Harold Osborn
Encyclopedia
Harold Marion Osborn (April 13, 1899 – April 5, 1975) was a U.S. track athlete
. He won a gold medal in Olympic
decathlon
and high jump
in 1924.
The apex of the athletic career of Harold M. Osborn occurred at the 1924 Olympic games in Paris
, France
(the VIII Olympiad, featured in the popular film, Chariots of Fire
). Osborn was the first and, to this day, the only athlete ever to win gold in both the decathlon
and an individual event.
Osborn won gold medal
s and set Olympic records in both the high jump
and the decathlon
at the 1924 Olympics. His 6' 6" high jump remained the Olympic record for 12 years, while his decathlon score of 7,710.775 points also set a new world record, and resulted in worldwide press coverage calling him the “world’s greatest athlete.” The decathlon competition was especially grueling, conducted just four days after the high jump competition, and consisting of ten events run in extremely hot and humid weather conditions over two days at the end of the games.
Harold Marion Osborn was born April 13, 1899, the fourth child and third son of Jesse Ware Osborn and Emma Ware, whose parents and grandparents were settled in central Illinois
in the early 19th century. Osborn grew up on the family farm in Butler Grove Township
in Montgomery County.
Family lore tells us that Harold and his brothers, Wesley, Clarence, and Loren, were encouraged to run and practice jumping hurdles on the farm. Their father, Jesse, built a track and hurdles on the farm so that the boys could practice. After team practices in football
, basketball
, and track at Hillsboro High School
, Harold had to walk or run the four miles home to the farm. Throughout Osborn's long athletic career, few people were aware that he had lost most of his vision in one eye due to an injury during his teenage years. As a result he had very little depth perception, making it difficult to know when to jump as he approached the cross bar. He compensated by carefully measuring from the take-off point to a point where he began his running approach.
After high school, Osborn attended the University of Illinois
, from 1919 through 1922, majoring in agriculture
. While at Illinois, he was a founding member of the Eta Chapter of Kappa Delta Rho
Fraternity. He then accepted a high school teaching job at Lewiston
, Illinois
, where, sponsored by the Illinois Athletic Club of Chicago, he continued to train and to compete in track and field events in preparation for the upcoming 1924 Olympic games
. Osborn left Lewiston after a couple of years to take a job at Champaign High School, where he would be closer to the University as he continued his training.
Osborn did not, however, forget one of the students he met at Lewistown
. He stayed in touch with Margaret Bordner, a striking brunette, and after the 1924 Olympic games, Osborn began a serious long-distance courtship of Margaret by mail while he was competing in Europe
. Osborn prevailed in love as well as in track and married Margaret in 1928.
Although the 1924 Olympic games were a high point in Osborn’s career, there were many others. While competing for the University of Illinois in 1920, 1921, and 1922, Osborn helped Illinois win both the indoor and outdoor Big Ten titles all three years. He tied for the NCAA and AAU
outdoor high jump championships in 1922.
On May 27, 1924, Osborn's 6' 8-¼" high jump set a world record at an AAU meet held at the University of Illinois campus in Urbana. He won the AAU outdoor title in 1925 and 1926, the indoor title four years in a row, 1923‑26, and he was the AAU decathlon champion in 1923, 1925, and 1926. He also achieved prominence in several events which have since been discontinued, winning the AAU indoor 70‑yard hurdles in 1925, and the AAU indoor standing high jump from 1929 through 1931, and taking second place in the standing broad jump in 1930. Osborn was 5' 10 ½" tall and weighed about 175 pounds during his competitive years.
Osborn spent much of the year after the 1924 Olympics traveling and competing in European games with a small group of other track and field
athletes who had competed in the Olympics. As a result of the Olympic gold medals and the many meets in Europe, he became well known in Europe and acquired fans there who followed his career.
A month after the 1924 Olympics he competed in Croke Park
in Dublin, Ireland
, in the Tailteann games
. His major competitor in those games was Larry Stanley
, a native of Kildare
, Ireland
, and Ireland's entrant in the 1924 Olympics. Stanley was a celebrated Gaelic football
er and the Irish emotions ran high at the Tailteann games, but Osborn defeated Stanley, jumping 6' 4½" to Stanley's 6' 3½".
