Vaughn Seavey Blanchard (July 11, 1889 – November 26, 1969) was an American

track and field Track and field (or athletics in British English) is a sport that includes Competition#Sports, athletic contests based on running, jumping, and throwing skills. The name used in North America is derived from where the sport takes place, a ru ...

athlete who competed in the 110 m hurdles and in the exhibition baseball tournament at the

1912 Summer Olympics The 1912 Summer Olympics (), officially known as the Games of the V Olympiad () and commonly known as Stockholm 1912, were an international multi-sport event held in Stockholm, Sweden, between 6 July and 22 July 1912. The opening ceremony was he ...

. He attended

Bates College Bates College () is a Private college, private Liberal arts colleges in the United States, liberal arts college in Lewiston, Maine. Anchored by the Historic Quad, the campus of Bates totals with a small urban campus which includes 33 Victorian ...

in Lewiston Maine and later became a well known physical education proponent in Michigan.

Biography

Blanchard was born in Franklin, New Hampshire in 1889 and graduated from Pittsfield High School in

Pittsfield, New Hampshire Pittsfield is a town in Merrimack County, New Hampshire, United States. The population was 4,075 at the 2020 census. The main village in town, where 1,570 people resided at the 2020 census, is defined as the Pittsfield census-designated place ...

in 1908. Blanchard graduated from

in 1912 where he was the Maine intercollegiate champion for three years and won the junior low hurdles national championship in 1911. He then competed at the

in the 110 meter hurdles and in the exhibition baseball tournament. He studied at the YMCA Training College (Springfield College) from 1912 to 1913. He worked as a French and German teacher and track coach at the

Worcester Academy Worcester Academy is a co-ed private boarding school in Worcester, Massachusetts serving grades 6-12. It is the oldest school founded in Worcester, Massachusetts, and one of the oldest day-boarding schools in the United States. A coeducation ...

in Worcester, Massachusetts from 1913 to 1915 and at New Hampshire State College in Durham in 1915. He then served as a track coach at Phillips Andover Academy in Andover, Massachusetts from 1915 to 1919 before serving the

YMCA YMCA, sometimes regionally called the Y, is a worldwide youth organisation based in Geneva, Switzerland, with more than 64 million beneficiaries in 120 countries. It has nearly 90,000 staff, some 920,000 volunteers and 12,000 branches w ...

overseas. During World War I in 1917 Blanchard trained troops at Camp Wadsworth in South Carolina in physical fitness and then temporarily taught at the University of Alabama before returning to Massachusetts to teach at Medford High School. In 1920 Blanchard moved to Michigan and worked at several schools in Detroit including Central and Cass High Schools. From 1929 to 1954 Blanchard served as director of the Detroit public schools' Health and Physical Education departments and at one point on the Board of Education in Detroit and received various national awards. Blanchard was a proponent of intramural sports and "believed that there was an overemphasis on competitive athletics. He favored a withdrawal from outside competition and endorsed the development of a program of greater intraschool, intramural activity" and he also supported students managing, coaching, and organizing the sports events. In the 1930s Blanchard served as a lecturer at the

University of Michigan The University of Michigan (U-M, U of M, or Michigan) is a public university, public research university in Ann Arbor, Michigan, United States. Founded in 1817, it is the oldest institution of higher education in the state. The University of Mi ...

where he received a Master's degree in physical education in 1936, and he also was the athletic director at Wayne University.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Blanchard, Vaughn 1889 births 1969 deaths American male hurdlers Athletes (track and field) at the 1912 Summer Olympics Baseball players at the 1912 Summer Olympics Olympic baseball players for the United States Olympic track and field athletes for the United States Phillips Academy Springfield College alumni People from Franklin, New Hampshire Baseball players from New Hampshire University of Michigan alumni 20th-century American sportsmen