The OlyMADMen database on the 1904 Olympic Games
The data on these pages are according to the data on the
OlyMADMen Database.
However, I have made the following changes:
-
Frank Gailey is Australian.
-
Otto Wahle is Austrian
-
Percy Hagerman, Bob Fowler
and Thomas Kennedy are Canadians
-
Albert Corey is French
-
Jack Holloway is Irish, as are the two
athletes counted as British by the OlyMADMen
-
I have added two unknown athletes
-
I have added 40 Basketball players (38 Americans and 2 Canadians)
-
Simpson Foulis is British
-
Julius Lenhart is Austrian
-
Clarence Lidington is Canadian
-
Anton Heida was Czech at the beginning of the
Olympics, American at his second event.
-
Christian Deubler and
Jacob Hergenhahn are German, but
Adolf Spinnler is Swiss
-
Birger Nilsen is Norwegian
-
Adolf Spinnler and
Andreas Kempf are Swiss
-
That is a total of six gymnasts who are NOT to be classed Americans
-
Hugh Grogan,
William Murphy and
Jack Sullivan are Canadians, but
Almighty Voice is American, so I have two
more Canadians and two fewer Americans
-
Colonel Rice is American, NOT Canadian
-
Franz Kugler is German - this affects the
German and American totals in Tug-of-War, Weightlifting and Wrestling
-
Oscar Olsen is Norwegian
-
Frederick Ferguson is Canadian
-
Franz Kugler,
Rudolph Wolken and
Dietrich Wortmann are Germans
-
Bernhoff Hansen and
Charles Ericksen are Norwegians
-
Gustav Tiefenthaler is Swiss
-
That is a total of seven wrestlers who are NOT to be classed Americans
-
The data on these pages are according to the data on the
OlyMADMen Database.
However, I have made the following changes: (the numbers refer to the remarks higher)
- Athletics: I have added two unknown participants
- Basketball: I have added 40 Basketball players
The data on these pages are according to the data on the
OlyMADMen Database.
However, I have made the following changes: (the numbers refer to the remarks higher)
- Australia: 1 extra competitor: Frank Gailey (1)
- Austria: 2 extra competitors: Otto Wahle (2),
Julius Lenhart (9)
- Canada: 8 extra competitors: 3 athletes (3),
2 Basketball players (7),
2 Lacrosse players,
Clarence Lidington (10),
Frederick Ferguson (20)
minus Colonel Rice (17)
- Czechia: 1 extra competitor: Anton Heida (11)
- France: 1 extra competitor: Albert Corey (4)
- Germany: 4 extra competitors: Christian Deubler (12),
Franz Kugler (18),
3 wrestlers (21)
minus Adolf Spinnler
- Great Britain: 1 extra competitor: Simpson Foulis (8)
- Ireland: 3 extra competitors: 3 athletes (5)
- Norway: 4 extra competitors: Birger Nilsen (13),
Oscar Olsen (19),
2 wrestlers (22)
- Switzerland: 4 extra competitors: 2 gymnasts (14),
Gustav Tiefenthaler (23)
- USA: 17 extra competitors: 2 unknown athletes (6),
38 Basketball players (7),
Colonel Rice (17) and Almighty Voice (16)
but minus:
5 swimmers (1-3), 2 athletes (4-5), 1 golfer (8), 6 gymnasts (15),
3 lacrosse players (16), 1 weightlifter (19) and 7 wrestlers (24)
Included Sports and Events
In determining the exact nature of the Olympic events at Paris 1900, I had
decided to follow Mallon to the letter.
For 1904, I have -for now- done the same. But read below the part about the
Basketball.
Unknown Competitors
First we come to the "unknown competitors".
On the pages about the Athina 1896 Olympics, I have consistently counted
the full number of competitors, known and unknown. For Paris 1900, I did
the same, even if this proved more difficult.
