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| Dave Edstrom Capping Off His Pan Am Games Decathlon Victory in the 1500 at Chicago 1959 |
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| Dave Edstrom throwing at 1959 Pan Am Games in Chicago's Soldier Field |
David Allan Edstrom
Sept. 10, 1938 - May 9, 2019
David Allan Edstrom was born in Portland and passed away May 9, 2019 in Denver, Colo. He was 80 years old.
David grew up in Sherwood, Ore.,with his parents, Sigward and Elsie Edstrom and sister Janet (Weber). He ran track at the University of Oregon and in 1959, won a gold medal at the Pan American Games and in 1960 made the Olympic team. In 1968, David and his family moved to Colorado Springs where he was the assistant track coach at the Air Force Academy. He went on to become a municipal bond attorney, specializing in public financing of municipalities.
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| Edstrom with Rafer Johnson and Steve Anderson of Oregon |
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| U. of Oregon Members of 1960 Olympic Teams Jim Grelle, Dave Edstrom, Sig Ohleman, Coach Bowerman Harry Jerome, Jim Grelle, Otis Davis |
From Sports Reference Dave's resume follows:
Dave Edstrom won the Pan American Games gold medal in the decathlon in 1959, with his other major decathlon title coming at the 1963 Kansas Relays. At the AAU decathlon, he was runner-up in 1957, 1959, and 1961, and placed third in 1958 and 1963. Edstrom finished fourth at the 1960 US Olympic Trials, which doubled as the AAU Championship, but he made the team as the third American, as [C. K. Yang] of Chinese Taipei finished second to [Rafer Johnson]. Edstrom was world ranked in the top seven for five consecutive years (1957-61). He competed for the University of Oregon, the Emerald Empire TC, the Oregon TC, and the US Air Force.
Personal Bests: 120yH – 13.8 (1960); HJ – 1.95 (6-5) (1958); LJ – 7.29 (23-11¼) (1958); SP – 15.23 (49-11¾) (1960); DT – 52.83 (173-4) (1963); JT – 65.33 (214-4) (1958); Decathlon – 7,870 (1960).
No indication is given as to what happened at the Rome Olympics , but he is only credited with three events completed 100, Shot Put, and Long Jump
George and friends:
It is with deep sadness that I am hearing of the passing of Dave Edstrom. U-of Oregon 1961 Decathlete.
Yet, of course, I must thank you.
Dave was a member of our group that competed in New Zealand in January of 1962.
Such a great soft spoken guy! No. pretentions.
On this trip, Dave was not expected to compete in a decathlon but, ran
the 110M Hurdles, long lumped, high jumped, and ran 100M as I remember.
Ernie Cunliffe, 1960 Olympian, was my roommate on the trip and, Jim Dupree 800M, S. Illinois U. was also, a member of our group.
Jim, likewise, passed away over the past 2-3 years. Jim was the - 1961 AAU Champion. at 880 Yd.
Rounding out our group was: Bruce Tulloch of England.
Footnote: All of the tracks we ran on in New Zealand were grass, laid out and surveyed on either Cricket pitches or rugby grounds.
Bruce Tulloch who ran bare foot loved them, as did I. - (except for running 400M on rugby grounds); which were much more uneven.
I don't remember breaking 49.0 for 400M on either of these "Tracks". But faired quite well on the Cricket pitches: 1:48.5, 1:49.2, 1:50.6 for
880 Yd.
John Bork
WMU Class of 1961
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