B. 4 May 1907; Union City, New Jersey, USA

D. 29 April 2014; at his home in Northern Virginia, USA

[table]

Year-Sport,Event,Finish

1948 Shooting,Free Pistol,12th

[/table]

Walter Walsh’s Olympic participation in 1948 seems like a footnote to a life of experiences known by few men. Born in New Jersey, Walsh graduated from Rutgers Law School and then in 1934 joined the FBI. A year later he was on the stakeout team in Chicago that apprehended Doc Barker, one of the most wanted criminals in the United States. Acting on a tip that same year, he also discovered the body of Chicago gangster Baby Face Nelson. Two years later he was involved in a shoot-out in Bangor, Maine with Al Brady, who was at the time Public Enemy #1 and who was killed during the shoot-out. In World War II he joined the Marine Corps and rose to the rank of Lieutenant-Colonel. He was commander of the Marine Corps’ marksmanship unit for several years and competed in the 1948 Olympics while in the Marines. When the FBI celebrated its 100th anniversary in 2007, Walsh was still around, by then 101-years-old, noting that he was older than the FBI, and he was the oldest living FBI agent. In March 2013 he surpassed Rudy Schrader to become the longest-lived Olympian of all-time.

The oldest living Olympian becomes Swiss artist Hans Erni, who was born 21 February 1909, who entered in the Art Competitions in 1948 at London, the last time they were held formally. The oldest living athlete is Chinese track & field Olympian Guo Jie from 1936.

For a more detailed story of Walsh’s life, see http://www.americanrifleman.org/articles/walter-walsh in American Rifleman, or USA Shooting’s story on him at http://www.usashooting.org/news/2013/5/2/352-1948-olympian-walter-walsh-to-celebrate-106th-birthday-on-saturday-may-4, or Alan Abrahamson’s nice story at http://www.3wiresports.com/2011/05/19/americas-oldest-living-olympian-walter-walsh-104/ or our site at http://www.sports-reference.com/olympics/athletes/wa/walter-walsh-1.html

[table]

Event,Date,Place

Born,11 October 1928,London-Greater London (GBR)

Died,12 May 1957,near Guidizzolo-Mantova (ITA)

[/table]

[table]

Year-Sport,Event,Team,Place

1956 Bobsleigh,Two,with Vicente Sartorius,4

,Four,Spain,9

[/table]

Fon de Portago was born in London, on 11 October 1928, to a wealthy aristocratic father and an Irish nurse. While his father engaged in the Spanish Civil War, Alfonso grew up in the French city of Biarritz. Playboy Alfonso de Portago excelled in many sports. Besides being a good swimmer, polo player and fencer, he was a very good steeplechaser (on horse), winning the French title and participating in the Grand National at Aintree. He achieved his biggest successes, however, in auto racing.

He got interested in the sport through his American friend Edmond Nelson, who he had met as an elevator operator in the New York Plaza Hotel. His first race was the Carrera Panamericana of 1953, which he entered together with Luigi Chinetti (ITA) in a Ferrari 375. They did not complete the race, but it was the start of de Portago’s racing career. The following year, he took part in several sports car races, including the 12 hours of Sebring, and the 24 hours of Le Mans. His success in sports car races, driving Ferraris, earned him the attention of the Ferrari team, and he was signed for the team for the 1956 Formula 1 season.

Before his first race in 1956 (the 12 hours of Sebring), De Portago engaged in a different sport, although it also involved steering. Together with three of his cousins – Vicente Sartorius, Gonzalo Taboada and Luis Muñoz – he formed the very first Spanish Olympic bobsleigh team to take part in the Winter Olympics held in Cortina d’Ampezzo. With the Sartorius, the Marquis de Mariño as his brakeman, De Portago steered the two-man bob to a fourth place finish, just 0.16 seconds from the bronze, and clocked the second-best time in the third run. The four-man bobsleigh ended up in ninth position.

De Portago drove his first Formula 1 World Championship race at the French GP, and scored his first points in the next race at Silverstone, although it was Peter Collins (GBR) who took over de Portago’s car halfway through the race and drove it to a second place-finish. He failed to finish his other Grand Prix races that season, but scored a few victories in minor races.

He again scored points in the first race of the 1957 season, although he had to share them again, this time with Froilán González (ARG). A week before the Monaco GP, Alfonso de Portago entered the Mille Miglia, with his friend Nelson, in a Ferrari 335S. At a straightaway near the town of Giudizzolo, one of their tires blew, and their car swerved into the audience, killing at least 10 spectators, injuring many more, and killing de Portago and Nelson. This accident also meant the end of the Mille Miglia race.

