melbourne - university of southern californiacharles dumas conn findlay usc at the 1956 olympics •...

JACK BECKNER JOHN CARDEN MURRAY COCKBURN DICK CONNOR JACK DAVIS JOSEPH DEUTSCH DEVANEY CHARLES DUMAS CONN FINDLAY FORTUNE GORDIEN JON HENRICKS ROBERT HUGHES DES KOCH JAMES LEA MIKLOS “NICK” MARTIN GABOR NAGY PARRY O’BRIEN PAULA JEAN MEYERS-POPE JANICE-LEE YORK ROMARY MURRAY ROSE WILLIAM ROSS RONALD SEVERA MARLEY LYNN SHRIVER CHARLES SIMMS LAIRD SLOAN ATTILA TAKACS GARY TOBIAN MAX TRUEX WALLACE WOLF TSUYOSHI YAMANAKA JACK BECKNER JOHN CARDEN MURRAY COCKBURN DICK CONNOR JACK DAVIS JOSEPH DEUTSCH DEVANEY CHARLES DUMAS CONN FINDLAY USC AT THE 1956 OLYMPICS • 9 GOLD 5 SILVER 3 BRONZE FORTUNE GORDIEN JON HENRICKS ROBERT HUGHES DES KOCH JAMES LEA MIKLOS “NICK” MARTIN GABOR NAGY PARRY O’BRIEN PAULA JEAN MEYERS-POPE JANICE-LEE YORK ROMARY MURRAY ROSE WILLIAM ROSS

74 UNIVERSITY OF SOUTHERN CALIFORNIA

Several members of the International Olympic Committee doubted that Melbourne was a

suitable site for the 1956 Olympic Games. Among other issues, the reversal of seasons in

the Southern Hemisphere meant the Games would take place during the northern winter,

potentially adversely affecting athletes from the Northern Hemisphere, whose training

schedules called for rest over the winter months. Nevertheless, Melbourne was selected

over Buenos Aires, Mexico City, Montreal and six American cities: Chicago, Detroit, Los

Angeles, Minneapolis, Philadelphia and San Francisco. Other difficulties surfaced almost

immediately. First, Australia’s equine quarantine laws prohibited the timely entry of horses

from abroad. As a result, Stockholm was selected as the alternative site for equestrian

competitions, which were held in June — more than five months before the official start of

the Games and half a world away. Then conflict arose among Australian organizers related to

financing and venues, raising doubts about Melbourne’s ability to host. International tension

around the Suez Canal crisis and the Hungarian Revolution and subsequent Soviet invasion

prompted several countries to boycott. Finally, just before the Games began, the People’s

Republic of China withdrew due to the inclusion of the Republic of China (Taiwan). Even in

the face of these challenges, 67 countries sent teams to Melbourne (counting Stockholm,

the total rose to 72), with Ethiopia, Fiji, Kenya, Liberia, the Federation of Malaya, North

Borneo and Uganda making their Olympic debuts. Twenty-nine athletes with ties to USC

competed as well, taking home 17 medals, including nine golds. In the end, the Melbourne

Olympics became known as the “Friendly Games.” According to the official report: “On the

first day [the athletes] had all marched as competitors in their national teams, preserving

their national identity, headed by their national flags. On the last day they went around the

arena as men and women who had learned to be friends, who had broken down some of the

barriers of language, of strangeness, of private prejudices.”

MELBOURNE


After an ear infection kept him off Australia’s 1952

Olympic team, Jon Henricks ’61 (right) won gold in the

100-meter freestyle and the 4x200-meter

freestyle relay at the 1956 Melbourne Games.

1956


MELBOURNE



The Hungarian Communist party omitted his name from the record books because he defected to the United States shortly after the 1956 Summer Games in Melbourne, but history shows that Miklos Martin ’59 appeared in one of the most contentious contests in Olympic history: the “Blood in the Water” water polo match.

After winning three gold medals in water polo in the previous four Olympic Games, Hungary was widely regarded as the world’s great water polo powerhouse. The Soviets, in comparison, finished seventh at those Helsinki Games. As the 1956 Olympics neared, the Soviet Union sent its water polo team to Hungary (which it politically controlled) so that its players could copy the Hungarian training methods.

At the same time, hostilities between the two countries were growing. Hungarians began to rise up against Soviet governance, and from late October through early November, protestors clashed with police and Soviet troops, leaving thousands dead across Hungary.

The Hungarian water polo team had been training just outside Budapest. With the Melbourne Olympics imminent, the athletes were whisked to Australia. Martin, who understood English, read an account in an Australian newspaper and relayed the horrible news to his anxious teammates.

