Harry Hillman
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Harry Livingston Hillman Jr. (September 8, 1881 – August 9, 1945) was one of the longest serving Dartmouth Track and Field Coaches from 1910–45, and an American track and field
athlete An athlete is most commonly a person who competes in one or more sports involving physical strength, speed, power, or endurance. Sometimes, the word "athlete" is used to refer specifically to sport of athletics competitors, i.e. including track ...
who won three
gold medal A gold medal is a medal awarded for highest achievement in a non-military field. Its name derives from the use of at least a fraction of gold in form of plating or alloying in its manufacture. Since the eighteenth century, gold medals have b ...
s at the
1904 Summer Olympics The 1904 Summer Olympics (officially the Games of the III Olympiad and also known as St. Louis 1904) were an international multi-sport event held in St. Louis, Missouri, United States, from 1 July to 23 November 1904. Many events were conducted ...
and a
silver Silver is a chemical element; it has Symbol (chemistry), symbol Ag () and atomic number 47. A soft, whitish-gray, lustrous transition metal, it exhibits the highest electrical conductivity, thermal conductivity, and reflectivity of any metal. ...
at the
1908 Summer Olympics The 1908 Summer Olympics (officially the Games of the IV Olympiad and also known as London 1908) were an international multi-sport event held in London, England, from 27 April to 31 October 1908. The 1908 Games were originally schedu ...
.


Biography

Born in
Brooklyn, New York Brooklyn is a Boroughs of New York City, borough of New York City located at the westernmost end of Long Island in the New York (state), State of New York. Formerly an independent city, the borough is coextensive with Kings County, one of twelv ...
, Hillman was a member of three Olympic teams at the turn of the century. He also was a coach at
Dartmouth College Dartmouth College ( ) is a Private university, private Ivy League research university in Hanover, New Hampshire, United States. Established in 1769 by Eleazar Wheelock, Dartmouth is one of the nine colonial colleges chartered before the America ...
and was an associate Track coach for the American Olympic Team for three Olympics from 1924-32.


Early life

In his youth, after Hillman graduated Boys High School of Brooklyn, he was a bank teller at New York's Bank of North America and later served for a few years as a stockbroker and salesman. His achievements in Track allowed him to join the Star Athletic Club of Long Island City and then the Knickerbocker Athletic Club in 1899, later joining the New York Athletic Club, in 1902, where he could compete with top athletes and receive quality coaching. Like Lawson Robertson, and several other New York athletes, he served as a Lieutenant in the National Guard of New York—Company E of the old 13th Regiment of Brooklyn. Robertson, who became a University of Pennsylvania track coach, was on several Olympic Teams with Hillman, and was also a graduate of Brooklyn Boys School. Hillman’s first major titles came in the 1902 AAU junior and senior 220-yard hurdles, and the following year he added the AAU senior title in the open quarter mile.


1904 Olympics

Hillman won three gold medals at the 1904 Olympics in
St. Louis, Missouri St. Louis ( , sometimes referred to as St. Louis City, Saint Louis or STL) is an Independent city (United States), independent city in the U.S. state of Missouri. It lies near the confluence of the Mississippi River, Mississippi and the Miss ...
, taking the flat 400 metres, the 200 metres hurdles and the 400 metres hurdles. He had
Olympic record Olympic records are the best performances in a specific event in that event's history in either the Summer Olympic Games or the Winter Olympic Games. Summer Olympics * Archery at the Summer Olympics, Archery (List of Olympic records in archery, li ...
times in all three events, but he tripped one hurdle in the 400 metres, which meant that his time of 53.0 seconds could not be counted as a
world record A world record is usually the best global and most important performance that is ever recorded and officially verified in a specific skill, sport, or other kind of activity. The book ''Guinness World Records'' and other world records organizatio ...
(the record had stood at 57.2 seconds since 1891). In addition, the race was run over hurdles that were too low at 76 centimetres instead of the normal 91,4.


1906 Olympics

En route to
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for the
1906 Summer Olympics The 1906 Intercalated Games or 1906 Olympic Games (), held from 22 April 1906 to 2 May 1906, was an international multi-sport event that was celebrated in Athens, Kingdom of Greece. They were at the time considered to be Olympic Games and were re ...
, he was one of a half-dozen athletes who were injured by an enormous wave that washed over the deck of the ship. The injury to his knee diminished the quality of his performance. He finished fifth in the 400 metres, his only event that year.