Portago was also known for his winning ways with women, first marrying model Carroll McDaniel. They separated and he began an affair with another model, Dorian Leigh, sister of the first super-model Suzy Parker. At the time of his death, however, he was having another affair with Linda Christian, the ex-wife of actor Tyrone Power. On the day of his final race, at Mille Miglia, she ran out to kiss him prior to the race, which was captured by many of the paparazzi present, and which became known as “The Kiss of Death.”

———-

As each of us has done the bio of our favorite Olympians, this bio is the special favorite of Jeroen Heijmans, our webmaster and Dutch Olympic expert.

Not everybody with connections to the Olympic Games was an athlete who competed in the Olympics. Here are a number of famous people, in various fields, who had Olympic connections often not well known.

Sissel – the Norwegian classical cross-over soprano with the Angelic pipes was well-known in Norway since she was a young teenager. But it was her appearance singing the Olympic Hymn at the Opening and Closing Ceremony of the 1994 Lillehammer Winter Olympics that helped her become known to an international audience.

Sissel at Lillehammer Closing Ceremony

https://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=player_detailpage&v=wIrU4Etac8w

Gordon Lightfoot – Canada’s best known folk singer was past his popular prime in 1988 but was still chosen to sing at the Opening Ceremony of the Calgary Winter Olympics, performing one of his old standards, “Alberta Bound,” as the world’s athletes came to Alberta.

Placido Domingo – Placido Domingo, the well-known Spanish tenor, performed at the Closing Ceremony of two Olympic Games. In 1992 at Barcelona, Domingo sang the Olympic Hymn. In 2008 at Beijing, Domingo performed a duet with Song Zuying, singing The Flame of Love.

Oddjob – In the very popular James Bond movie, “Goldfinger,” the villain was Auric Goldfinger, who was trying to take over the world’s gold supply. Goldfinger’s lead henchman and enforcer was a stocky Oriental-appearing muscleman named Oddjob. Oddjob was played by Harold Sakata, a Hawaiian-American of Japanese ethnicity, who won a silver medal in weightlifting at the 1948 Olympics for the United States.

José Carreras – At the 1992 Barcelona Olympics Closing Ceremony, José Carreras, the famed Spanish tenor, sang _Amigos Para Siempre_ with Britain’s classical cross-over lyric soprano Sarah Brightman. Brightman would also sing at another Olympics, performing You and Me with Chinese tenor Liu Huan at the Beijing Opening Ceremony in 2008.

Gore Vidal – Eugene “Gene” Vidal competed in the decathlon for the United States at the 1920 Olympic in Antwerp. Vidal was a West Point graduate who also starred in football at the US Military Academy. His son was Eugene Luther Gore Vidal, who became much better known as Gore Vidal. Gore Vidal was a writer, screenwriter, and political analyst in the United States, once described as “the best all-around American man of letters since Edmund Wilson.”

Dr. Seuss – American shooter Theodore Geisel competed in two shooting events, both variants of free rifle at 200 metres, at the 1900 Paris Exhibition. The events are not considered Olympic events at this time, but would be considered demonstration events. Geisel’s grandson, Theodor Seuss Geisel, later became much better known under his nom-de-plume of Dr. Seuss, popular author of children’s books.

Charlotte Rampling – Charlotte Rampling is a well-known actress, appearing on over 100 films in the United States, Great Britain, Italy, and France. She was the daughter of Godfrey Rampling, who won two medals with British 4×400 metre relay teams – a silver in 1932 and a gold in 1936.

Swoosie Kurtz – An American actress, Swoosie Kurtz has won one Emmy Award (American television) and two Tony Awards (Broadway). Her father was Frank Kurtz, bronze medalist in platform diving at the 1932 Los Angeles Olympics. Frank Kurtz later became a highly decorated military pilot, having received the Croix de Guerre, 3 Silver Stars, 3 Distinguished Flying Crosses, 3 Air Medals, and 5 Presidential Citations for his aviation heroics. During World War II he piloted the Boeing B17-D Flying Fortress bomber, which was nicknamed “The Swoose” because it resembled a half-swan, half-goose. The Swoose is the source of the unusual name for his daughter, as Swoosie is her real given name.

