James Austin Menaul (March 26, 1888 – October 17, 1975) was an American athlete who came fifth in the 1912 Olympic pentathlon.

Biography

Menaul was born in

Albuquerque, New Mexico Albuquerque ( ; ), also known as ABQ, Burque, the Duke City, and in the past 'the Q', is the List of municipalities in New Mexico, most populous city in the U.S. state of New Mexico, and the county seat of Bernalillo County, New Mexico, Bernal ...

, where his father, also named James Austin Menaul (1843–1897), was principal of Menaul School.Zarnowski 1996 pp.31–33 After his father's death his mother, née Sara M. Foresman, moved the family to

Chicago Chicago is the List of municipalities in Illinois, most populous city in the U.S. state of Illinois and in the Midwestern United States. With a population of 2,746,388, as of the 2020 United States census, 2020 census, it is the List of Unite ...

, where Menaul attended Englewood High School and in 1908 enrolled in the

University of Chicago The University of Chicago (UChicago, Chicago, or UChi) is a Private university, private research university in Chicago, Illinois, United States. Its main campus is in the Hyde Park, Chicago, Hyde Park neighborhood on Chicago's South Side, Chic ...

. Coached by

Amos Alonzo Stagg Amos Alonzo Stagg (August 16, 1862 – March 17, 1965) was an American athlete and college coach in multiple sports, primarily American football. He served as the head football coach at the International YMCA Training School (now called Springfie ...

, Menaul represented the

Chicago Maroons The Chicago Maroons are the intercollegiate sports teams of the University of Chicago. They are named after the color maroon. Team colors are maroon and gray, and Phil the Phoenix is their mascot. They now compete in the NCAA Division III, mos ...

in track and field and

college football College football is gridiron football that is played by teams of amateur Student athlete, student-athletes at universities and colleges. It was through collegiate competition that gridiron football American football in the United States, firs ...

(

1909 Events January–February * January 4 – Explorer Aeneas Mackintosh of the Imperial Trans-Antarctic Expedition escapes death by fleeing across ice floes. * January 7 – Colombia recognizes the independence of Panama. * Janu ...

and

1910 Events January * January 6 – Abé people in the French West Africa colony of Côte d'Ivoire rise against the colonial administration; the rebellion is brutally suppressed by the military. * January 8 – By the Treaty of Punakha, t ...

). In 1909 he moved into the

Delta Kappa Epsilon Delta Kappa Epsilon (), commonly known as ''DKE'' or ''Deke'', is one of the oldest Fraternities and sororities, fraternities in the United States, with fifty-six active chapters and five active Colony (fraternity or sorority), colonies across No ...

frat house. He was 1911

Big Ten The Big Ten Conference (stylized B1G, formerly the Western Conference and the Big Nine Conference, among others) is a collegiate athletic conference in the United States. Founded as the Intercollegiate Conference of Faculty Representatives in 1 ...

champion in

shot put The shot put is a track-and-field event involving "putting" (throwing) a heavy spherical Ball (sports), ball—the ''shot''—as far as possible. For men, the sport has been a part of the Olympic Games, modern Olympics since their 1896 Summer Olym ...

, despite being relatively small.Zarnowski 1996 pp.40–41 He also competed in the

high jump The high jump is a track and field event in which competitors must jump unaided over a horizontal bar placed at measured heights without dislodging it. In its modern, most-practiced format, a bar is placed between two standards with a crash mat f ...

and sprint hurdles. He was lead runner on the

4 × 440 yards relay 4 (four) is a number, numeral (linguistics), numeral and numerical digit, digit. It is the natural number following 3 and preceding 5. It is a square number, the smallest semiprime and composite number, and is tetraphobia, considered unlucky i ...

teams that won the 1910–11–12

Drake Relays The Drake Relays is an outdoor track and field event held in Des Moines, Iowa, Des Moines, Iowa, in Drake Stadium (Drake University), Drake Stadium on the campus of Drake University. Billed as ''America's Athletic Classic'', it is regarded as one ...

and the 1911

Penn Relays The Penn Relays (officially The Penn Relay Carnival) is the oldest and largest track and field competition in the United States, hosted annually since April 21, 1895 by the University of Pennsylvania at Franklin Field in Philadelphia. In 2012 ...