By the time the Games began, the uprising was over, and the Hungarians wanted to exact revenge. In Melbourne, they found support from many Australian and American sympathizers.

MIKLOS “NICK” MARTIN

The Hungary-Soviet Union match began with Hungarian players taunting the Russians in their own language. Soon kicks and punches flew. Prodigy Ervin Zádor scored two goals to stake Hungary to a lead, much to the delight of the packed arena. With Hungary ahead 4-0, tensions boiled over. Zádor was marking Russia’s Valentin Prokopov when Prokopov punched him in the face, splitting Zádor’s cheek and forcing him out of the pool. Angry spectators stormed the pool deck, threatening and even spitting at the Soviet team. The referee stopped the match, and police entered the area to quell the potential riot.

Hungary was declared the winner, moving on to defeat Yugoslavia in the final. That victory earned the team its fourth Olympic gold medal in water polo. Pictures of Zádor with blood streaming down his face circulated around the world, leading to the “Blood in the Water” moniker.

As the sole English speaker on the Hungarian team, Martin was quoted frequently by the international press. Afraid of possible repercussions if he returned to Hungary, he opted to defect, as did several other Hungarian athletes.

Although he had already earned a master’s degree in art history from the University of Budapest, Martin went to USC, where he majored in French and received USC’s first water polo scholarship. After graduating from USC in 1959, he went on to earn a Ph.D. in romance languages from Princeton and eventually became a French professor and men’s water polo head coach at Pasadena (Calif.) City College.


MURRAY ROSE

Shortly after World War II began, the Rose family moved with their infant son, Murray, from England to Australia. It was there that Murray Rose ’62 would develop into one of the greatest swimming stars in the world.

Rose’s mother took him swimming with her every day from the time he was 18 months old. By age 3, Rose could paddle 50 yards across a pool unassisted. Within two years Rose was attracting the attention of swim coaches.

His parents raised him on a vegan diet that excluded anything containing bleached flour or refined sugar. At the 1956 Olympics in Melbourne, Rose’s parents rented an apartment near the Olympic Village so that his mother could continue to prepare all of his meals.

His “odd” diet certainly raised eyebrows. But the Olympic success of the 17-year-old “Seaweed Streak,” as Rose came to be called, left many people wondering whether their own eating habits might need fine-tuning.

Rose won his first Olympic gold medal in the 400-meter freestyle, beating future USC teammate Tsuyoshi Yamanaka of Japan by 3 seconds. In the 1500-meter freestyle, Rose and Yamanaka were tied for most of the race before Rose surged to a 6-meter lead with 100 meters to go. An all-out sprint pulled Yamanaka to within a yard, but Australian spectators urged Rose on. With the encouragement, Rose swam to another gold medal.

In between his two individual events, Rose teamed with Kevin O’Halloran, John Devitt and Trojan Jon Henricks to win gold in the 4x200-meter freestyle relay in world-record time. The victories made Rose the youngest man to win three Olympic gold medals — and a star in his home country.

After the Melbourne Games, Rose moved to the United States and attended USC, where he competed for the Trojan swim team. He won three NCAA freestyle titles for USC in 1961 and two more in 1962, the year he captained the team. He also won eight Pacific Coast titles for the university.

AN OLYMPIC HERITAGE 79

Before graduating in 1962, Rose had another opportunity to compete at the Olympics. At the 1960 Games in Rome, he repeated as the 400-meter freestyle champion and won silver in the 1500-meter freestyle and bronze in the 4x200-meter freestyle relay. In addition to his six Olympic medals, Rose captured four gold medals at the 1962 Commonwealth Games in Perth, Australia, and set 15 world records, including one in the 800-meter freestyle that stood from 1962 to 1966. He was also the first to break the 18-minute barrier in the 1500-meter freestyle.

After college, Rose had a brief Hollywood career, starring in several television shows and films,

including one in which he played a drowning victim. He later admitted that he lacked dedication to acting, and he eventually became a businessman, sports marketer and television announcer. He was also active with philanthropic organizations, including a charity that provided swimming lessons to children with disabilities and special needs.

USC inducted Rose into its Athletic Hall of Fame in 2003. He died of leukemia in 2012 in Australia.


RICHARD “DICK” CONNOR ’59After winning bronze for the United States in platform diving at the 1956 Games in Melbourne, Dick Connor starred for USC.