Sir Arthur Conan Doyle – Conan Doyle was on-hand to watch the 1908 Olympic Marathon, having been asked to write a story about it for The Daily Mail. His story on the Dorando Pietri tragic ending appeared in that newspaper on the next day. He also started a financial fund which was given to Pietri, violating all contemporary amateur rules. Conan Doyle is often considered to have been one of the officials assisting Pietri across the line in the famous photo seen below, but that is incorrect, as those two officials were Jack Andrew, the Clerk of Course, and Dr. Michael Bulger, the Chief Medical Officer.

James Foulis – Jim Foulis was a Scottish golf professional who won the 2^nd US Open ever played, in 1896. His Olympic connection came because, after moving to the United States, and settling in the midwest, he became a well-known golf course architect, and designed the Glen Echo Country Club course, the site of the 1904 Olympic golf tournament, the last time golf was contested at the Olympics.

Walt Disney – known for Disney World, Disneyland, multiple movie and television productions, Walt Disney was also the man responsible for choreographing the Opening Ceremony of the 1960 Squaw Valley Winter Olympics.

Miloš Forman; Kon Ichikawa; John Schlesinger; Mai Zetterling – These four international directors, responsible for multiple popular movies, were four of the eight directors chosen to co-direct the Official Movie of the 1964 Tokyo Olympics. Because there were eight directors, the movie was entitled “Visions of Eight.”

Davis Cup – The Davis Cup was donated by Dwight Filley Davis as an international team tennis trophy in 1900, while Davis was still a student at Harvard. Dwight Davis later played in the 1904 Olympic tennis tournament, reaching the round of 16 in singles, and the quarter-finals in doubles. Davis would enter politics and serve as the United States’ 49^th Secretary of War (later called Secretary of Defense) from 1925-29.

Wightman Cup – The Wightman Cup was an international team tennis trophy for women, which was contested between the United States and Great Britain from 1923-89. The trophy was donated by US tennis star Hazel Wightman, who won the US singles title four times from 1909-19, including three times in a row (1909-11). Wightman played in the Olympic tennis tournament in 1924, winning gold medals in both ladies’ doubles and mixed doubles.

Bobby Orr, Sophia Loren, John Glenn, Stephen Spielberg, Lech Wałeşa, Desmond Tutu – all of the above, famous in multiple fields, helped carry in the Olympic Flag at the Opening Ceremony of various Olympic Winter Games. Orr, considered by many the greatest ever ice hockey player, carried the Olympic Flag at Vancouver in 2010. Legendary actress Sophia Loren was an Olympic Flagbearer at Torino in 2006. John Glenn was the first American astronaut to orbit the Earth, and was later a US Senator for many years. Stephen Spielberg is a movie director who has directed some of the most popular movies ever made, including Jaws, Schindler’s List, Saving Private Ryan, and ET – the Extra-Terrestrial. Wałeşa and Tutu were were awarded the Nobel Peace Prize in 1993 and 1994 respectively, Wałeşa for his role in Solidarność, and his role in helping Poland break free from Soviet control; while Tutu was a South African bishop responsible for helping the break-up of apartheid in that nation. The last 4 all carried the Olympic Flag at Salt Lake City in 2002.

Happy 100^th Birthday

Evelyn Furtsch Ojeda (USA-ATH-1932)

http://www.sports-reference.com/olympics/athletes/fu/evelyn-furtsch-1.html

B. 17 April 1914; San Diego, California, USA

[table]

Year-Sport,Event,Place,Medal

1932 Athletics,4×100 m relay,1,Gold

[/table]

Evelyn Furtsch won a gold medal in the 1932 4×100 relay, running the second leg. She had not qualified for the 100 metres because both Elizabeth Wilde and Louise Stokes finished ahead of her at the Final Trials, but were not selected for the Olympics, so Furtsch, representing the Los Angeles Athletic Club, was perhaps fortunate to have won a place on the relay team for the Los Angeles Games. The only time she placed in an AAU championship was in 1931, when she finished second in the 100 yards. After the Olympics she attended Santa Ana College for two years, but there was no track team and her opportunities for training in that era were limited, so she ended her track career, competing in field hockey and basketball and then got married after her second year of college. She was elected to the Orange County Sports Hall of Fame in California in 1985 and in 1984, received the Ralph Clark Distinguished Citizen Award in Santa Ana.