Osborn returned from Europe to compete in track meets in the United States
. In 1925, Clyde Littlefield
, an outstanding track and field athlete from Texas
, became the coach at the University of Texas. Littlefield started an event known as the Texas Relays
, a showcase for track and field athletes, which continues today. Osborn competed in the first of the Texas Relays, along with the 1924 Olympic 200‑meter champion, Jackson Scholz
. Both did well. Scholz won a special 100 meters, and Osborn reportedly “thrilled" the 6,000 spectators by clearing 6' 8-15/16", higher than his earlier world record set in 1924. (see TexasSports.com) This reported height may not be accurate, however; it conflicts with other sources reporting that Osborn's highest lifetime jump was 6' 8½".
Osborn competed in the Olympics again in 1928. In the high jump, four competitors tied for second place. In the runoff jumps, Osborn was not able to jump high enough to win the bronze medal and had to settle for a participant medal. The initial tying jumps for second place were 6' 3- ½", just an inch behind gold medalist, Bob King, who jumped 6' 4½". No one was able to match or better Osborn's 1924 jump.
After the 1928 games Osborn returned home, married Margaret Bordner, and continued to teach and coach at Champaign High School until 1933, when he returned to school. He received his Doctor of Osteopathic Medicine
from Philadelphia College of Osteopathic Medicine
in 1937. He credited a share of success as an athlete to osteopathy
, especially after a Paris practitioner helped him with a pulled muscle at the 1924 games. In 1937, the Osborns, by then the parents of two daughters, returned to Champaign, Illinois
, where he practiced osteopathic medicine, continued to compete in athletics, and assisted the University of Illinois track coach in the 1940s. Two more daughters were born in Champaign, where Harold and Margaret Osborn continued to reside until his death on April 5, 1975.
Altogether Osborn won 17 national titles and set six world records during his career. He held world indoor records in the standing hop, step, and jump; the 60-yard high hurdles; and the running high jump. His world record in the standing high jump of 5' 5¾" still stands today (and will continue to stand as this event is no longer part of track contests). He achieved that record at the age of 37.
Near the end of his life Osborn enjoyed new honors and a chance to revisit Europe and some of the sites of his earlier competitions. Osborn was enshrined as a charter member of the U.S. Track & Field Hall of Fame in 1974, along with such other track greats as Jessie Owens, Babe Didriksen Zaharias
, Bob Mathias
, and Wilma Rudolph
. In 1974, he was also invited to return to Dublin for the Golden Jubilee commemoration of the Tailteann Games, where he met and reminisced with Larry Stanley
.
Even with his busy life of coaching, practicing osteopathic medicine, and raising a family, Osborn never lost interest in staying physically fit, active, and healthy. At the age of 40, he could jump 6'3". At the age of 50, he could clear his own body height of 5' 10½". In his later years he also competed in the field of archery
.
The coach at Hillsboro High School
summed up his career quite aptly at Osborn’s induction into the high school Hall of Fame: “As a world class athlete, Osborn is one of the greatest. As an individual competing for the sheer joy of sport and dedicated to the highest ideals of amateur sport, he has few equals. Osborn died at the age of 75 after a long life of service to his community and inspiration to all who knew him.”
Olympic Athlete Harold Abrahams, who also competed in the 1924 Paris Olympics, and who later wrote and published about the Olympiads of his era, wrote in 1950, “After Nurmi, I think the outstanding performer was the American, Harold Osborn, who won both the high jump and the decathlon.
'High Jumping Styles - the Osborn roll and the Western roll
Harold M. Osborn developed a unique variation of the Western roll style of high jumping. While Osborn was practicing his hurdles and jumping in the field at his farm home in Illinois, the Western roll was gradually replacing an earlier jumping style called the scissor-kick. In the Western roll, the bar was approached on a diagonal—the inner leg used for the take‑off, while the outer leg was thrust up to lead the body sideways over the bar. Using the Western roll, George Horine
first took the world high jump standard to 6' 7" (2.0m) in 1912. Horine is sometimes cited as the originator of the style.
