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".

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