As of this date, 17 April 2014, Evelyn Furtsch is the 8^th oldest living Olympian (see the page http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/User:Canadian_Paul/Olympics, by one of our compatriots, Paul Tchir). She is the 3^rd oldest living American Olympian, after Walter Walsh (1948 SHO – *4 May 1907) and Simone Schaller (1932 ATH – *22 Aug 1912) (Walsh is the oldest living Olympian). She is the 2^nd oldest living gold medalist, after Hungarian Sándor “Alex” Tarics (1936 WAP – *23 Sep 1913). She is the 3^rd oldest living track & field Olympian – after China’s Guo Jie (1936 – *16 Jan 1912) and Schaller, and the oldest living track & field gold medalist and medalist.

Evelyn Furtsch becomes one of only two US Olympic gold medalists to have survived to 100, the other being James “Babe” Rockefeller, who won gold in 1924 rowing coxed eights (alongside Benjamin Spock). She becomes one of only two US Olympic track & field medalists, and one of only four Olympic track & field medalists (all nations) to have survived to 100, joining the following: Herman Brix (USA – 1928 shot put), Godfrey Rampling (GBR – 1932 and 1936 4×400), and Edvin Wide (SWE – 5 medals from 1920-28). She joins Godfrey Rampling as the only Olympic track & field gold medalists to survive to 100, Rampling winning gold in the 1936 4×400 relay.

Personal Best: 100 – 12.2 (1932)

The Titanic sank 102 years ago, on 15 April 1912. There were two Olympians on board – one who had already competed (in 1906), and one who would compete in 1924. The Titanic Olympians are described below:

———-

Sir Cosmo Edmund Duff-Gordon, 5^th Baronet of Halkin (GBR-FEN-1906)

B. 22 July 1862; London, Greater London, England, Great Britain

D. 20 April 1931; London, Greater London, England, Great Britain

1906 Fencing – Team Épée – Silver medal

http://www.sports-reference.com/olympics/athletes/du/cosmo-duff-gordon-1.html

Sir Cosmo Duff-Gordon was the 5^th Baronet of Halkin, a title he inherited because of the title of Baron being inferred on a great-uncle in 1813. He lived on his country estate, Maryculter, in Kincardineshire, near Aberdeen, Scotland, where he was a sheriff and magistrate. In addition to his skill as a fencer, Duff-Gordon practiced martial arts.

Duff-Gordon survived the sinking of the Titanic, along with his wife and her secretary. Duff-Gordon was one of many men in First Class who were allowed into lifeboats, while many women and children, mostly from Third Class, never reached the upper deck where the lifeboats were stowed. It was also rumored that the Duff-Gordons bribed the crew in their lifeboat to not rescue people in the water, but a later investigation by the British Board of Trade’s Inquiry cleared them of this alleged cowardice.

The inquiry concluded that if their lifeboat had rowed towards the people in the water, it may have been able to rescue some of them, but the conclusion regarding the bribery allegation noted, “The very gross charge against Sir Cosmo Duff Gordon that, having got into No. 1 boat he bribed the men in it to row away from the drowning people is unfounded.”

Per his family, Duff-Gordon spent much of the rest of his life as a recluse. Because of his wealth he did not have to work and little else is known of Cosmo Duff-Gordon after the Titanic incident.

———-

Richard Norris “Dick” Williams (USA-TEN-1924)

B. 29 January 1891; Geneva, Switzerland

D. 2 June 1968; Bryn Mawr, Pennsylvania, USA

1924 Tennis – Mixed Doubles – Gold Medal; Singles – quarter-finalist; Doubles – quarter-finalist

http://www.sports-reference.com/olympics/athletes/wi/dick-williams-1.html

The early years of Dick Williams’ life were spent in Lausanne where his father, a tennis enthusiast, was working; under his father’s tutelage he won the Swiss Junior title at the age of 12. In 1912, Mr. Williams accompanied his son to America when Dick was accepted for Harvard. Dick Williams was 21-years-old when he was travelling in first class aboard the Titanic with his father, Charles Duane Williams, when it struck the iceberg. His father perished in the disaster. Shortly after the collision, Dick Williams freed a trapped passenger from a cabin by breaking down a door, and Williams remained on the Titanic almost until the very end, when he was washed overboard by a wave that also took several others. He made his way to Collapsible A Lifeboat and held on to its side for awhile before getting in. The survivors in Collapsible A were then transferred to Lifeboat 14, but even after entering Lifeboat 14 Williams spent several hours waist-deep in freezing water, which left his legs frostbitten and so severely injured that the Carpathia’s doctor recommended amputation. Williams, who did not want his tennis career to be cut short, refused.