Osborn worked on his own form and obviously paid attention to the style that was developing as he competed in high school and at the University of Illinois. He modified the Western roll technique by developing an efficient side‑to‑the‑bar clearance, which resulted in more height and consistency.http://www.usatf.org/HallOfFame/TF/showBio.asp?HOFIDs=125 His jumping style was sometimes referred to as the Osborn roll, but is also often lumped together with other variations of the style of jumping that is generally referred to as the Western roll. By 1924 he was using the style to attain new heights.
In the late 1960s and early 1970s Osborn corresponded from time to time with Volker Kluge of Altenburg
, Germany
, a journalist who published a sports magazine, and who had a passionate interest in the Olympics and the changes in track and field over the years. Volker asked Osborn many questions about his participation in the '24 Olympics and published articles about Osborn and other athletes who competed in Europe. In a letter to Volker dated January 31, 1969, Osborn described how he developed his style of jumping: “I more or less found my style of high jumping by accident, as I was trying to imitate Ed Beeson’s style, and what developed was natural to me, and as I became more proficient and with much practice, I utilized leg and arm lift and body ‛kip’ and then slid across the bar more or less on my back, and as I got to the far side of the bar then started to uncoil and dropped my take-off leg and arms for landing.”
Ed Beeson was a Berkeley
student and track competitor who also used the Western roll style. In the same letter to Volker, Osborn commented on Dick Fosbury
’s jumping style—the Fosbury Flop
. Osborn wrote that Fosbury’s style would have been illegal when he was competing in 1924 because the rules did not allow the head to cross the bar first. The flop was an innovation in the high jump that attracted a lot of attention when Fosbury introduced it at the 1968 Olympic
games in Mexico City
. Fosbury jumped with his back to the bar and went over head first. It required much more cushioning on the landing side, also a dramatic change from the days when Osborn jumped into sand
.
Osborn was inducted into the Track and Field Hall of Fame in 1974. http://www.usatf.org/HallOfFame/TF/showBio.asp?HOFIDs=125
Track and field
Track and field is a sport comprising various competitive athletic contests based around the activities of running, jumping and throwing. The name of the sport derives from the venue for the competitions: a stadium which features an oval running track surrounding a grassy area...
. He won a gold medal in Olympic
Olympic Games
The Olympic Games is a major international event featuring summer and winter sports, in which thousands of athletes participate in a variety of competitions. The Olympic Games have come to be regarded as the world’s foremost sports competition where more than 200 nations participate...
decathlon
Decathlon
The decathlon is a combined event in athletics consisting of ten track and field events. The word decathlon is of Greek origin . Events are held over two consecutive days and the winners are determined by the combined performance in all. Performance is judged on a points system in each event, not...
and high jump
High jump
The high jump is a track and field athletics event in which competitors must jump over a horizontal bar placed at measured heights without the aid of certain devices in its modern most practiced format; auxiliary weights and mounds have been used for assistance; rules have changed over the years....
in 1924.
The apex of the athletic career of Harold M. Osborn occurred at the 1924 Olympic games in Paris
Paris
Paris is the capital and largest city in France, situated on the river Seine, in northern France, at the heart of the Île-de-France region...
, France
France
The French Republic , The French Republic , The French Republic , (commonly known as France , is a unitary semi-presidential republic in Western Europe with several overseas territories and islands located on other continents and in the Indian, Pacific, and Atlantic oceans. Metropolitan France...
(the VIII Olympiad, featured in the popular film, Chariots of Fire
Chariots of Fire
Chariots of Fire is a 1981 British film. It tells the fact-based story of two athletes in the 1924 Olympics: Eric Liddell, a devout Scottish Christian who runs for the glory of God, and Harold Abrahams, an English Jew who runs to overcome prejudice....
