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1932EDGAR ABLOWICH NILS ALTHIN RICHARD BARBER PETER CLENTZOS LILLIAN COPELAND CLARENCE “BUSTER” CRABBE MICHAEL “MICKEY RILEY” GALITZEN JAMES GILHUALA WILLIAM GRABER SR. FRANK KURTZ HELENE MAYER DUNCAN MCNAUGHTON RALPH METCALFE JOHN PAULSEN GEORGE ROTH SIMEON TORIBIO ROBERT VAN OSDEL FRANK WYKOFF EDGAR ABLOWICH NILS ALTHIN RICHARD BARBER PETER CLENTZOS LILLIAN COPELAND CLARENCE “BUSTER” CRABBE MICHAEL “MICKEY RILEY” GALITZEN JAMES GILHUALA WILLIAM GRABER SR. FRANK KURTZ HELENE MAYER DUNCAN MCNAUGHTON RALPH METCALFE JOHN PAULSEN GEORGE ROTH SIMEON TORIBIO ROBERT VAN OSDEL FRANK WYKOFF EDGAR ABLOWICH NILS ALTHIN RICHARD BARBER PETER CLENTZOS LILLIAN COPELAND CLARENCE “BUSTER” CRABBE MICHAEL “MICKEY RILEY” GALITZEN USC AT THE 1932 OLYMPICS • 7 GOLD 3 SILVER 3 BRONZE JAMES GILHUALA

LOS ANGELES

AN OLYMPIC HERITAGE 33

EDGAR ABLOWICH NILS ALTHIN RICHARD BARBER PETER CLENTZOS LILLIAN COPELAND CLARENCE “BUSTER” CRABBE MICHAEL “MICKEY RILEY” GALITZEN JAMES GILHUALA WILLIAM GRABER SR. FRANK KURTZ HELENE MAYER DUNCAN MCNAUGHTON RALPH METCALFE JOHN PAULSEN GEORGE ROTH SIMEON TORIBIO ROBERT VAN OSDEL FRANK WYKOFF EDGAR ABLOWICH NILS ALTHIN RICHARD BARBER PETER CLENTZOS LILLIAN COPELAND CLARENCE “BUSTER” CRABBE MICHAEL “MICKEY RILEY” GALITZEN JAMES GILHUALA WILLIAM GRABER SR. FRANK KURTZ HELENE MAYER DUNCAN MCNAUGHTON RALPH METCALFE JOHN PAULSEN GEORGE ROTH SIMEON TORIBIO ROBERT VAN OSDEL FRANK WYKOFF EDGAR ABLOWICH NILS ALTHIN RICHARD BARBER PETER CLENTZOS LILLIAN COPELAND CLARENCE “BUSTER” CRABBE MICHAEL “MICKEY RILEY” GALITZEN USC AT THE 1932 OLYMPICS • 7 GOLD 3 SILVER 3 BRONZE JAMES GILHUALA

Selecting the host city for the 1932 Summer Olympics was an easy task for the International Olympic Committee. During

its meeting in Rome in 1923, the IOC received just one bid for the 1932 Games: Los Angeles. Plans were quickly put in place

to renovate Los Angeles Memorial Coliseum, which had been completed the same year the selection was made (1923) but

was already in need of repair. Prominent Los Angeles architect John Parkinson — who had designed the Coliseum as well

as Bovard Administration Building, Los Angeles City Hall, Union Station and many other iconic structures on the University

Park Campus and throughout Los Angeles — was commissioned to oversee the project. Work began in 1930, and by 1932,

a two-phase reconstruction plan had been completed. The wooden upper decks were replaced with concrete and steel,

and seating capacity was increased from 75,000 to more than 100,000. A new athletes’ tunnel and a new lighting system

were added, and the main entrance was embellished with Olympic rings and the Olympic cauldron — which is still lit

during USC’s home football games. The renovated Coliseum — newly dubbed Olympic Stadium — hosted track and field,

gymnastics, field hockey and equestrian events, and also served as the venue for the opening and closing ceremonies.

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AN OLYMPIC HERITAGE 35

Los Angeles Swim Stadium was built to accommodate swimming and diving competitions.

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AN OLYMPIC HERITAGE 37

Los Angeles Swim Stadium — later named for John C. Argue JD ’56, the former USC Board of Trustees chairman who is widely regarded as the person responsible for bringing the 1984 Olympics to Los Angeles — was built to accommodate swimming and diving competitions. Other events took place at the Rose Bowl (cycling) and the Riviera Country Club (equestrian).

Los Angeles also provided a specially constructed Olympic Village in Baldwin Hills, helping reduce the costs of housing and feeding male athletes, who otherwise would have been put up in local hotels.

Due in part to his familiarity with the stadium, Gwynn Wilson ’21, athletic director at USC, was recruited to serve as associate manager of the Xth Olympiad. Trojan Coach Willis O. Hunter and Arnold Eddy ’24, then general manager of the Associated Students, were in charge of supervising Exposition Park and the Coliseum during the Games.

