank McKinney, 1960; Kathy Ellis and Fred Schmidt, 1964; Charlie Hickcox and Don McKenzie, 1968; Mark Spitz and Mark Stamm, 1972; Mark Kerry (Australia), 1980; Lilly King and Cody Miller, 2016. Through 2016, the US men had never lost the 4×100 medley relay at an Olympics.
The Hoosiers also have four gold medalists in