Jesse Owens’ Shadow – “Sam Stoller”
Imagine being part of a great rock and
roll band, but your career paralleled The Beatles. Imagine being an honor roll student, but
there was a guy named Einstein seated in the adjoining row. Imagine being a gifted artist, but an individual
named Picasso was in your group. Imagine
being an outstanding sprinter while in high school in Ohio, while
attending a Big Ten university, and
while on the U.S. Olympic team, but there was a fellow dash man named Jesse
Owens. This was Sam Stoller’s fortune,
or misfortune, as a runner and long jumper.
Sam in his Hughes uniform
Sam in his Hughes uniform
A
1933 graduate of Hughes High School and a 1937 graduate of the University of
Michigan, Sam Stoller led a fascinating life of champion and runner-up, of
Olympian and non-Olympian, of athlete and singer. Sam was born in Cincinnati and attended
Hughes High School at the same time that Jesse Owens was running in
Cleveland. As a result, Sam never won
the state meet in high school, finishing second to the great Jesse Owens who
ran for Cleveland East Tech. The two
followed each other to the Big Ten where Stoller continued to be a frequent
runner-up to Owens. Sam ran for the
University of Michigan while Jesse competed for Ohio State. During their college days they faced each
other 20 times with Sam winning only once, yet the races were always
close. Sam once said, “I’m the fellow
you see in the movies of Jesse’s footraces.”
Familiar role. Owens (Ohio) ahead of Stoller (M)
Jesse
Owens burst onto the national stage when he set four world records at the 1935
Big Ten Championships. Sam made his
national mark for the first time by tying the world record for the 60-yard dash in 6.1 seconds at the 1936 Big Ten indoor
championships.
Sam Stoller
Yet,
it was in the 1936 Olympic Trials followed by the Berlin Olympic Games where
the two earned lasting recognition. Stoller, after John Anderson (1928
and 1932), became the second Hughes graduate to qualify for an Olympic track
and field team. Jesse immortalized himself by winning four gold medals
in the historic “Hitler Olympics” whereas Sam became best known for qualifying
for the USA 400-meter relay, then being denied the opportunity to run. Considerable controversy surrounded that
decision at the time and even to the present.
At
the 1936 Olympic Trials at Randall’s Island in New York City, the final places for
the 100-meters were as follows: 1. Jesse
Owens, 2. Ralph Metcalf, 3. Frank Wykoff, 4. Foy Draper, 5. Marty Glickman, 6. Sam Stoller and 7. Mack Robinson (brother
of Jackie Robinson). Using the logic and
current thinking of United States sprinting, the top four would run the finals
of the 400-meter relay while fifth and sixth would serve as backups, running
only in the preliminary trials. However,
at that time, 1936, the plan was to have the headliners run the open sprints
and to have the others concentrate on their handoffs, directing their entire
attention to the relay. This is the way it was done in
1932. In 1936 the two open 100 runners, Ralph Metcalfe and Jesse Owens, were
aware that they would not be called to run in the relay. Consequently Stoller rode the Olympic
ship to Germany fully planning to run the 400-meter relay.
Original relay team on the ship traveling to Europe
L-R Foy Draper, Marty Glickman, Sam Stoller, Mack Robinson
Once
in Germany the team of Sam Stoller, Marty Glickman, Foy Draper and Frank Wykoff
practiced their handoffs faithfully in anticipation of the day when they would
represent the USA. There might be a question as to
why Wykoff, rather than Robinson, was designated for the relay. Wykoff had
qualified as an open 100 runner and Robinson had done the same in the 200. The
200 was considered more strenuous than the 100. In addition, Wykoff had Olympic
relay experience. He was on the winning world
record teams of the 1928 and 1932 Olympiads. Almost from the beginning, Frank Wykoff
was considered the anchor man for the team.
While
in Berlin, the U.S. coaches supposedly heard a rumor that the Germans were
hiding their best sprinters so they could surprise the world, especially the
Americans in the 400-meter relay. However, in the 100 and 200-meter races they
were nowhere to be seen. This
is regarded as a lame excuse at best.
Near the end of the Olympic Games, and the morning of the 400-meter
relay trials, a hurried meeting took place with U.S. head coach Lawson
Robertson, assistant coach Dean Cromwell and the seven American sprinters. This meeting is portrayed in the movie “Race”, which is about Jesse
Owens. In that meeting it was announced that Owens and Ralph Metcalfe,
who had placed first and second in the 100 meters, would replace Stoller and
Marty Glickman. The logic explained during
that meeting was that the coaches wanted to put the four fastest runners on the
relay.
L-R Marty Glickman and Sam Stoller
This is how it is done in 2016, but it
was not the custom at the time. Neither Owens
nor Metcalfe had practiced baton exchanges with the others while in
Germany. The ability to rapidly and
safely pass the baton is an important component of the event. Even though the raw speed of the original
team was slightly inferior to the one with Jesse and Ralph, Frank Wykoff felt
that their exchange practices would allow the original foursome to move the
baton around the oval as fast or even quicker than with the substitutes.
Favoritism is another possibility as to
why the switch was made. In
a recent 100-meter runoff just prior to the trial heats, Stoller and Glickman finished
ahead of Draper. This indicated that the two who were removed were faster than one
who did compete, which
counters the argument that the coaches were only interested in the fastest
quartet. Coincidently, both Draper and Wykoff ran for Cromwell at the
University of Southern California.
The theory most believed, and the interpretation
by the two runners left off the relay, is that they were dropped for religious
purposes since they were both Jewish and the US Olympic Committee did not want
to offend Hitler and the Nazi leaders.
Both Avery Brundage, the Head of the USOC, and assistant coach, Dean
Cromwell, were members of the American First Committee, an isolationist group with
anti-Semitic leanings. Charles Lindbergh headed the organization. Many feel that the directions to
change the team flowed down from Brundage. He presented a favorable Nazis point
of view on several occasions. Glickman,
who was more vocal than Stoller about the rationale for the decision, offers
his opinion in a short video: https://youtu.be/F87h1vzv_vY
It
was Stoller’s 21st birthday and he could not will himself to go to
the magnificent stadium that Hitler constructed to witness the relay race that
he believed he should have been a part of. Sam vowed never to run again.
Berlin's Olympic Stadium
However,
he reconsidered and ran during his final year at Michigan. Since Owens did not return for his
senior year at Ohio State, Stoller dominated the dashes during that season. He won both the Big Ten and NCAA 100-yard dash titles. This required a change from the headlines
of articles that previously read, ‘Second, Stoller.’
Stoller winning another race in 1937
After
the NCAAs in 1937, he stayed in California, taking up a singing career in nine
separate movies as Singin’ Sammy Stoller.
Later in life he was an announcer for the Washington Senators. In 1988 the US Olympic Committee tried to
atone for the Olympic slight by awarding Stoller and Glickman the General
MacArthur Medal. Sam Stoller was also
inducted into the International Jewish Sports Hall of Fame before dying in 1985
at the age of 69.
The
team of Jesse Owens, Ralph Metcalf, Foy Draper and Frank Wykoff went on to win the gold
medal in the world record time of 39.8.
However, the controversy continues today.
The Gold Medal Quartet
L-R (photo and order of running)
Jesse Owens, Ralph Metcalf, Foy Draper, Frank Wykoff
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