Dick Williams won the mixed doubles at the U.S. championships and the national clay court singles in his first American season (1912) and was ranked second nationally that year. In 1913, while still at Harvard, he began his Davis Cup career and in his eight single matches that year he lost only to James Parke, the Irish rugby football international, in the match against Great Britain. Williams was to remain a Davis Cup player until 1926 and in the intervening years he won the U.S. singles title twice and the men’s doubles on two occasions. Williams graduated from Harvard in 1916 and was soon with the armed forces. He saw active service as a captain of artillery and served as an aide to Major Gen. John Harbord, winning the Croix de Guerre and the Legion d’Honneur in the second battle of the Marne. After the war, Williams played his tennis at the Longwood Cricket Club and started his career as a stockbroker.

In 1920 he teamed up with Charles Garland and they became the only Harvard-Yale combination to ever win the Wimbledon doubles. At the 1924 Olympics, Dick Williams went out to Henri Cochet in the quarter-finals of the singles; in the men’s doubles, playing with his former Harvard teammate, Watson Washburn, he again lost in the quarter-finals when the South Africans, Condon and Richardson, came back to win after trailing by two sets to one. However, in the mixed doubles, with Hazel Wightman as his partner, they scored a comfortable victory after disposing of the Wimbledon champions, Kitty McKane and Brian Gilbert of Great Britain, in the semi-finals.

B.     27 August 1864; Frankfurt an der Oder, Brandenburg (GER)

D.     22 December 1919; Frankfurt an der Oder, Brandenburg (GER)

http://www.sports-reference.com/olympics/athletes/we/hermann-weingartner-1.html

[table]

Year-Sport,Event,Finish,Medal

1896 Gymnastics,Horse Vault,3,Bronze

,Parallel Bars,AC

,Parallel Bars Teams,1,Gold

,Horizontal Bar,1,Gold

,Horizontal Bar Teams,1,Gold

,Rings,2,Silver

,Pommelled Horse,2,Silver

[/table]

Hermann Weingärtner was one of Germany’s best gymnasts in the 19th century, and the best gymnast in Athens. With the German team, he won two Olympic titles, and added an individual gold on the horizontal bar, as well as two second places and a third. His second place in the rings event was a close one: with the jury deadlocked on a decision, Greek Prince Georgios cast the deciding vote in favor of his countryman Ioannis Mitropoulos. Weingärtner’s six medals was the most won by any athlete at the 1896 Olympics, and his three gold medals trailed only his teammate, Carl Schuhmann.

Weingärtner was a merchant, and later took over management of a swimming pool in Frankfurt am Oder, which had been established by his father. He died in the Oder attempting to save a drowning person.

 THE GAMES OF THE I^st OLYMPIAD

B. 12 February 1907; St. Kilda, Victoria, Australia

D. 7 November 1951; Off the coast of Morocco

See also http://www.sports-reference.com/olympics/athletes/ri/freddie-mcevoy-1.html.

[table]

Year,Sport,Event,Place,Medal

1936,Bobsled,Two-man,4,

,,Four-man,3,Bronze

[/table]

Some Olympians find heroics in their sporting careers, some find it in their lives after the Olympics, some find it in the bedroom, and some find heroics in selfless attempt to save lives. Here’s one who did the last two.

We have talked how we all have certain favorite Olympians. Freddie McEvoy was the favorite of Ian Buchanan, esteemed British Olympic historian, and the first President of the International Society of Olympic Historians (ISOH). This is one is in Ian’s memory.

—–

Freddie McEvoy was a swashbuckling legend in aristocratic British sporting circles. He was educated at the Jesuit School of Stonyhurst, and early turned his attention to sports, becoming an expert in shooting, race-car driving, deep-sea diving, and boxing. He competed at the Olympics in 1936 as a bobsled driver, after having won the 1935 World Championship in the 4-man. Among his professions are listed jewelry designer, public relations consultant, professional gambler, smuggler, black marketer, and gigolo. He was well-known in European gambling casinos and was known to have won and lost fortunes during his lifetime. He admitted to being a rogue, swindler, and con man who used his intelligence and charm to move among the highest of the monied classes. In appearance, he was almost a twin of his very close friend, Errol Flynn.

