2012 Olympics Updates

[Phil C]

This year they will be in London until August 12th. The opening ceremony is this Friday. You can watch it live or prime time on NBC Sports. Please check your tv guide for coverage.

Competition has started today and right now our Women's Soccer Team is playing France in an effort to defend the gold they won in China. We aren't doing a good job and after 18 minutes we trail 2-0. A big blow to us if we lost this one.

[Phil C]

USA is fighting back to get a goal at the 23rd minute and it is now France 2 USA 1.

Isn't it great to have the Olympics and the Tour de France to get us through the difficult period before football season?

[Phil C]

GOAL! USA's Alex Morgan scores the typing goal as it is now 2 all.

But France just barely hits a shot over the cross bar. A warning to the USA with 8 minutes till halftime if they thought all the momentum was all their's.

[Phil C]

Half time and still tied at 2 all. Both sides had chances to score but didn't. Still USA is fortunate to be tied at this point and hopefully they can score enough to win the game the second half.

[defense51]

Usa!!!

[Phil C]

Today they will be televising Men's Soccer. Since the USA is not in it I won't be watching but it is on for those interested.

[Phil C]

Tomorrow night is the opening ceremony. Below is a list of blunders that happened in the past. China and President Bush have more than their share.

http://sports.yahoo.com/photos/olymp...ers-slideshow/

[YTBulldogs]

Cool article ran in this weeks local paper here in Yoakum. Just in time as the London Games get under way.


