V 11 N. 60 Have You Seen This Man?

                                                              ????????????????????????

We recently received a copy of the above picture of an unnamed discus thrower.   The sender was hoping we might be able to identify him.  Unfortunately we could not, so we are asking  our panel of experts (our readers) for help.   We're guessing from clothing style of a distant official that this is early 20th century probably close to 1920.  The thrower's shorts are much shorter than photos from the 1908 or 1912 Olympics.   He looks to be wearing a pair of spikes needed for the cinder circles of those times.  His still straight nose indicates he either won a lot of bar fights or he avoided them due to a private school and perhaps Ivy League upbringing.

Here is a link to a series of four thousand photos of discus throwers from Getty Images if someone would care to go through them, they might find the very photo or a chap bearing a strong resemblence to our mystery thrower.  

Getty Images of Discus Throwers

Initially I thought the Frenchman Jules Noel might be our man from this photo, but another head on shot leads me to believe it is not.  Nevertheless, the body structure is very similar. And he does like those short shorts.   Could this be our man?

 

Jules Noel

                                                                           Jules Noel

In looking around I did find this interesting piece on the site "The Olympians" about Noel at the 1932 Games in Los Angeles.

Discus Thrower Jules Noël and the Selective Suspension of Prohibition at the 1932 Los Angeles Olympics

The great long-distance runner, Emil Zátopek, drank a glass of beer after his tough training every day.

The first ever winner of the marathon, Spyridon Louis, was said to have made a pit stop at his uncle’s tavern for a glass of wine before winning gold at the 1896 Athens Olympics.

But discus thrower, Jules Noël, was a beneficiary of the US government’s decision to suspend the importation and imbibing of alcohol.

From 1920 to 1933, it was illegal to produce, import, transport and sell alcoholic beverages. This teetotaler era in the United States, known as Prohibition, happened to be in force during the 1932 Olympics hosted in Los Angeles, California.   But according to David Wallechinsky and Jaime Loucky in their book, The Book of Olympic Lists, “in the interests of international goodwill the US government suspended its prohibition against alcoholic beverages to allow French, Italian and other athletes to import and drink wine.”

Anti Prohibition Protest in New York City in 1932.

Frenchman, Noël, believed that “wine was an essential part of his diet,” according to sports-reference.com. Apparently, the world record holder and eventual gold medalist in the discus throw, John Anderson, led nearly the entire competition. But in the fourth and final round, after Anderson’s leading throw of 49.49 meters, Noël was reported to send a discus way past Andersen’s best throw at the time. But apparently, “the officials were watching the pole vault and did not see it land. Noël was given an extra throw but could not produce his top throw again and he would eventually place fourth.”

Before his mighty but unofficial throw, Noël was said to be “swigging champagne with his compatriots in the locker room between rounds at the discus event.”

Noël died during World War II from a wound sustained during a battle outside Escaudœuvres near Cambrai.

So, good readers, if you can find strong evidence of the identity of our mystery thrower, we will award you a lifetime subscription to this blog as well as a place on our masthead and a corner office.

Comments:

A good one, George.  John Bork

And from Richard Mach

A Brit reintegrated into proper ... and polite .... upper middle class English society, after three generations of his family being ostracized for introducing a First People’s blood line straight out of what was still referred to as ‘the colonies’; and whose great, great grandfather on his mum’s side was 3/8th Mohawk ... witness please the schnoz .... and whose great great grandmother on the same side wasn’t. A kind of Jim Thorpe on the half shell.  

She was a suffragette straight out of Boston, whose only claim to fame was being without any despite her upper class breeding.  

Her misbegotten son’s momentary grip on the implement as pictured suggests an odd underhanded — which was so true of nearly all Brits of that period — throwing style that invariably resulted in an exceeding low trajectory, which, however unintended, would inadvertently cut down any inattentive mid-field judges; usually chopping them off just above their boot tops. Those Greeks knew what they were doing. 

What isn’t at all well known is right following major contests, the high placing contestants in ancient times in this sport of whirling disci often became ... well, missing. And only in modern times have we learned they were summarily conscripted into what passed in their day for armed forces   And often died, still in their prime, on one or another field of battle. 

But other than that, I know nothing. 

Other than that he could well be Irish.  

 

That is.   

 Could our man be from this list of stallwarts?  Provided by Thomas Coyne

UNITED STATES OLYMPIC DISCUS THROWERS

1920

William K. Bartlett

Roy M. Evans

Augustus R. Pope

1924

Charles B. Ashton

Glenn Hartranft

Clarence Houser

Thomas J. Leib

Augustus R. Pope

1928

John F. Anderson

James Corson

Dr. Clarence L. Houser

Fred E. Weicher

1932

John F. Anderson

Paul B. Jessup

Henri Jean LaBorde