). Osborn was the first and, to this day, the only athlete ever to win gold in both the decathlon
Decathlon
The decathlon is a combined event in athletics consisting of ten track and field events. The word decathlon is of Greek origin . Events are held over two consecutive days and the winners are determined by the combined performance in all. Performance is judged on a points system in each event, not...
and an individual event.
Osborn won gold medal
Gold medal
A gold medal is typically the medal awarded for highest achievement in a non-military field. Its name derives from the use of at least a fraction of gold in form of plating or alloying in its manufacture...
s and set Olympic records in both the high jump
High jump
The high jump is a track and field athletics event in which competitors must jump over a horizontal bar placed at measured heights without the aid of certain devices in its modern most practiced format; auxiliary weights and mounds have been used for assistance; rules have changed over the years....
and the decathlon
Decathlon
The decathlon is a combined event in athletics consisting of ten track and field events. The word decathlon is of Greek origin . Events are held over two consecutive days and the winners are determined by the combined performance in all. Performance is judged on a points system in each event, not...
at the 1924 Olympics. His 6' 6" high jump remained the Olympic record for 12 years, while his decathlon score of 7,710.775 points also set a new world record, and resulted in worldwide press coverage calling him the “world’s greatest athlete.” The decathlon competition was especially grueling, conducted just four days after the high jump competition, and consisting of ten events run in extremely hot and humid weather conditions over two days at the end of the games.
Harold Marion Osborn was born April 13, 1899, the fourth child and third son of Jesse Ware Osborn and Emma Ware, whose parents and grandparents were settled in central Illinois
Illinois
Illinois is the fifth-most populous state of the United States of America, and is often noted for being a microcosm of the entire country. With Chicago in the northeast, small industrial cities and great agricultural productivity in central and northern Illinois, and natural resources like coal,...
in the early 19th century. Osborn grew up on the family farm in Butler Grove Township
Butler Grove Township, Montgomery County, Illinois
Butler Grove Township is located in Montgomery County, Illinois, USA. The population was 709 at the 2000 census.- External links :****...
in Montgomery County.
Family lore tells us that Harold and his brothers, Wesley, Clarence, and Loren, were encouraged to run and practice jumping hurdles on the farm. Their father, Jesse, built a track and hurdles on the farm so that the boys could practice. After team practices in football
American football
American football is a sport played between two teams of eleven with the objective of scoring points by advancing the ball into the opposing team's end zone. Known in the United States simply as football, it may also be referred to informally as gridiron football. The ball can be advanced by...
, basketball
Basketball
Basketball is a team sport in which two teams of five players try to score points by throwing or "shooting" a ball through the top of a basketball hoop while following a set of rules...
, and track at Hillsboro High School
Hillsboro High School
Hillsboro High School is a public high school in Hillsboro, Oregon, United States, and is the oldest high school in the Hillsboro School District. The current campus was built beginning in 1969. Prior to this, the senior high school was located downtown on Lincoln Street at 6th Avenue where J.B....
, Harold had to walk or run the four miles home to the farm. Throughout Osborn's long athletic career, few people were aware that he had lost most of his vision in one eye due to an injury during his teenage years. As a result he had very little depth perception, making it difficult to know when to jump as he approached the cross bar. He compensated by carefully measuring from the take-off point to a point where he began his running approach.
After high school, Osborn attended the University of Illinois
University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign
The University of Illinois at Urbana–Champaign is a large public research-intensive university in the state of Illinois, United States. It is the flagship campus of the University of Illinois system...
, from 1919 through 1922, majoring in agriculture
Agriculture
Agriculture is the cultivation of animals, plants, fungi and other life forms for food, fiber, and other products used to sustain life. Agriculture was the key implement in the rise of sedentary human civilization, whereby farming of domesticated species created food surpluses that nurtured the...
. While at Illinois, he was a founding member of the Eta Chapter of Kappa Delta Rho
Kappa Delta Rho
Kappa Delta Rho is an American college social fraternity, with 77 chapters spread out over the United States, primarily in the Midwest and Mid-Atlantic regions...
