By Scott A. Grant
mail@floridanewsline.com
In the early days of the modern Olympics, the United States dominated the 100-meter dash. From 1896 until 1928, the US won all but two races and finished no worse than second. Then, in 1928, disaster struck, and we were swept from the podium. Canadian Percy Williams won. The silver went to an English runner with the improbable name of Jack London. London was of African descent and had been born in British Guyana before moving to London at an early age. He was the first runner of African descent to medal in the event and the only one ever to be born in South America. A German finished third.
The best American finisher was 17-year-old Frank Wykoff of California. Wykoff was the favorite and was bitterly disappointed by fourth place. He garnered a modicum of consolation when he led the US 4 x 100-meter relay team to the gold medal and an Olympic record. “Flying Frank” ran the first leg.
After the debacle in ’28, the US Olympic Committee determined to widen the pool of runners. At the 1932 games in Los Angeles, the US was represented by two of the fastest men who ever lived; both were African Americans: Eddie Tolan of Michigan and Ralph Metcalfe of Marquette. They could not have been more different. Tolan was 5’7” tall and ran with his glasses taped to his head. He had gone to the University of Michigan to play football and ended up running track. Metcalfe was 5’11” and looked like an athlete. It took him longer to reach full speed, but when he did, he was faster than anyone of his era.
In the 100-meter finals in Los Angeles, Tolan and Metcalfe ended the race in a photo finish. Both men ran an Olympic record of 10.36 seconds. Both men thought they had won. A rules oddity awarded the gold to Tolan. In the 200-meter race, Metcalfe was set to take his revenge. The extra distance gave him more time to run the fast-starting Tolan down — but officials set his starting blocks in the wrong place forcing him to run more than 202 meters in a 200-meter race. Metcalfe finished third. Tolan won. Neither man ran in the relay. Frank Wykoff anchored the all-white relay team and won a second gold medal while setting a second Olympic record.
At the 1936 Olympics in Berlin, Metcalfe was back to run the 100 and so was Frank Wykoff. Jesse Owens won. Metcalfe finished second and Wykoff again finished fourth. In the 200, Owens won. Mack Robinson, Jackie Robinson’s older brother, finished second. After those races, it was determined to replace Robinson on the 100-meter relay with Wykoff. After all, Robinson “already had his medal.” This created an all-white relay team that included two Jewish runners.
For reasons that caused a scandal at the time and are still debated today, a last second decision was made to replace the two Jewish runners with the two fastest men in the world, both African American. Owens ran the first leg; Metcalfe ran the second. It is impossible to watch Metcalfe run that race without gasping audibly. He blazes across the screen. Frank Wykoff ran the final leg of the relay, bringing home his third gold medal in the event and his third Olympic record.
After the ’32 games, Eddie Tolan went on tour with Bill “Bojangles” Robinson’s vaudeville show. He gave Bojangles his 200-meter medal. After the ’36 games, Jesse Owens did the same thing. Bojangles Robinson claimed to hold the world record for running backwards. The schtick was to have the fastest man running forward and backward on the same stage at the same time.
Ralph Metcalfe just kept running and in 1970, he finally won the big race capturing a seat in Congress representing Illinois’ 1st District. Once there he founded the Congressional Black Caucus along with Shirley Chisholm and 11 others.
Scott A. Grant is a local author, historian, and money manager. He is fascinated by the 1936 Olympics and welcomes your comments at scottg@standfastic.com