McEvoy was that rare individual whose life was more exciting than the legend. Among the stories that surround him are that he once killed a man in a barroom brawl in Marseilles, that he once won a $10,000 bet by driving from Paris to Cannes in under 10 hours, and that he once won $25,000 playing backgammon in Monte Carlo and then spent that money the next day to buy a Maserati. In the Maserati he placed 3rd at the 1936 Vanderbilt Trophy races at Roosevelt Raceway on Long Island. When McEvoy won car races, he usually used his earnings to bet on the horses, and when he picked a winner he celebrated by drinking pink champagne.

He used his connections and his sociability to marry well several times. The first was in 1940 to a woman twice his age, Beatrice Cartwright, an heiress to the Standard Oil fortune. He and Cartwright had lived together at the Badrutt Palace in St. Moritz for several winters, prior to their marriage. One year, McEvoy brought a much younger model to “care for him,” explaining to Cartwright that he must have a younger bedfellow than her. The marriage lasted two years, and in the same year they were divorced, he married Irene Wrightsman, the 18-year-old daughter of the president of Standard Oil of Kansas. That marriage also lasted but two years, and he spent most of 1944 going back and forth from Mexico City to Beverly Hills, smuggling arms, jewelry, liquor and other valuables into the United States. In Mexico City he stayed with Dorothy di Frasso, one of Freddie’s most generous patrons. Di Frasso spread his fame among her friends for his bedroom performances, which she said was worth all the money she gave him. American bobsledder Billy Fiske, once commented on how much he admired McEvoy, and when someone protested that he could not, he noted, “Yes, I do, I admire anyone who can get away with something that I could not do myself.”

In 1945, McEvoy began a long-running affair with the wealthy heiress, Barbara Hutton. Hutton agreed with di Frasso concerning Freddie’s skills, considering him a superb lover, and felt that he understood women better than any man she had ever met. They later lived together at a fashionable ski chalet in Franconia, New Hampshire, which Hutton bought for McEvoy. They never married but remained friends throughout his life. McEvoy eventually married French fashion model Claude Stephanie Filatre. In November 1951 they were sailing on his 104-ton schooner, Kangaroo, near Cap Cantin off the coast of Morocco when a storm hit. The ship went down, but Freddie lashed his wife and maid to the mast, and then swam to shore seeking help. But he was unable to find any assistance and swam back out to the mast. He and Claude Stephanie then began swimming to shore, but she was unable to make it. He attempted to tow her to shore, but the waves pulled them to sea, they crashed against the rocks, and were not seen alive again. Their bodies were recovered the next day.

B. 5 October 1925

[table]

Year,Sport,Event,Finish,Medal

1952,ROW,Double Sculls,3 h1 r4/5 (w John Rogers),

1956,ROW,Double Sculls,3 (w Merv Wood),Bronze

[/table]

Many of our Olympian bios tell stories of great heroics and often great careers after the Olympics. Here’s one that didn’t turn out so well.

See also http://www.sports-reference.com/olympics/athletes/ri/murray-riley-1.html.

Murray Riley partnered Merv Wood to a bronze medal in the 1956 double sculls, after the pair had won gold medals in the doubles at the 1950 and 1954 Commonwealth Games. At the time the two were both police officers, but their careers would take decidedly different courses. Wood eventually became New South Wales (NSW) Police Commissioner in 1976, but stepped down in 1979, partly because of his association with Riley who had by then turned to a life of crime.

Riley joined the NSW police force in 1943, when only 17 years old, and he eventually rose to detective-sergeant, 3rd class. Major drug investigations in the 1960s found that Riley was associated with managers of several illegal gambling casinos in Sydney and Wollongong and it led to his involvement in drugs. In 1966 he was jailed for a year in New Zealand on charges of attempting to bribe a police inspector, after he was found to be involved in drug importation and cashing stolen American Express checks. After his release he linked up with well-known Australian crime figure Wally Dean and the two became supervisors for the Sydney League Clubs, and began scamming the clubs, extorting their services at very high fees in return for protection.

Riley disappeared for a few years but emerged in September 1974, helping Dean in an unsuccessful attempt to get elected to the South Sydney City Council. In October 1984, Riley came into the employ of Lennie McPherson, noted drug dealer, looking after collections from various gambling clubs and bookmakers, and providing protection for them.