Fraternity. He then accepted a high school teaching job at Lewiston
Lewiston
Lewiston is the name of some places in the United States of America:*Lewiston, Alabama*Lewiston, California*Lewiston, Georgia*Lewiston, Idaho*Lewiston, Illinois*Lewiston, Maine*Lewiston, Michigan*Lewiston, Minnesota*Lewiston, Nebraska...
, Illinois
Illinois
Illinois is the fifth-most populous state of the United States of America, and is often noted for being a microcosm of the entire country. With Chicago in the northeast, small industrial cities and great agricultural productivity in central and northern Illinois, and natural resources like coal,...
, where, sponsored by the Illinois Athletic Club of Chicago, he continued to train and to compete in track and field events in preparation for the upcoming 1924 Olympic games
Olympic Games
The Olympic Games is a major international event featuring summer and winter sports, in which thousands of athletes participate in a variety of competitions. The Olympic Games have come to be regarded as the world’s foremost sports competition where more than 200 nations participate...
. Osborn left Lewiston after a couple of years to take a job at Champaign High School, where he would be closer to the University as he continued his training.
Osborn did not, however, forget one of the students he met at Lewistown
Lewistown
Lewistown is the name of several places in the United States of America:*Lewistown, Illinois*Lewistown, Frederick County, Maryland*Lewistown, Talbot County, Maryland*Lewistown, Montana*Lewistown, Ohio*Lewistown, Pennsylvania...
. He stayed in touch with Margaret Bordner, a striking brunette, and after the 1924 Olympic games, Osborn began a serious long-distance courtship of Margaret by mail while he was competing in Europe
Europe
Europe is, by convention, one of the world's seven continents. Comprising the westernmost peninsula of Eurasia, Europe is generally 'divided' from Asia to its east by the watershed divides of the Ural and Caucasus Mountains, the Ural River, the Caspian and Black Seas, and the waterways connecting...
. Osborn prevailed in love as well as in track and married Margaret in 1928.
Although the 1924 Olympic games were a high point in Osborn’s career, there were many others. While competing for the University of Illinois in 1920, 1921, and 1922, Osborn helped Illinois win both the indoor and outdoor Big Ten titles all three years. He tied for the NCAA and AAU
Amateur Athletic Union
The Amateur Athletic Union is one of the largest non-profit volunteer sports organizations in the United States. A multi-sport organization, the AAU is dedicated exclusively to the promotion and development of amateur sports and physical fitness programs.-History:The AAU was founded in 1888 to...
outdoor high jump championships in 1922.
On May 27, 1924, Osborn's 6' 8-¼" high jump set a world record at an AAU meet held at the University of Illinois campus in Urbana. He won the AAU outdoor title in 1925 and 1926, the indoor title four years in a row, 1923‑26, and he was the AAU decathlon champion in 1923, 1925, and 1926. He also achieved prominence in several events which have since been discontinued, winning the AAU indoor 70‑yard hurdles in 1925, and the AAU indoor standing high jump from 1929 through 1931, and taking second place in the standing broad jump in 1930. Osborn was 5' 10 ½" tall and weighed about 175 pounds during his competitive years.
Osborn spent much of the year after the 1924 Olympics traveling and competing in European games with a small group of other track and field
Track and field
Track and field is a sport comprising various competitive athletic contests based around the activities of running, jumping and throwing. The name of the sport derives from the venue for the competitions: a stadium which features an oval running track surrounding a grassy area...
athletes who had competed in the Olympics. As a result of the Olympic gold medals and the many meets in Europe, he became well known in Europe and acquired fans there who followed his career.
A month after the 1924 Olympics he competed in Croke Park
Croke Park
Croke Park in Dublin is the principal stadium and headquarters of the Gaelic Athletic Association , Ireland's biggest sporting organisation...
in Dublin, Ireland
Ireland
Ireland is an island to the northwest of continental Europe. It is the third-largest island in Europe and the twentieth-largest island on Earth...
, in the Tailteann games
Tailteann Games
The Tailteann Games were an ancient sporting event held in Ireland in honour of the goddess Tailtiu. They ran from 632 BC to 1169-1171 AD when they died out after the Norman invasion....