, the last in 3:21.8, 1.2 s outside the world record. In 1912 Menaul competed in the Central regional U.S. trials for the Stockholm Olympics. Stagg complained that the trials interfered with the intervarsity schedule. On 16 May he finished second (of two) in the

pentathlon A pentathlon is a contest featuring five events. The name is derived from Greek language, Greek: combining the words ''pente'' (five) and -''athlon'' (competition) (). The first pentathlon was documented in Ancient Greece and was part of the Anci ...

, behind

Avery Brundage Avery Brundage (; September 28, 1887 – May 8, 1975) was the fifth president of the International Olympic Committee, serving from 1952 to 1972, the only American and first non-European to attain that position. Brundage is remembered as a z ...

; in the

decathlon The decathlon is a combined event in athletics consisting of 10 track and field events. The word "decathlon" was formed, in analogy to the word "pentathlon", from Greek δέκα (''déka'', meaning "ten") and ἄθλος (''áthlos'', or ἄ ...

on 22–23 May he finished first, ahead of Brundage and two others. The

Amateur Athletic Union The Amateur Athletic Union (AAU) is an amateur sports organization based in the United States. A multi-sport organization, the AAU is dedicated exclusively to the promotion and development of amateur sports and physical fitness programs. It h ...

scored the results by sum-of-placings rather than the

IAAF World Athletics, formerly known as the International Amateur Athletic Federation and International Association of Athletics Federations and formerly abbreviated as the IAAF, is the international sports governing body, governing body for the sport ...

's newly devised scoring tables; Menaul's decathlon performance would have been a world record using the tables, though this was not realized until 1987.Zarnowski 1996 pp.46–47, 58; At the Olympic Games, Menaul narrowly missed out on a medal in the pentathlon: he finished fifth on 30 points, one point behind third and fourth places, which were promoted to second and third when winner

Jim Thorpe James Francis Thorpe (; May 22 or 28, 1887March 28, 1953) was an American athlete who won Olympic gold medals and played professional American football, football, baseball, and basketball. A citizen of the Sac and Fox Nation, Thorpe was ...

was disqualified (and kept their medals when he was reinstated in 1982). Menaul had injured his shoulder practicing for the

javelin throw The javelin throw is a track and field event where the javelin, a spear about in length, is thrown as far as possible. The javelin thrower gains momentum by running within a predetermined area. Javelin throwing is an event of both the men's de ...

, a discipline not part of the Big Ten program, and by far his worst score at the Olympics. Lingering effects of the injury prompted him to withdraw from the Olympic decathlon. After graduation, Menaul enlisted and fought in

World War I World War I or the First World War (28 July 1914 – 11 November 1918), also known as the Great War, was a World war, global conflict between two coalitions: the Allies of World War I, Allies (or Entente) and the Central Powers. Fighting to ...

.Zarnowski 1996 p.51 Later he worked for publishers

Scott Foresman Scott Foresman was an elementary educational publisher for PreK through Grade 6 in all subject areas. Its titles are now owned by Savvas Learning Company which formed from former Pearson Education K12 division. The old Glenview headquarters ...

(founded by his mother's brother) and then as a livestock buyer for

Swift and Company JBS USA Holdings, Inc. is a meat processing company and a wholly owned subsidiary of the Brazilian multinational JBS S.A. The subsidiary was created when JBS entered the U.S. market in 2007 with its purchase of Swift & Company. JBS USA is ba ...

.Zarnowski 1996 p.52 He married Della Patterson in 1922 and had four children, retiring in 1951 and moving to

Menlo Park, California Menlo Park ( ) is a city at the eastern edge of San Mateo County, California, San Mateo County in the San Francisco Bay Area of California, United States. It is bordered by San Francisco Bay on the north and east; East Palo Alto, California, Eas ...

, where he died in 1975.

References

Sources

* * *

Citations

External links

* {{DEFAULTSORT:Menaul, Austin 1888 births 1975 deaths Athletes (track and field) at the 1912 Summer Olympics American pentathletes American male decathletes American male shot putters American male high jumpers American food industry businesspeople Chicago Maroons men's track and field athletes Chicago Maroons football players Olympic track and field athletes for the United States People from Menlo Park, California Sportspeople from San Mateo County, California Track and field athletes from Albuquerque, New Mexico Players of American football from Albuquerque, New Mexico World record setters in athletics (track and field) United States Army personnel of World War I 20th-century American sportsmen