March 31: Mark Spitz

On this date in History ... March 31, 1972:

Swimmer Mark Spitz was presented the Amateur Athletic Union’s coveted Sullivan Award as the outstanding amateur athlete of 1971. Spitz went on to Olympic heroics a few months later, winning seven gold medals. Raised in Hawaii where he swam every day, by the age of ten he held 17 national age group records and one world record. After competing in the 1968 Olympic games, Spitz enrolled at Indiana University before going to the 1972 Olympics where he won his seven legendary gold medals.

He set 33 world records and was voted "Athlete of the Century" in water sports.

During a time when most swimmers believed body hair slowed them down, Spitz was a stand-out by wearing "an iconic mustache" which he called his "good luck piece".

June 28: Supreme Court rules on Muhammad Ali

On this date in History ... June 28, 1971:

The Supreme Court unanimously overturned the lower courts in “Clay vs. the United States” in boxer Muhammad Ali’s (Cassius Clay) refusal to be drafted.  Clay had refused, based on his conversion to Islam, to go to Vietnam and shoot people "who never called me nigga....."

Ali would go on to become the first and only 3-time lineal World Heavyweight Champion. He won an Olympic Gold Medal in 1960 (his amateur records was 100 wins with 5 losses). Legend has it that he threw the medal in the Ohio River after being refused service in a whites-only restaurant. He was presented with a replacement medal at the 1996 Olympics, where he lit the torch to start the games.  

In 1993, the Associated Press reported that Ali was tied with Babe Ruth as the most recognized athlete, out of over 800 dead or alive athletes, in America. The study found that over 97% of Americans over 12 years of age identified both Ali and Ruth.

February 17: Johnny Weissmuller a.k.a. "Tarzan"

On this date in History .... 1924:

Johnny Weissmuller sets a 100-yard freestyle record in swimming in the 1924 Paris Olympics, winning three gold medals and a bronze, and took two more gold medals in the 1928 Olympics. His record includes 52 US Nat’l Championships, setting 67 world records, and selected as the greatest swimmer of the 20^th century. He never lost a race and retired with an unbeaten Amateur record.

 

After moving to BelAir in California, he built a home with a 300 foot serpentine swimming pool.

 

Even though he was the sixth person to play “Tarzan” in movies, he was the most well-known “Tarzan” actor and the first to be associated with the “Tarzan yell”.  While a guest on a 1970 talk show, he explained the yell was created by splicing together three vocalists: a soprano, an alto … and a hog caller. Maureen O’Sullivan (“Jane”) swore that Weissmuller did the yell.  Some claim the yell was created by the studio via the splicing technique but that Weissmuller learned to do the yell himself.

 

The two video links are clips of a Tarzan movie and a documentary with conversation regarding how the Tarzen-yell was created.

 

Clip from movie

 

Tarzan Yell documentary clip