. His major competitor in those games was Larry Stanley
Larry Stanley
Larry Stanley was an Irish sportsperson. He played Gaelic football with his local club Caragh and was a member of the Kildare senior inter-county team from 1916 until 1930. Stanley captained Kildare to the All-Ireland title in 1919. He is regarded as one of th greatest players of all-time...
, a native of Kildare
Kildare
-External links:*******...
, Ireland
Ireland
Ireland is an island to the northwest of continental Europe. It is the third-largest island in Europe and the twentieth-largest island on Earth...
, and Ireland's entrant in the 1924 Olympics. Stanley was a celebrated Gaelic football
Gaelic football
Gaelic football , commonly referred to as "football" or "Gaelic", or "Gah" is a form of football played mainly in Ireland...
er and the Irish emotions ran high at the Tailteann games, but Osborn defeated Stanley, jumping 6' 4½" to Stanley's 6' 3½".
Osborn returned from Europe to compete in track meets in the United States
United States
The United States of America is a federal constitutional republic comprising fifty states and a federal district...
. In 1925, Clyde Littlefield
Clyde Littlefield
Clyde Littlefield was the head track & field coach at The University of Texas from 1920 to 1961 as well as its football coach from 1927 to 1933. He became one of the greatest track coaches in NCAA history...
, an outstanding track and field athlete from Texas
Texas
Texas is the second largest U.S. state by both area and population, and the largest state by area in the contiguous United States.The name, based on the Caddo word "Tejas" meaning "friends" or "allies", was applied by the Spanish to the Caddo themselves and to the region of their settlement in...
, became the coach at the University of Texas. Littlefield started an event known as the Texas Relays
Texas Relays
The Clyde Littlefield Texas Relays are an annual track and field competition held at Mike A. Myers Stadium in Austin, Texas. The University of Texas serves as host for the event, held on either the first or second weekend of April....
, a showcase for track and field athletes, which continues today. Osborn competed in the first of the Texas Relays, along with the 1924 Olympic 200‑meter champion, Jackson Scholz
Jackson Scholz
Jackson Volney Scholz was an American track and field athlete who specialized in the sprint. In the 1920s, he became the first person to appear in an Olympic sprint final in three different Olympic Games...
. Both did well. Scholz won a special 100 meters, and Osborn reportedly “thrilled" the 6,000 spectators by clearing 6' 8-15/16", higher than his earlier world record set in 1924. (see TexasSports.com) This reported height may not be accurate, however; it conflicts with other sources reporting that Osborn's highest lifetime jump was 6' 8½".
Osborn competed in the Olympics again in 1928. In the high jump, four competitors tied for second place. In the runoff jumps, Osborn was not able to jump high enough to win the bronze medal and had to settle for a participant medal. The initial tying jumps for second place were 6' 3- ½", just an inch behind gold medalist, Bob King, who jumped 6' 4½". No one was able to match or better Osborn's 1924 jump.
After the 1928 games Osborn returned home, married Margaret Bordner, and continued to teach and coach at Champaign High School until 1933, when he returned to school. He received his Doctor of Osteopathic Medicine
Doctor of Osteopathic Medicine
Doctor of Osteopathic Medicine is a professional doctoral degree for physicians in the United States. Holders of the MD degree, Doctor of Medicine, have the same rights, privileges and responsibilities as osteopathic physicians in the United States.The American Osteopathic Association’s Commission...
from Philadelphia College of Osteopathic Medicine
Philadelphia College of Osteopathic Medicine
The Philadelphia College of Osteopathic Medicine is one of the oldest and largest osteopathic medical schools. Founded in 1899, PCOM is home to over 1000 medical students as well as graduate-level students in several other fields of health care. One of the largest medical schools in the United...
in 1937. He credited a share of success as an athlete to osteopathy
Osteopathy
Osteopathy and osteopathic medicine are often used interchangeably for the philosophy and system of alternative medical practice first proposed by A. T. Still MD, DO in 1874....