Riley was also involved in the Nugan Hand Bank Scandal, which was a complex arrangement fronted by the United States CIA, and former US Green Beret Michael Hand, as a front to help catch drug dealers and exporters. It was found that in April 1976, Nugan Hand made cash transfers to Riley in Hong Kong, totaling about $1.2 million. Riley used the cash to take delivery of heroin shipments. The Australian Joint Task Force on Drugs, concluded, “Throughout 1976 Hand was knowingly involved in drug activity with the ‘Riley’ group in that he permitted and even encouraged the use of Nugan Hand facilities for the movement of drug money.”

Riley was finally caught in June 1978, when he was arrested after 4.3 tons of cannabis was found onboard the yacht Anoa at Polkington Reef, east of Papua New Guinea. Riley pleaded guilty and was sentenced by Judge Kenneth Torrington to 5-10 years in jail.

In January 2008, historian Dr. John Jiggens of the Queensland University of Technology, deepened the crime connection of Riley with the publication of his book ___The Sydney Connection: Nugan Hand, Murray Riley, and the Murder of Donald Mackay___. Mackay was a furniture store owner in the NSW town of Griffith, who in 1975, tipped off police about a large marijuana plantation at Coleambally, south of Griffith. Mackay was murdered outside the Hotel Griffith on 15 July 1977, as his bloodstained car and spent .22 cartridges were found in the hotel carpark the next day, although his body was never recovered. Jiggens notes in the book that Nugan and Riley were key figures in an international drug-smuggling group supplying the United States market in the 1970s.

Olympic athletes are known as the greatest of athletes. Yet, perhaps the term student-athletes can be applied to many of them. Fully 34 of them have won a Rhodes Scholarship, one of the highest academic awards possible, to study at Oxford University in England. There are others than on this list, who competed at the Paralympics but our databases cover only the Olympic Games. Here is the list of Olympian Rhodes Scholars. More information on these can be found here or by following the links below.

[table]

Name,NOC,Sport,OlyYr,Oxford Yr-School

Ranjit Bhatia,IND,ATH,1960,1957 Jesus College

Graham Bond,AUS,GYM,1956-64,1961 Balliol College

Munroe Bourne,CAN,SWI,1928-36,1932 University College

Bill Bradley,USA,BAS,1964,1965 Worcester College

John Carleton,USA,CCS/NCO,1924,1922 Magdalen College

Angie Darby,AUS,MOP,2008,2012 Christ Church College

Eddie Eagan,USA,BOB/BOX,1920-32,1922 New College

Alan Hobkirk,CAN,HOK,1976,1974 Jesus College

Simon Hollingsworth,AUS,ATH,1992-96,1997 Exeter College

Don Johnson,CAN,ATH,1924,1923 Balliol College

Rosara Joseph,NZL,CYC,2008,2006 St. John’s College

Wilfred Kalaugher,NZL,ATH,1928,1927 Balliol College

Wilfred Kent-Hughes,AUS,ATH,1920,1915 Christ Church College

Desmond Koh,SIN,SWI,1988-96,1995 Oriel College

Charles Littlejohn,GBR,ROW,1912,1909 New College

Jack Lovelock,NZL,ATH,1932-36,1931 Exeter College

Selwyn Maister,NZL,HOK,1968-76,1969 Magdalen College

Murray McLachlan,RSA,SWI,1960,1961 Wadham College

Tom McMillen,USA,BAS,1972,1974 University College

Tucker Murphy,BER,CCS,2010-14,2005 Merton College

John Misha Petkevich,USA,FSK,1968-72,1973 Magdalen College

Edward Pitblado,GBR,ICH,1924,1920 Queen’s College

Arthur Porritt,NZL,ATH,1924,1923 Magdalen College

Eric Prabhakar,IND,ATH,1948,1948 Christ Church College

Mari Rabie,RSA,TRI,2008,2010 St. Catherine’s College

Bevil Rudd,RSA,ATH,1920,1913 Trinity College

Annette Salmeen,USA,SWI,1996,1997 St. John’s College

Malav Shroff,IND,SAI,2004,1998 St. Peter’s College

Bill Stevenson,USA,ATH,1924,1922 Balliol College

Harvey Sutton,ANZ,ATH,1908,1905 New College

Norm Taber,USA,ATH,1912,1913 St. John’s College

PJ Thum,SIN,SWI,1996,2002 Hertford College

Alan Valentine,USA,RUG,1924,1922 Balliol College

Hugh Ward,ANZ,ROW,1912,1911 New College

[/table]