There are a small number of unknown participants in St. Louis :
-
In Athletics, not all the participants in the heats are known
-
there are 3 unknown participants in the 60m, but Fred Heckwolf, a competitor
in the 100 m, could be one of them
-
there are 2 unknown participants in the 100m, but William B. Hunter, a competitor
in the 60 m, could be one of them
-
there are 2 unknown participants in the 200m, but there are a number of 100
m runners that could fill that gap
-
there is 1 unknown participant in the 400m, and 2 in the 110 m hurdles, but
those too could easily be one of the known competitors
-
This makes for a minimum of two unknown competitors, which is what I added to the
60 metres competitor list.
-
In Cycling, the situation is similar :
-
there are 4 unknown riders in the 1/3 mile, but there are at least 6 riders
from the 1/4 mile that are not listed in the 1/3 mile.
-
there are 2 unknown riders in the 1/2 mile, but again more than enough others
to fill that gap
-
there are 8 unknown riders in the 2 miles, but we have 5 riders that competed
in longer distances, quite a few of them also in lower ones
-
finally there are some unknown riders in the 5 miles
-
It would be perfectly possible that we have listed all actual competitors
-
In Gymnastics, in the Swedish system, many names on the final rankings are
missing. Mallon states however, that there were only 10 competitors in total,
and we have 9 names. Since almost all of these also competed in the Turnverein
events, among 119 competitors, it is highly likely that the unknown 10th
gymnast is already on the gymnastics list
-
In Swimming, we have again a similar situation:
-
in the 50 yds, there are 3 unknown competitors, possibly David Hammond, Edwin
Swatek and William Orthwein, 100 yds swimmers
-
in the 100 yds, there are at most 3 unknown competitors (one heat has 4 swimmers,
the other probably not more than 5), possibly Raymond Thorne, Edwin Swatek
and William Orthwein, or one of the 220 yds swimmers
I have decided to add just two "unknown" competitors to the list
Mallon does not believe that Basketball should be included among the "Olympic"
events.
Mallon uses four criteria to determine whether or not an event, held in 1904,
should be considered "Olympic" (in fact, he uses the same criteria for 1900).
One of these criteria is "international". This is quite necessary for 1900,
since many a French national championships were actually held under an "Olympic"
banner. Also in 1904, there were some national championships held in St.
Louis, and these are correctly discarded by Mallon.
It should be noted that Mallon does not believe that there have to be actual
competitors from more than one country in order to satisfy the condition
he sets. There are a number of sports in St. Louis where non-Americans were
allowed to enter, but they simply chose not to do so. Only in one (Cycling)
did Mallon find foreign entrants, but the German team that was entered finally
did not make it to St. Louis. In Archery, Boxing and Wrestling, all competitors
were Americans.
In his book, Mallon calls the Waterpolo and Relay Swimming events non-olympic,
because they did not contain international competition, and in fact, a German
team was not allowed to enter those events. However, the German teams were not
excluded because of Nationality, but because they were considered to be
an "all-star" team.
There were a number of team sports and events held in 1904. In all cases,
the foreign teams that competed (4 Canadian teams, one Greek and one South
African) are listed under a club name. All the American teams that
competed are similarly listed as clubs. This was the common way of competition
in team sports at the time. It is quite acceptable to have some regulations
against "All-star" teams under those conditions, just as there are regulations
nowadays that make only national teams eligible for the Olympics, and not
Real Madrid or the New York Rangers, who have many nationalities on their
teams.
Which is why I urged Bill Mallon to include Waterpolo among the Olympic events,
something which he indeed did.
Similarly, the Roque competition, of just four Americans, was excluded in the
book but included since then in the database.
But this still leaves us with the Basketball. It should be noted that at that
time, Basketball was hardly played outside of the USA. So it should not be strange
to see no international teams taking part. But within the USA, this tournament
was really nation-wide. There were six teams from four states: Buffalo and New York,
NY, Chicago, Ill, Los Angeles, Cal, and two from St.Louis, Missouri.
The Buffalo Germans have been inducted in the Basketball Hall of Fame.
I see no reason to exclude the Basketball event from Olympic consideration.
Written 2001-01-31 - last modified 2023-09-20
This page is part of the site "Full Olympians" by Herman De Wael. See here
for a full Introduction.