, especially after a Paris practitioner helped him with a pulled muscle at the 1924 games. In 1937, the Osborns, by then the parents of two daughters, returned to Champaign, Illinois
Illinois
Illinois is the fifth-most populous state of the United States of America, and is often noted for being a microcosm of the entire country. With Chicago in the northeast, small industrial cities and great agricultural productivity in central and northern Illinois, and natural resources like coal,...
, where he practiced osteopathic medicine, continued to compete in athletics, and assisted the University of Illinois track coach in the 1940s. Two more daughters were born in Champaign, where Harold and Margaret Osborn continued to reside until his death on April 5, 1975.
Altogether Osborn won 17 national titles and set six world records during his career. He held world indoor records in the standing hop, step, and jump; the 60-yard high hurdles; and the running high jump. His world record in the standing high jump of 5' 5¾" still stands today (and will continue to stand as this event is no longer part of track contests). He achieved that record at the age of 37.
Near the end of his life Osborn enjoyed new honors and a chance to revisit Europe and some of the sites of his earlier competitions. Osborn was enshrined as a charter member of the U.S. Track & Field Hall of Fame in 1974, along with such other track greats as Jessie Owens, Babe Didriksen Zaharias
Babe Zaharias
Mildred Ella "Babe" Didrikson Zaharias was an American athlete who achieved outstanding success in golf, basketball, and track and field...
, Bob Mathias
Bob Mathias
Robert Bruce "Bob" Mathias was an American decathlete, two-time Olympic gold medalist, actor and United States Congressman representing the state of California.-Early life and athletic career:...
, and Wilma Rudolph
Wilma Rudolph
Wilma Glodean Rudolph was an American athlete. Rudolph was considered the fastest woman in the world in the 1960s and competed in two Olympic Games, in 1956 and in 1960....
. In 1974, he was also invited to return to Dublin for the Golden Jubilee commemoration of the Tailteann Games, where he met and reminisced with Larry Stanley
Larry Stanley
Larry Stanley was an Irish sportsperson. He played Gaelic football with his local club Caragh and was a member of the Kildare senior inter-county team from 1916 until 1930. Stanley captained Kildare to the All-Ireland title in 1919. He is regarded as one of th greatest players of all-time...
.
Even with his busy life of coaching, practicing osteopathic medicine, and raising a family, Osborn never lost interest in staying physically fit, active, and healthy. At the age of 40, he could jump 6'3". At the age of 50, he could clear his own body height of 5' 10½". In his later years he also competed in the field of archery
Archery
Archery is the art, practice, or skill of propelling arrows with the use of a bow, from Latin arcus. Archery has historically been used for hunting and combat; in modern times, however, its main use is that of a recreational activity...
.
The coach at Hillsboro High School
Hillsboro High School
Hillsboro High School is a public high school in Hillsboro, Oregon, United States, and is the oldest high school in the Hillsboro School District. The current campus was built beginning in 1969. Prior to this, the senior high school was located downtown on Lincoln Street at 6th Avenue where J.B....
summed up his career quite aptly at Osborn’s induction into the high school Hall of Fame: “As a world class athlete, Osborn is one of the greatest. As an individual competing for the sheer joy of sport and dedicated to the highest ideals of amateur sport, he has few equals. Osborn died at the age of 75 after a long life of service to his community and inspiration to all who knew him.”
Olympic Athlete Harold Abrahams, who also competed in the 1924 Paris Olympics, and who later wrote and published about the Olympiads of his era, wrote in 1950, “After Nurmi, I think the outstanding performer was the American, Harold Osborn, who won both the high jump and the decathlon.
'High Jumping Styles - the Osborn roll and the Western roll
Harold M. Osborn developed a unique variation of the Western roll style of high jumping. While Osborn was practicing his hurdles and jumping in the field at his farm home in Illinois, the Western roll was gradually replacing an earlier jumping style called the scissor-kick. In the Western roll, the bar was approached on a diagonal—the inner leg used for the take‑off, while the outer leg was thrust up to lead the body sideways over the bar. Using the Western roll, George Horine
George Horine
George Leslie Horine was an American athlete who mainly competed in the high jump.He was born in Escondido, California and died in Modesto, California....
first took the world high jump standard to 6' 7" (2.0m) in 1912. Horine is sometimes cited as the originator of the style.