Despite all these preparations, as late as April some observers expressed doubt as to whether the Games would be held at all. The unprecedented financial hardships of the Great Depression — which no one could have foreseen back in 1923 — made the long journey to California unaffordable for many athletes. In the end, only 37 nations, including first-timers Colombia and the Republic of China, participated, bringing 1,332 athletes — fewer than half the number who competed in Amsterdam in 1928. Even U.S. President Herbert Hoover chose not to attend.

Nonetheless, the opening ceremony brought a capacity crowd, and sports fans had much to look forward to. As the Southern California Trojan reported on July 29, 1932: “When the nations begin the tilts in the realm of muscle and skill, speed and stamina, records — time-honored and new both — will be in more danger than ever and prospects of brilliant performances in almost every event are admittedly good.” Nineteen athletes with ties to USC competed at these home Olympics. They won 13 medals, seven of them gold.

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LILLIAN COPELAND

Think of the great pioneers of women’s sports, and some obvious names come to mind: Babe Zaharias. Wilma Rudolph. Billy Jean King. Lillian Copeland’s ’30 name is probably not among them. Yet she was a pioneer in Olympic field events, and in athletics at USC, where she earned the distinction of being the university’s first woman Olympian.

Copeland participated in several sports at USC, but shone in track and field. Among her many achievements, she earned nine national AAU titles in three weight-throwing events. As a freshman, she won her first title in her favorite event, the shot put. The following year, in 1926, she became the AAU champion in shot put, discus and javelin, setting world records in discus and javelin in the process.

After Copeland’s many victories in track and field, it was perfect timing that the 1928 Summer Olympics opened these events to female athletes. The women’s program in the Games did not yet include shot put and javelin, so Copeland entered the discus event. At the Olympic Trials, she not only finished second in the discus throw, but also ran on the record-setting women’s 4x110-yard relay team. Although she qualified for the relay event, she competed only in the discus at the Games in Amsterdam, where she won a silver medal.

After returning to the United States, Copeland enrolled at USC’s law school and pushed athletics to the back burner. She eventually took time away from her studies to prepare for

the 1932 Olympic Trials, where she finished third in the discus event to qualify for the Games. At the Games in Los Angeles — her hometown — Copeland rallied into the lead on her final throw, winning gold and establishing a new world record.

Copeland’s Olympic triumph in the discus would stand as the lone victory by an American woman in the event until 2008, when Stephanie Brown Trafton secured gold at the Beijing Games.

After her success in Los Angeles, Copeland continued competing and turned in a dominant performance in the second Maccabiah Games, a competition for Jewish athletes, in 1935. She won titles in all three throwing disciplines. Although she was a top contender for another gold medal at the 1936 Olympics in Berlin, she joined other athletes in boycotting the Games to protest Adolf Hitler’s anti-Semitic policies. She retired from athletic competition shortly thereafter.

Copeland eventually transitioned to a career in law enforcement, serving 24 years as an officer for the Los Angeles County Sheriff ’s Department. She died in 1964 at the age of 59. She was inducted posthumously into the International Jewish Sports Hall of Fame in 1979 and the National Track & Field Hall of Fame in 1994.

AN OLYMPIC HERITAGE 41

CLARENCE “BUSTER” CRABBE

Perhaps one of the most celebrated Olympians of the early 20th century, Clarence “Buster” Crabbe ’32 got an early start in sports.

The older of two sons born to Edward Clinton Simmons Crabbe and his wife, Lucy Agnes McNamara, Crabbe was raised on a pineapple plantation in Hawaii. He was swimming by the age of 5. In 1927, he graduated from scholastic swimming powerhouse Punahou High School, where he also lettered in football, basketball and track. Only a year later, Crabbe qualified for the Summer Games in Amsterdam, where he won a bronze medal in the 1500-meter freestyle and finished fourth in the 400-meter freestyle.

Crabbe transferred from the University of Hawaii to USC, where in 1931 he won an NCAA championship in the 400-meter freestyle and became the school’s first All-American swimmer. In 1932, he added an AAU national title to his résumé and qualified for the Los Angeles Olympics.

The swimmer struck gold at his second Games, winning the 400-meter freestyle by dramatically edging out world-record holder Jean Taris of France at the finish. Taris had established a two-body-lengths lead at the halfway point, but by 300 meters Crabbe had cut that deficit to one length, and he pulled even with 25 meters remaining. With the entire audience on their feet, Crabbe touched inches ahead of Taris to win by just one-tenth of a second.

As Crabbe later remarked, that tenth of a second changed his life.

Before the Los Angeles Games began, Paramount Studios sent scouts to the Olympic Village to find handsome, athletic candidates for a screen test. MGM had achieved tremendous success with famed swimmer and Olympic medalist Johnny Weissmuller, and Paramount wanted to add an Olympian to its roster of stars.

Crabbe was one of the 20 athletes selected for the screen test. A few days after he won the gold medal, Paramount put him under contract. He started work right away, starring as Kaspa the Lion Man in King of the Jungle. He appeared in more than 100 movies, including the wildly popular serials Tarzan, Flash Gordon and Buck Rogers.

