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Douglas looks to preserve Olympians’ impact, legacy

By Jim Downey jdowney@heraldstandard.Com 4 min read
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Jim Downey

Phil Martell, acting superintendent of Connellsville Area School District, John Y. Woodruff Jr, Herbert Douglas and Rich Evans, Connellsville athletic director, pose before the Olympic oak at Connellsville Stadium. Woodruff Jr. and Douglas were filming sights around the city associated with John Woodruff, the 1936 Olympic gold medalist in the 800-meter run.

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John Y. Woodruff Jr. and Herbert Douglas stand in front of the Olympic oak at Connellsville Stadium. The two were filming sights around the city associated with John Woodruff, the 1936 Olympic gold medalist in the 800-meter run.

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Jim Downey

Rich Evans, Connellsville athletic director, John Y. Woodruff Jr., Herbert Douglas and Phil Martell, acting superintendent of the Connellsville Area School District, talk around the monument in front of the Olympic oak at Connellsville Stadium. Woodruff Jr. and Douglas were filming sights around the city associated with John Woodruff, the 1936 Olympic gold medalist in the 800-meter run.

A decade or so before Jackie Robinson (MLB), Willie O’Ree (NHL), Chuck Cooper, Nat “Sweetwater” Clifton and Earl Lloyd (NBA), and Kenny Washington (NFL) famously broke the “color line” in professional sports in America, a group of African American track & field athletes took on the world, as well as international politics, at the 1936 Berlin Summer Olympic games.

That group of nine men accounted for six individual gold medals, one relay gold medal, three silver medals and two bronze medals on the track at Olympic Stadium.

Herbert Douglas, an Olympic bronze medalist himself, wants to preserve that legacy and the impact those men had with the Fuhrer, Adolf Hitler, watching on.

Douglas grew up in Pittsburgh (Hazelwood) and attended the University of Pittsburgh, the alma mater of Connellsville’s John Woodruff. Douglas won the bronze medal in the long jump in the 1948 London Games and is the oldest living African American Olympic medalist at the age of 93. He met Owens as a teenager and the track star made a lasting impression.

“The Renaissance Period of the African American in Sports,” a 22-minute documentary telling the story of the nine African American athletes premiered on May 15, 2014, at the Walter Reade Theater in Lincoln Center in New York City.

“The icon is Jesse Owens. That was purposefully done for Hitler’s standpoint,” said Douglas.

Owens was the media face of the 1936 Olympics, winning individual gold medals in the 100, 200 and long jump, as well as a relay gold on the 400 relay.

But, Owens had a lot of company on the awards stand with David Albritton (high jump, silver), Cornelius Johnson (high jump, gold), James LuValle (400, bronze), Ralph Metcalfe (100, silver; 400 relay, gold), Frederick Pollard Jr. (100 high hurdles, bronze), Matthew Robinson, Jackie Robinson’s older brother (200, silver), Archie Williams (400, gold), and, famously, Woodruff in the 800 meters.

“This is their story,” explained Douglas. “(The film) emphasizes the four other African Americans that won gold. That story has never been emphasized. It was a renaissance of African Americans in sport.”

The story Douglas tells is not only on the field of competition, but how they lived their lives outside of sports, as well.

Douglas was in Connellsville Friday afternoon with John Y. Woodruff Jr. for added footage from his father’s hometown, including the Carnegie Library, the Olympic black oak situated in the north end zone of Connellsville Stadium, and his father’s home in South Connellsville.

“I came back (to his father’s childhood home) as a child,” remembered Woodruff Jr. “My Aunt Margaret fixed up the house and my grandmother on mother’s side died in that house.”

As for coming back to Connellsville, Woodruff Jr. added, “The hospitality is still here.”

As for the African American men who starred in the Berlin Olympics, Woodruff Jr. said, “They brought fame and glory to this country. I’m thrilled they set the example. (Before the integration of the 1940s and 1950s) it was only boxing and track.”

Douglas contacted Athletic Director Rich Evans a couple weeks ago with his ideas and Evans was glad to help.

“Mr. Douglas said they wanted John Woodruff Jr. to look at scenes in the community, the library, the stadium, the oak tree, and John Woodruff’s house,” said Evans.

Though it’s been eight decades since John Woodruff’s long legs carried him to the gold medal and seven years since his death, Evans said the impact of the feat is still present.

“He is still such a big part of the community. People still speak of it (the gold medal). People are still interested in John Woodruff,” said Evans.

The idea is to extend the 22-minute documentary to 28 minutes with personal interviews with the likes of Woodruff Jr. and Owens’ two sons-in-law, and show the film at the 80th anniversary of the Berlin Olympics in February in Las Vegas. Douglas has higher aspirations to extend the film to an hour to debut in Rio de Janeiro in August 2016 for the 2016 Summer Olympic Games.

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