1908 Olympics

Hillman won a
silver medal A silver medal, in sports and other similar areas involving competition, is a medal made of, or plated with, silver awarded to the second-place finisher, or runner-up, of contests or competitions such as the Olympic Games, Commonwealth Games, ...
in the 400 metres hurdles at the
1908 Summer Olympics The 1908 Summer Olympics (officially the Games of the IV Olympiad and also known as London 1908) were an international multi-sport event held in London, England, from 27 April to 31 October 1908. The 1908 Games were originally schedu ...
, setting a short-lived record in the second round. He and Charles Bacon of the USA went over the last hurdle simultaneously, but Bacon won the run to the tape to win in a world record 55.0 seconds. Hillman's time in the race was 55.3 seconds. He was married in May 1908 to Hazel Quantin of Brooklyn, who survived him with their son, Harold Quantin, a 1940 Dartmouth graduate, and their daughter, Madeleine Rogers Hillman. On April 24, 1909, at the Military Games, Hillman and his friend Lawson Robertson set a record that has never been equaled, running the three-legged race in 11.0 seconds. At those same Military Games on April 24, 1909, he entered six events and won five of them: the 100 yards, 220 yards, 440 yards, and 220 yard hurdles. He won four
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 ...
titles, two each in the 200 metres and 400 metres hurdles. Hillman later served in World War I as a lieutenant in the aviation corps.


Dartmouth Track coach

The focal point of his career was serving as the track and field and cross-country coach at Dartmouth College for 35 years, from 1910 until his death in 1945. Hillman was elected an assistant professor of physical education at Dartmouth in 1919 and as assistant professor, without limitations, in 1922. He served as chairman of the department from 1921 to 1925. In addition to his responsibilities as a track coach, he occasionally coached the Dartmouth football team, likely in conditioning. At Dartmouth, Hillman advised hurdlers to swallow raw eggs, which he believed to be "excellent for the wind and stomach." Some of the track athletes who were hurdlers or runners, sports in which he excelled, that he developed at Dartmouth were Don Burnham '44 in the mile; Gus Braun '15, Monty Wells '28, and Jack Donovan '38, in the hurdles. In the high jump, intercollegiate champions he trained included Russ Palmer '10, Roy Brown '23, and Tom Maynard '29. He also trained Mark Wright '13, C. E. Buck '13 and Laddy Myers '20 in the pole vault; Bud Whitney '15, Jack Shelburne '19, W. C. Beers '21, and Tony Geniawicz '37 in the shot.


Olympic coach

He was on the Olympic track and field coaching staff in
1924 Events January * January 12 – Gopinath Saha shoots Ernest Day, whom he has mistaken for Sir Charles Tegart, the police commissioner of Calcutta, and is arrested soon after. * January 20–January 30, 30 – Kuomintang in Ch ...
,
1928 Events January * January – British bacteriologist Frederick Griffith reports the results of Griffith's experiment, indirectly demonstrating that DNA is the genetic material. * January 1 – Eastern Bloc emigration and defection: Boris B ...
, and
1932 Summer Olympics The 1932 Summer Olympics (officially the Games of the X Olympiad and also known as Los Angeles 1932) were an international multi-sport event held from July 30 to August 14, 1932, in Los Angeles, California, United States. The Games were held du ...
, as well as acting as trainer for the American
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team in 1935 where he convinced the players of the value of taking salt tablets to replace lost water. One of his most famous athletes was Canadian hurdler Earl Thomson, Dartmouth Class of 22, the winner of the gold medal in the 110 metres hurdles at the
1920 Summer Olympics The 1920 Summer Olympics (; ; ), officially known as the Games of the VII Olympiad (; ; ) and commonly known as Antwerp 1920 (; Dutch language, Dutch and German language, German: ''Antwerpen 1920''), were an international multi-sport event held i ...
. In 1930, Hillman, along with Thomson and Harold Barron, was involved in the design of a new safer hurdle, with a view to reducing the danger of bad falls and injuries. Hillman also served as Secretary-Treasurer of the College Track Coaches Association of America. He wrote many articles on Track and Conditioning for newspapers and magazines that included ''The Boston Herald'', ''The New York Times'', ''The Athletic Journal'', and ''The Scholastic Coach.'' Hillman died at Dick's House, the College Infirmary at Dartmouth College on August 9, 1945 in
Hanover Hanover ( ; ; ) is the capital and largest city of the States of Germany, German state of Lower Saxony. Its population of 535,932 (2021) makes it the List of cities in Germany by population, 13th-largest city in Germany as well as the fourth-l ...
,
New Hampshire New Hampshire ( ) is a U.S. state, state in the New England region of the Northeastern United States. It borders Massachusetts to the south, Vermont to the west, Maine and the Gulf of Maine to the east, and the Canadian province of Quebec t ...
, from what was diagnosed at the time as a heart ailment, coronary thrombosis. He was buried at Pine Knoll Cemetery in Hannover, and his gravestone marks his years as Dartmouth Track Coach, 1910-45.Dies of Coronary Thrombosis in


References


External links

* * * {{DEFAULTSORT:Hillman, Harry 1881 births 1945 deaths Track and field athletes from Brooklyn American male hurdlers American male sprinters Athletes (track and field) at the 1904 Summer Olympics Athletes (track and field) at the 1906 Intercalated Games Athletes (track and field) at the 1908 Summer Olympics Dartmouth Big Green track and field coaches Olympic gold medalists for the United States in track and field Olympic silver medalists for the United States in track and field Medalists at the 1908 Summer Olympics Medalists at the 1904 Summer Olympics USA Indoor Track and Field Championships winners 20th-century American sportsmen