When Crabbe’s Hollywood career dimmed in the 1950s and 1960s, he began working as a stockbroker and eventually parlayed his background in swimming to a business role as vice president of sales at Cascade Industries in New Jersey, the world’s first “package pool” company.

Crabbe continued to swim well into his 70s and made one final movie, in 1982, appearing in The Comeback Trail. He died the following year.

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EDGAR ABLOWICH ’34USC’s own Edgar Ablowich participated on the United States’ 4x400-meter relay team, which won the gold medal and also set a new world record of 3:08.2.

SIMEON TORIBIO ’33Simeon Toribio represented the Philippines in three consecutive Olympics beginning in 1928. He won the bronze medal in the high jump at the 1932 Games in Los Angeles and went on to study engineering at USC the following year.

DUNCAN McNAUGHTON ’33, PHD ’50 & BOB VAN OSDEL DDS ’34

In the 1932 Olympic high jump final, the battle for gold came down to USC teammates

Duncan McNaughton, left, and Bob Van Osdel, right. With the bar at 1.97 meters (6 feet 5-5/8 inches), Van Osdel approached McNaughton and advised him on improving his technique. His words helped McNaughton clear the height and win the gold. Van Osdel missed and took silver. Simeon

Toribio (center) was third. McNaughton and Van Osdel remained lifelong friends.

THE GAMES ARE ON!

DESPITE TAKING PLACE IN THE MIDST OF THE GREAT DEPRESSION,

THE 1932 GAMES IN LOS ANGELES SAW RECORD

ATTENDANCE. THE OPENING CEREMONIES

ALONE DREW A CAPACITY CROWD IN THE NEWLY

RENOVATED COLISEUM — THE LARGEST AUDIENCE

EVER TO ATTEND AN OLYMPIC EVENT.

STEP UP TO VICTORYTHE 1932 GAMES MARKED THE FIRST TIME

WINNING ATHLETES STOOD ON A THREE-TIERED VICTORY PODIUM TO RECEIVE THEIR MEDALS.

TROJAN VICTORIESAND HIGHLIGHTS OF

THE 1932 LOS ANGELES GAMES

usc olympians: 19 gold: 7 silver: 3 bronze: 3

AN OLYMPIC HERITAGE 43

RALPH METCALFE ’39Known as the “world’s fastest human” from 1932 to 1934, Ralph Metcalfe won a silver medal in the 100-meter event at the 1932 Olympics, and a bronze in the 200 meters. Four years later, in Berlin, he finished second to Jesse Owens in the 100 meters and joined him on the United States’ gold-medal-winning team in the 4x100-meter relay. Metcalfe later became a member of Congress.

GEORGE ROTH ’42George Roth was the last person to take home Olympic gold for club swinging, which was an Olympic medal event just twice. Club swinging was a choreographed four-minute routine in which the athlete swung a pair of bowling-pin-shaped wooden clubs around the body and head — with routines judged for creativity and difficulty.

LET’S GO, WORLD!USC’S STUDENT NEWSPAPER, THE

SOUTHERN CALIFORNIA TROJAN, WROTE ON JULY 29, 1932: “AS THE BRILLIANT OPENING CEREMONY STARTS AT THE OLYMPIC STADIUM, THE EYES OF THE

WORLD WILL CONVERGE ON LOS ANGELES AND THE SHOW OF A LIFETIME WILL

BEGIN. THE PASS-WORD FOR PRESS AND RADIO WILL CEASE TO BE ‘LET’S GO,

AMERICA,’ TO BECOME ‘LET’S GO, WORLD!’”

16 DAYS OF GLORY

SPANNING 16 DAYS, THE 1932 OLYMPICS SET A NEW STANDARD

FOR THE DURATION OF THE GAMES. (BETWEEN 1900 AND 1928, NO

PREVIOUS SUMMER OLYMPICS HAD LASTED FEWER THAN 79 DAYS.)

OLYMPIC BOULEVARD

IN HONOR OF HOSTING THE GAMES OF THE XTH OLYMPIAD, LOS ANGELES RENAMED TENTH STREET, A MAJOR

THOROUGHFARE, OLYMPIC BOULEVARD.

“OLYMPIC STADIUM”LOS ANGELES MEMORIAL COLISEUM — COMMISSIONED IN 1921 AS A MEMORIAL

TO THOSE WHO PERISHED IN WORLD WAR I — IS THE FIRST STADIUM TO HAVE HOSTED THE OLYMPIC GAMES TWICE, INITIALLY IN 1932 AND AGAIN IN 1984.

IN 1932, IT WAS KNOWN SIMPLY AS OLYMPIC STADIUM.

FRANK KURTZ ’37Frank Kurtz won bronze in the 10-meter platform at the 1932 Games. Better known as a World War II aviator, Kurtz was awarded the Croix de Guerre, three Distinguished Flying Crosses, three Silver Stars, three Air Medals and five Presidential Citations. He was also the father of actress Swoosie Kurtz.