CONN FINDLAY ’54Conn Findlay won his first Olympic medal at the 1956 Melbourne Games, where he teamed with Arthur Ayrault and coxswain Kurt Seiffert to win rowing gold. Findlay went on to win another gold and a bronze in rowing and a bronze in yachting in subsequent Olympics. At the time, he was the only athlete to compete in four Olympics and win a medal each time out.

DES KOCH ’55Des Koch, who won the NCAA discus title for USC in 1955, took bronze as the United States swept the medals in discus at the 1956 Melbourne Games. Olympic glory notwithstanding, Koch is probably better known at USC for being a star punter on the Trojan football team.

FIRST IN THE SOUTHERN HEMISPHERE

BOLDLY GOING WHERE NO OLYMPICS HAD GONE BEFORE, THE 1956 MELBOURNE GAMES WERE THE FIRST FOR THE SOUTHERN HEMISPHERE.

THE ONE EXCEPTION WAS THE EQUESTRIAN EVENTS, WHICH WERE HELD IN STOCKHOLM

DUE TO AUSTRALIAN QUARANTINE LAWS.

TROJAN VICTORIESAND HIGHLIGHTS OF

THE 1956 MELBOURNE GAMESusc olympians: 29 gold: 9 silver: 5 bronze: 3

ONE OLYMPIC NATIONALTHOUGH THE 1956 GAMES WERE HELD AT THE HEIGHT

OF THE COLD WAR, THEY MARKED THE BEGINNING OF A NEW TRADITION SYMBOLIZING WORLD UNITY

THROUGH SPORT. THE CLOSING CEREMONY WAS MODIFIED SO THAT THE ATHLETES ENTERED

THE STADIUM IN ONE LARGE GROUP, RATHER THAN MARCHING AS INDIVIDUAL TEAMS.

THE PRACTICE CONTINUES TO THIS DAY.

TROJAN VICTORIESAND HIGHLIGHTS OF

THE 1956 MELBOURNE GAMESusc olympians: 29 gold: 9 silver: 5 bronze: 3

AN OLYMPIC HERITAGE 81

CHARLES DUMAS ’61At the 1956 Olympic Trials, USC’s Charles Dumas became the first man ever to clear 7 feet in the high jump. He went on to win gold at the Melbourne Olympics, setting an Olympic record, and won consecutive AAU titles from 1955 to 1959.

GARY TOBIAN ’61Gary Tobian won the first of his three Olympic medals when he claimed silver in platform diving. Four years later, he captured gold in springboard and a second silver in platform diving in Rome. In 1978, he entered the International Swimming Hall of Fame.

JON HENRICKS ’61At the 1956 Melbourne Olympics, Jon Henricks won gold medals in swimming in the 100-meter freestyle and the 4x200-meter freestyle relay. The following year, he followed Australian teammate Murray Rose ’62 to USC, where they led the Trojans to four consecutive AAU titles and an NCAA championship.

TSUYOSHI YAMANAKATsuyoshi Yamanaka’s birthday fell 12 days after that of USC teammate Murray Rose ’62, who used to tease Yamanaka that he should respect his elders and let Rose finish first. At the 1956 Melbourne Olympics, Yamanaka did just that. He won silver medals in the 400-meter and 1500-meter freestyle events, while Rose took the gold. Yamanaka won two more silver medals in Rome in 1960.

IN ONE OF THE GREAT OLYMPIC HOAXES, AUSTRALIAN VETERINARY STUDENT BARRY LARKIN

FOOLED THE MAYOR OF SYDNEY DURING THE TORCH RELAY BY CARRYING A FAKE OLYMPIC FLAME CREATED

USING A PAIR OF UNDERPANTS, A PUDDING CAN AND THE LEG OF A CHAIR.

MAN OF MANY SPORTSAFTER COMPETING IN WATER POLO IN THE 1952 OLYMPICS IN HELSINKI, ROBERT “BOB” HUGHES HELPED THE U.S. WATER POLO TEAM TO

A FIFTH-PLACE FINISH IN THE 1956 MELBOURNE OLYMPICS, WHILE ALSO PARTICIPATING IN THE 200-METER BREASTSTROKE. HUGHES, WHO ATTENDED USC FROM 1954 TO 1957, WAS THE FIRST AMERICAN ATHLETE TO COMPETE IN TWO DIFFERENT SPORTS

DURING THE SAME OLYMPICS SINCE JOHNNY WEISSMULLER, WALLY O’CONNOR AND AILEEN RIGGIN DID SO IN 1924.

melbourne - university of southern californiacharles dumas conn findlay usc at the 1956 olympics •...

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