The Hammer
Tarzan Brown
Marathon runner in 1936 Summer Olympics in Berlin (1940 Olympics but canceled due to WW II). 1936 and 1939 Boston Marathon winner. Only Native American to win twice.
Bob Bennett
Cranston High 1937
1937 Honorable Mention Hammer & Discus
1936 All-Interscholastic Discus track
All-American hammer thrower at Maine and National Champion in 1940 and Brown.
Bronze medal at 1948 London Olympics.
One of a number of fine hammer throwers to come from the University of Maine, Bob Bennett won the IC4A in 1939 and 1940. He topped the National rankings in 1940 with a new collegiate record of 183-10¾ (56.05).
Bennett missed the next five seasons (during the war), but made a comeback in 1946 and in 1947, by which time he was attending Brown and was again the top ranked thrower in the U.S.
During his three years at Brown, Bennett won the AAU and IC4A in 1947 and the AAU again in 1948. He also won the IC4A 35-lb. weight throw in 1947. At the 1948 Olympics he edged [Sam Felton] , formerly of Harvard, out of third place by a mere three inches.
Despite having his athletic career interrupted by World War II, he set national hammer throw records in 1940 and 1948. In 1947 he was voted Outstanding Amateur Athlete in New England and was nominated for the Sullivan Award given to the national's top amateur athlete. As an Olympic competitor, he won a bronze medal in the 1948 hammer throw. Bennett later became an assistant track coach and assistant athletic director at Brown.
Henry Dreyer
Hope High '30
Football URI '35
A Hope High School graduate, he had never tried weight throwing until he was a freshman at URI. Under the tutelage of coach Fred Tootell, Dreyer blossomed as an athlete despite a childhood injury that left him unable to straighten his left arm.
Rhode Island State track and field and 1936 and 1948 Olympics (the only person to make both teams). Held 21 national championships in the weight throws (1934-52). AAU hammer-throw champion four times.
1934 graduate of the URI and set three world records in the 35- and 56-pound weight throws. 56-pound weight titleholder six times and 35-pound weight champion 10 times.
Norm Taber
Middle distance runner Hope High and Brown University. Won a bronze medal in 1500m and a gold medal in 3000m at the 1912 Olympic Games. Earned first IAAF mile record.
American middle distance runner. He was the first amateur runner to surpass Walter George's professional record in the mile, set nearly 30 years previously. He also won a bronze medal over 1500 m and a gold medal in the team 3000 m at the Olympic Games in Stockholm 1912.[1]
Al Morro Central High Football (captain) 1937 2nd team AS Tackle and track (Captain both senior year) 1937 1st team Discus
BC National Junior, New England Intercollegiate and the N. E. A. A. U. titles
Al Morro, former Boston college national champion discus thrower
Central High School and set the state high school record in the discus throw. His prowess in the field events and in football earned him a scholarship to Boston College where he starred on the 1942 Eagles team that was edged by Alabama in the 1943 Orange Bowl. While at Boston College he qualified in the discus for the 1940 U.S. Olympic team that was scheduled to compete in Tokyo until World War II intervened, and he set BC records in the discus and hammer.
In the late 1930s and early 1940s Al was a legendary football player and track and field athlete first at LaSalle High School in Providence and then at Boston College. In consecutive years he played in the Cotton and Sugar Bowls for B.C., and he was captain of its football team in 1941. He went on to a successful career as a football and track coach in Providence and was athletic director at Classical for many years. The School’s athletic complex is named for him. His citation in the Hall of Fame of the Rhode Island Track and Field Coaches Association reads in part: “The State's most successful coach of all time. His Classical H.S. teams were virtually unbeatable over his many years of coaching.”
1912 OlympicsTaber emerged as a top runner in 1910 when he finished third in the IC4A championship mile for Brown University. Missing the 1911 season, he re-emerged in 1912, finishing sixth in the IC4A cross country, then surprising many by tying mile record holder John Paul Jones over that distance at the IC4A championships.
He was selected for the Olympic 1500 m team and was one of the favorites for that event at the 1912 Olympics held at Stockholm. When the final was held July 10, he led for part of the race and challenged leader Abel Kiviat on the final homestretch. However, Arnold Jackson of Britain passed them both, and a photo-finish between Kiviat and Taber awarded Kiviat the silver medal and Taber the bronze.[2]
He nevertheless won an Olympic gold medal in the 3000 m team race.[1]
The first IAAF mile recordOn May 31, 1913, Taber ran again in the IC4A championships, and was up against world record-holder Jones in the mile. Taber led at the first three quarters, in 61.6, 2:09.3 and 3:16.1. But Jones launched into his drive as the bell for the final lap sounded and Taber couldn't respond. He crossed the finish line in 4:142⁄5, a new world amateur record, and the first mile record to be recognized by the new governing body of track and field, the IAAF, known then as the International Amateur Athletics Federation. Taber's 4:162⁄5 made him the fourth-best amateur over the distance.
Taber won the AAU championship over the mile later that year with a 4:262⁄5 clocking, then went to St John's College, Oxford,[3] as a Rhodes Scholar. He ran for Oxford, but did not find much success.[1]
