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This black and white photograph shows Olympic champion John Henry Kuck, (1906-1986). Born in Wilson, Kansas, he set over a hundred records during his athletic career in the discus, javelin and shot put. Kuck held the national high school record in the shot put as a student at Wilson High School. He went on to a successful collegiate career at the Kansas State Teachers College in Emporia, Kansas. In 1926, he became the national collegiate champion in the shot put and javelin. In addition to holding the world record in the shot put, Kuck was one of the first athletes to throw a 16-pound shot over 50 feet. He represented the United States in the 1928 summer Olympics held in the Netherlands where Kuck won the gold medal in the men's shot put. His wining throw broke the previous world record by 13 inches. After the Olympics, in 1929, Kuck became the assistant track and field coach at the University of Kansas. He later moved to Idaho to work in the timber and mining business. For sixteen years he also owned and operated a resort in the Idaho area before moving back to Wilson, Kansas, in October of 1972, with this wife Lida Cooper Wilson. On September 21, 1986, the state's first Olympic gold medallist and 1961 Kansas Sports Hall of Fame inductee passed away at the age of eighty-one in Wilson, Kansas.
Date: Between 1926 and 1928
Item Number: 224593
Call Number: B Kuck, John H. *1
KSHS Identifier: DaRT ID: 224593
Business and Industry - Occupations/Professions - Athletes
Collections - Photograph
Community Life - Recreation and Sports - Sports - Track and Field
Education - Higher education - Athletics - Track
Education - Higher education - Institutions - Kansas State Normal School (Emporia)
Education - Secondary - Activities - Sports
Objects and Artifacts - Communication Artifacts - Documentary Artifact - Photograph
Places - Cities and towns - Wilson
Places - Counties - Ellsworth
Thematic Time Period - The Twenties, 1920 - 1929
Type of Material - Photographs
http://www.kansasmemory.org/item/224593