Indiana University Olympians: From Leroy Samse to Lilly King

by David Woods

Overview

From track and field to swimming and diving, and of course basketball and soccer, Indiana University Olympians celebrates over a century of Indiana University Olympic competitors. Beginning in 1904, at the 3rd summer games in St. Louis, IU's first Olympic medal went to pole vaulter LeRoy Samse who earned a silver medal. In 2016, swimmer Lilly King rocketed onto the world stage with two gold medals in the 31st Summer Games in Rio de Janeiro.

Featuring profiles of 49 athletes who attended IU, Indiana University Olympians includes the stories of well-known figures like Milt Campbell, the first African American to win decathlon gold and who went on to play pro football, and Mark Spitz, winner of seven swimming gold medals. The book also highlights fascinating anecdotes and the accomplishments of their less well-known colleagues, including one athlete's humble beginnings in a chicken house and another who earned a Silver Star for heroism in the Vietnam War. Despite their different lives, they share one key similarity—these remarkable athletes all called Indiana University home.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9780253050083
Publisher:	Indiana University Press (Ips)
Publication date:	08/04/2020
Series:	Well House Books
Pages:	282
Sales rank:	1,108,049
Product dimensions:	6.00(w) x 8.90(h) x 0.80(d)
Age Range:	18 Years

About the Author

David Woods caught the Olympic spirit early. He has been covering Olympians since 1972, when a naïve college kid covered training camp of the U.S. women's track and field team in Champaign, Ill., for The News-Gazette. Woods' first Olympics were at Los Angeles in 1984. He has covered Olympic sports for The Indianapolis Star since 1994, reporting from every Summer Games since 1996. He is the first four-time winner of the Jesse Abramson Award for journalism excellence from Track and Field Writers of America, and has won more than 25 national and state awards. This is his fourth book. The three others were about Butler University basketball. Woods, a native of Urbana, Ill., lives in Indianapolis with wife Jan. They have two married daughters, Karen and Kathy.

Read an Excerpt

Milt Campbell
1952, 1956
First Black Decathlon Gold Medalist

There is melancholy in reflecting on the achievements of Milt Campbell, as great as they were, and as he was. He does not require revisionist history. He does not require the record be set straight.

Let the record be known.

The fact that he lamented lack of recognition during much of his life does not mean he was wrong. He was right. He could be characterized as the greatest athlete ever to come out of Indiana University, even over Mark Spitz.

During the 2012 Olympic track and field trials, all of America's living gold medalists were brought together for the one hundredth anniversary of the decathlon: Campbell, Rafer Johnson, Bill Toomey, Bruce Jenner, Dan O'Brien. The only one who recognized Campbell, or acknowledged him, was Elliott Denman, longtime journalist, fellow New Jersey native, and Olympic teammate.

"He was completely overlooked," Denman said, "which to me is the story of his life."

Part of the story anyway. Other parts of the story seem more like myth.

The abbreviated version:

In 1956, Milt Campbell became the first black gold medalist in the Olympic decathlon. He set world records and won an NCAA titles in the hurdles for Indiana University. He played pro football and excelled in swimming, wrestling, judo, tennis, and bowling.

"Campbell was, to me, the greatest athlete who ever lived," Olympic filmmaker Bud Greenspan once said.

So there is no valid reason, beyond lack of knowledge and research, as to why forty-eight years after he won a silver in the Olympic decathlon while in high school and forty-four years after he won gold, that Campbell did not make ESPN's Top 100 Athletes of the 20th Century or its Top 50 Black Athletes survey.

Table of Contents

Table of 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
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, 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 Maissoneuve, 1996
Steve Snow, 1992
John Stollmeyer, 1988
Angelo DiBernardo, 1984
Greg Thompson, 1984
6. Other sports
Michelle Venturella, 2000, softball
Mickey Morandini, 1988, baseball
Dick Voliva, 1936, wrestling
Indiana University Olympians
Sources
Photo captions and credits