Chester "Chet" Cruikshank (May 25, 1913 – November 1970) was an American

track and field Track and field is a sport that includes athletic contests based on running, jumping, and throwing skills. The name is derived from where the sport takes place, a running track and a grass field for the throwing and some of the jumping events ...

athlete. Cruikshank was national champion in men's

hammer throw The hammer throw is one of the four throwing events in regular track and field competitions, along with the discus throw, shot put and javelin. The "hammer" used in this sport is not like any of the tools also called by that name. It consis ...

in 1939 and 1942 and national junior champion in 1935; he was also a good

discus throw The discus throw (), also known as disc throw, is a track and field event in which an athlete throws a heavy disk (mathematics), disc—called a discus—in an attempt to mark a farther distance than their competitors. It is an classical antiqui ...

er. During

World War II World War II or the Second World War, often abbreviated as WWII or WW2, was a world war that lasted from 1939 to 1945. It involved the vast majority of the world's countries—including all of the great powers—forming two opposin ...

he rose to the rank of

lieutenant colonel Lieutenant colonel ( , ) is a rank of commissioned officers in the armies, most marine forces and some air forces of the world, above a major and below a colonel. Several police forces in the United States use the rank of lieutenant colone ...

and was awarded the

Distinguished Service Cross The Distinguished Service Cross (D.S.C.) is a military decoration for courage. Different versions exist for different countries. *Distinguished Service Cross (Australia) *Distinguished Service Cross (United Kingdom) *Distinguished Service Cross (U ...

for his actions in the

Battle of Anzio The Battle of Anzio was a battle of the Italian Campaign of World War II that took place from January 22, 1944 (beginning with the Allied amphibious landing known as Operation Shingle) to June 5, 1944 (ending with the capture of Rome). The op ...

Athletic career

Cruikshank became a top track athlete at Ault High School and remained so at

Colorado State University Colorado State University (Colorado State or CSU) is a public land-grant research university in Fort Collins, Colorado. It is the flagship university of the Colorado State University System. Colorado State University is classified among "R1: ...

. His main events were the hammer throw and the discus throw, but he also competed in other events, including

shot put The shot put is a track and field event involving "putting" (throwing) a heavy spherical ball—the ''shot''—as far as possible. The shot put competition for men has been a part of the modern Olympics since their revival in 1896, and women's ...

and

high jump The high jump is a track and field event in which competitors must jump unaided over a horizontal bar placed at measured heights without dislodging it. In its modern, most-practiced format, a bar is placed between two standards with a crash mat f ...

. In addition, he played as an

end End, END, Ending, or variation, may refer to: End *In mathematics: ** End (category theory) ** End (topology) **End (graph theory) ** End (group theory) (a subcase of the previous) **End (endomorphism) *In sports and games **End (gridiron footbal ...

on the

Colorado State Rams football The Colorado State Rams football program (established 1893) represents Colorado State University and is a member of the NCAA Division I Football Bowl Subdivision and the Mountain West Conference. Since joining the Mountain West, the Rams have be ...

team, winning

conference A conference is a meeting of two or more experts to discuss and exchange opinions or new information about a particular topic. Conferences can be used as a form of group decision-making, although discussion, not always decisions, are the main p ...

football titles in 1933 and 1934. At the 1933 NCAA championships Cruikshank placed second in the hammer throw, throwing 155 ft in (47.52 m) and losing to Roderick Cox of Michigan by only an inch and a half. At the national (AAU) championships later that summer Cruikshank threw 160 ft in (48.94 m) and finished as the top American; however, he still only placed second to Olympic champion

Pat O'Callaghan Patrick "Pat" O'Callaghan (28 January 1906 – 1 December 1991) was an Irish people, Irish Athletics (sport), athlete and Olympic Games, Olympic Olympic Gold Medal, gold medallist. He was the first athlete from Ireland to win an Olympic medal un ...

Ireland Ireland ( ; ga, Éire ; Ulster Scots dialect, Ulster-Scots: ) is an island in the Atlantic Ocean, North Atlantic Ocean, in Northwestern Europe, north-western Europe. It is separated from Great Britain to its east by the North Channel (Grea ...

, who was also taking part and won the title. In the 1934 NCAA meet Cruikshank threw the hammer 163 ft in (49.95 m), but lost to

Henry Dreyer Henry Francis Dreyer (February 2, 1911 – May 27, 1986) was an American athlete. He competed in the 1936 and 1948 Summer Olympics as a hammer thrower; his other strong event was the non-Olympic weight throw, in which he broke the world best severa ...