Osborn worked on his own form and obviously paid attention to the style that was developing as he competed in high school and at the University of Illinois. He modified the Western roll technique by developing an efficient side‑to‑the‑bar clearance, which resulted in more height and consistency.http://www.usatf.org/HallOfFame/TF/showBio.asp?HOFIDs=125 His jumping style was sometimes referred to as the Osborn roll, but is also often lumped together with other variations of the style of jumping that is generally referred to as the Western roll. By 1924 he was using the style to attain new heights.
In the late 1960s and early 1970s Osborn corresponded from time to time with Volker Kluge of Altenburg
Altenburg
Altenburg is a town in the German federal state of Thuringia, 45 km south of Leipzig. It is the capital of the Altenburger Land district.-Geography:...
, Germany
Germany
Germany , officially the Federal Republic of Germany , is a federal parliamentary republic in Europe. The country consists of 16 states while the capital and largest city is Berlin. Germany covers an area of 357,021 km2 and has a largely temperate seasonal climate...
, a journalist who published a sports magazine, and who had a passionate interest in the Olympics and the changes in track and field over the years. Volker asked Osborn many questions about his participation in the '24 Olympics and published articles about Osborn and other athletes who competed in Europe. In a letter to Volker dated January 31, 1969, Osborn described how he developed his style of jumping: “I more or less found my style of high jumping by accident, as I was trying to imitate Ed Beeson’s style, and what developed was natural to me, and as I became more proficient and with much practice, I utilized leg and arm lift and body ‛kip’ and then slid across the bar more or less on my back, and as I got to the far side of the bar then started to uncoil and dropped my take-off leg and arms for landing.”
Ed Beeson was a Berkeley
University of California, Berkeley
The University of California, Berkeley , is a teaching and research university established in 1868 and located in Berkeley, California, USA...
student and track competitor who also used the Western roll style. In the same letter to Volker, Osborn commented on Dick Fosbury
Dick Fosbury
Richard Douglas "Dick" Fosbury is one of the most influential athletes in the history of track and field. He completely revolutionized the high jump event, inventing a unique "back-first" technique, now known as the Fosbury Flop, adopted by almost all high jumpers today. His method was to sprint...
’s jumping style—the Fosbury Flop
Fosbury Flop
The Fosbury Flop is a style used in the athletics event of high jump. It was popularized and perfected by American athlete Dick Fosbury, whose gold medal in the 1968 Summer Olympics brought it to the world's attention...
. Osborn wrote that Fosbury’s style would have been illegal when he was competing in 1924 because the rules did not allow the head to cross the bar first. The flop was an innovation in the high jump that attracted a lot of attention when Fosbury introduced it at the 1968 Olympic
1968 Summer Olympics
The 1968 Summer Olympics, officially known as the Games of the XIX Olympiad, were an international multi-sport event held in Mexico City, Mexico in October 1968. The 1968 Games were the first Olympic Games hosted by a developing country, and the first Games hosted by a Spanish-speaking country...
games in Mexico City
Mexico City
Mexico City is the Federal District , capital of Mexico and seat of the federal powers of the Mexican Union. It is a federal entity within Mexico which is not part of any one of the 31 Mexican states but belongs to the federation as a whole...
. Fosbury jumped with his back to the bar and went over head first. It required much more cushioning on the landing side, also a dramatic change from the days when Osborn jumped into sand
Sand
Sand is a naturally occurring granular material composed of finely divided rock and mineral particles.The composition of sand is highly variable, depending on the local rock sources and conditions, but the most common constituent of sand in inland continental settings and non-tropical coastal...
.
Osborn was inducted into the Track and Field Hall of Fame in 1974. http://www.usatf.org/HallOfFame/TF/showBio.asp?HOFIDs=125