Yoakumite won Olympic gold in 1948

By Michael S. McCracken,
Yoakum Herald-Times, Managing Editor

Did you know that Yoakum is the hometown of a gold medal Olympian?
Arthur Harold “Art” Harnden, a 1941 graduate of Yoakum High School, went on to attend Texas A&M and became a world class sprinter as a member of the Aggie track team. Harnden tried out and made the Olympic track team in 1948 and participated in the Games of XIV Olympiad, which were held in London during the summer of 1948.
“It was kind of a weird thing that I made the Olympic team,” Harnden said. “I was only the 4th best in the trials we had, but two guys in front of me broke their legs some how, so I got the call.”
Harnden, 24 at the time, teamed up with Cliff Bourland (Los Angeles, CA), Roy Cochran (Richton, MS) and Mal Whitfield (Bay City, TX) to form the USA Men’s 4 x 400-meter relay team and the team took gold with a winning time of 3:10.4. France finished 2nd with a time of 3:14.8 and Sweden was 3rd at 3:16.0. During the preliminaries, the USA squad posted a time of 3:12.6 in their heat.
All but one of those relay team members are still alive today. Cochran passed away at the age of 62 in 1981. Harnden, who ran the first leg of the race, is now 88 years old while Bourland is the eldest of the group at 91. Whitfield, who ran the anchor leg, is now 87.
“It was a great accomplishment and an honor to represent our country, especially right after World War II,” Harnden said. “I had just been to London a few years prior to that as a nose gunner in the war, so I was already familiar with the territory.”
The USA teams sailed over to England on the SS American in July of 1948 and returned aboard the SS Washington. The airlines had not yet developed full trans-Atlantic service due to the dislocations of World War II, which had been over only three years.
Harnden, who was elected to the Aggie Hall of Fame in 1966, was a two-time All-American in the 440-yard dash and he brought the first Olympic gold to Aggieland. While competing as a member of the Yoakum High School track team in 1941 under the direction of Coach Lee Mitchell, he set a record at the Boling track meet with a 10.1 in the 100-yard dash and he ran at the state meet his senior year, placing 5th in the 220-yard dash with a time of 21.5.
Harnden, who also participated in football while at YHS, wasn’t granted an athletic scholarship, but Col. Frank Anderson, Texas A&M’s track coach at the time, saw his potential and invited him to report for the track squad. Col. Anderson never regretted his foresight. He became captain of the A&M track team of 1948 that won the Southwest Conference Championship.
After a year and a half of college, Harnden voluntarily joined the United States Air Force because he knew who would likely be drafted anyway. He became a B-17 Bomber nose gunner as a 20-year old and flew 23 missions over Germany in 1944 and reached the rank of Staff Sergeant.
“I was a member of the 8th Air Force and it was known for having the most casualties, so I was a little nervous when I found out that was where I was headed,” Harnden said. “To this day I think it was amazing that I survived through those 23 missions. Somebody was watching over me.”
During his World War II deployment in London, Harnden met a woman named Betty and the two rekindled their relationship when he returned to London for the Olympics. The couple married a few years later and are still together today. The couple, who now reside in Corpus Christi, have two children-- Elizabeth and David. Elizabeth resides in Corpus Christi and works for a BMW dealership there while David is a CPA in Cleburne.
Harnden, who is the son of the late Arthur “Jack” & Pearl Harnden, does have one relative who still resides in Yoakum and that’s his cousin, Patricia Stark. He did have a sister, Gladys, who has since passed away.
London, which will become the first city to officially host the modern Olympic Games three times, will be hosting the 2012 Summer Olympics as the Games of XXX Olympiad are set to begin this week with opening ceremonies slated for Friday, July 27. London hosted the games for the first time in 1908.
The 2012 Summer Olympic Games will last until Aug. 12 with over 10,500 athletes from 204 National Olympic Committees (NOCs) expected to participate.
Following are excerpts of articles that ran in the Yoakum Herald-Times through the years in regards to Mr. Harnden, most of which were written by R. G. Winchester, former Yoakum High School principal:
Art was the only representative from the Southwest Conference in track and field in the 1948 Olympics and possibly the first gold medal winner from the conference.
Art won the NCAA and AAU championship in the 440 yd. and 400 meter dash in 1946, 1947, and 1948.
The Summer Olympic Games of 1948 were held in London’s Wembley Stadium. There was a capacity crowd of 80,000 spectators each day. There were 27 U.S.A. teams that participated in 24 different sports between July 29 and August 14. There were 429 members of U.S.A. teams which participated in the summer games and the winter games at St. Moritz in Switzerland.
Gold medals were awarded to 74 U.S.A. athletes in London, and 6 at St. Moritz. Among these were Harnden. Texas A&M’s track coach, Col. Frank Anderson, had a faculty of taking inexperienced and unknown athletes and developing them into champions.
The United States had won the 1600 meter relay, six of the eight times it had been contested. Great Britain had won in 1920 and 1936. There were three preliminary heats in 1948. Australia withdrew. The U.S.A. great rival was Jamaica, with Arthur Wint and Herb McKinley, both of whom had attended American colleges.
The first leg of the final was closely contested between Art and V. G. Rhoden of Jamaica. Cliff Bourland of the U.S.A. ran second against B. L. McCochran, who had set an Olympic record in the 400 meter hurdles. Roy Cochran ran against the giant striding Wint. He was able to maintain the lead given him and appeared to be increasing it on the backstretch. However, Wint pulled up lame, and from then on the race was a walkaway for the United States. Mal Whitfield ran the anchor leg, and the time was 3 min. 10.4 sec. Had Wint been able to finish, the anchor lap would have been between Whitfield and McKenley. Italy and Jamaica did not finish.
The earliest Olympic Games were held in Greece in ancient times as physical and intellectual contests. The Greeks valued one as much as the other. In fact, they even has poetry contests. However, the games degenerated; with corruption and bribery creeping in. When the Roman conquerors took over, they became only spectacles for the masses. The games eventually died out, and were not resurrected until the first modern Olympic Games in Athens, Greece in 1896. The prime mover was Baron deCoubertin of France.
The 6th and 12th Olympiads were not held, due to World Wars and the 13th was also passed over, due to war conditions in 1944. The 1948 Games were made up the 14th Olympiad.
The Yoakum Lions Club honored Art Harnden, his mother, father, and sis, Gladys with a banquet at Quast’s Cafe on Sept. 1, 1948. He was presented a fine leather traveling bag as a token of appreciation.
Art was also honored as a nose gunner during World War II. He spoke briefly at the banquet of his Olympic competition. He expressed admiration for the British, who managed the games so well so soon after a devastating war that left much of their cities destroyed. He also told of running on all sorts of tracks in exhibitions after the Games, including a grass track at Dublin. He ran seven races in four days just before sailing back home.
It was learned that Art’s athletic ability may have been inherited. His grandfather, a Yoakum resident, and still active in 1948 at the age of 89, was an English bicycling champion, who won many medals.
A delegation from Texas A&M was present at the banquet including Dr. Fred Jaggi, athletic director, Bill Carmichael and assistant track coach Ray Putnam.
The A&M Pride, the mile relay team, won the Texas, Kansas, and Drake Relays. Art Harnden (Captain of the track team) along with Ray Holbrook, Ervin Bilderback, and Don Cordon set a new college record at Coliseum Relays on May 20, 1948 in Los Angeles, CA.
Harnden was also the guest speaker at the Annual Yoakum High School All-Sports Banquet held on May 17, 1980.
At the Annual Awards Dinner of Texas A&M Athletic Hall of Fame on Saturday, Oct. 29, 1966, with 40,000 people in attendance, Arthur H. Harnden of Yoakum was inducted into the Aggie Club Hall of Fame. Yoakum was thus in the spotlight of attention when the Awards Banquet at A&M honored this outstanding track star from South Mustang, graduate of Yoakum High School, and well remembered by most of his hometowners and sports fans.
Arthur Harnden, is also the nephew of the late Mr. and Mrs. Ernest Harnden of Yoakum. The family home place was in the South Mustang area, just north of the Hagan Feed Lot.
During Harnden’s induction, it was noted that he never lost a race once he graduated high school.
Harnden went to work for Texaco in 1949, served as an oil accountant in the El Campo office. His hobbies were Little League baseball, watching A&M football and track meets. He was a deacon at First Presbyterian Church in Yoakum, and a Sunday School teacher.
Following his retirement from Texaco, Harnden went to work for Wal-Mart in Corpus Christi where he worked until just last year.

[Phil C]

Well Done Mr. Harnden!

[Phil C]

Below is an article about the 1936 Olympics in Germany. We know about Jesse Owens but this ralatively unknown event is interesting. Enjoy!

http://www.slate.com/articles/sports...heard_of_.html

[Phil C]

Another interesting point of the article was that at the 1924 Paris Olympics a Yale team won the gold medal in Men's 8 in rowling. On the team was one of the Rockefellas (James) who was an official for the National City Bank of New York for many years and an airborn commander during WW2. Another member was Benjamin Spock (Yes - the famous Dr. Spock. This was the famous pediatrian docator). Interesting indeed.

[defense51]

Cool story YTBulldogs.

[YTBulldogs]

Cool story YTBulldogs.

You'd think we'd have something hanging around town about him and what he did? A plaque or something. Maybe they did at one time, and the thug's tore it down over the year's? Never heard of him till this article appeared.

[defense51]

That's a shame there's nothing to commemorate his accomplishments, Olympic gold is pretty special!

[YTBulldogs]

That's a shame there's nothing to commemorate his accomplishments, Olympic gold is pretty special!

See what I can do. Be neat to have him come back home and unveil it in person.