, Pete Zaremba and

Donald Favor Donald Emerson Favor (February 16, 1913 – November 13, 1984) was an American hammer thrower. He was national champion in 1934 and placed sixth at the 1936 Summer Olympics. Career Representing the University of Maine, Favor won the hammer throw ...

; the top five all threw well beyond the previous year's winning mark. In the discus Cruikshank placed sixth. Cruikshank set his personal discus best, 160.45 feet (48.90 m), in May 1935; it was also a

Rocky Mountain Conference The Rocky Mountain Athletic Conference (RMAC), commonly known as the Rocky Mountain Conference (RMC) from approximately 1910 through the late 1960s, is a college athletic conference affiliated with the National Collegiate Athletic Association (NC ...

record, but only briefly, as Hugh Cannon broke it the following week. Cruikshank was allowed to compete in the 1935 NCAA championships, even though he was in his fourth year of collegiate track and field competition; at the time, collegiate eligibility was normally limited to three years per sport, and Cruikshank had been taking part in varsity track meets since his

freshman A freshman, fresher, first year, or frosh, is a person in the first year at an educational institution, usually a secondary school or at the college and university level, but also in other forms of post-secondary educational institutions. Ara ...

year. He was a leading favorite in the hammer throw, but despite throwing 159 ft in (48.72 m) he lost to Anton Kishon of Bates by almost nine feet and took second. In the discus he placed seventh. At the 1935 AAU championships Cruikshank won the junior hammer title; in the senior competition, he threw 165 ft in (50.45 m) and placed second to Dreyer. Cruikshank entered the 1936 season as one of the favorites to qualify for the American team for the

Olympics The modern Olympic Games or Olympics (french: link=no, Jeux olympiques) are the leading international sporting events featuring summer and winter sports competitions in which thousands of athletes from around the world participate in a var ...

Berlin Berlin ( , ) is the capital and largest city of Germany by both area and population. Its 3.7 million inhabitants make it the European Union's most populous city, according to population within city limits. One of Germany's sixteen constitue ...

, but at that summer's

Olympic Trials Olympic or Olympics may refer to Sports Competitions * Olympic Games, international multi-sport event held since 1896 ** Summer Olympic Games ** Winter Olympic Games * Ancient Olympic Games, ancient multi-sport event held in Olympia, Greece bet ...

his best throw of 166 ft in (50.87 m) was only good enough for fourth place. He lost to Donald Favor, who got the third and final Olympic spot, by less than eight inches. Cruikshank won his first national senior hammer title in the 1939 championships, throwing 174 ft in (53.07 m). At the 1940 championships he threw 176 ft in (53.72 m), which was and would remain his personal best, but he still only placed third behind Stanley Johnson and Bob Bennett. Cruikshank won his second national title in 1942 while on leave from the

U.S. Army The United States Army (USA) is the land service branch of the United States Armed Forces. It is one of the eight U.S. uniformed services, and is designated as the Army of the United States in the U.S. Constitution.Article II, section 2, cl ...

, throwing 173 ft in (52.94 m) and beating defending champion

Irving Folwartshny Irving Henry "Shorty" Folsworth (born Folwartshny; March 16, 1914 – July 27, 1994) was an American hammer thrower and weight thrower. He was a seven-time United States champion and briefly held the indoor world record in men's weight throw. Bio ...

by more than five feet. Due to

Cruikshank missed the national championships of 1943 and 1944, but he returned in 1945 and immediately placed fourth despite not having trained much during the war years; the low quality of that year's competition helped, as he only needed to throw 147 ft in (45.04 m), the lowest fourth-place mark since 1926. He continued competing for several more years, placing in the top six at the national championships in every year until 1948; he also placed sixth, with a throw of 161 ft in (49.22 m), at the 1948 Olympic Trials. Cruikshank was inducted into th
Colorado State University Athletics Hall of Fame
in 1995 for his achievements in

football Football is a family of team sports that involve, to varying degrees, kicking a ball to score a goal. Unqualified, the word ''football'' normally means the form of football that is the most popular where the word is used. Sports commonly c ...

and

Military career

Cruikshank joined the military through Colorado State University's

Reserve Officers' Training Corps The Reserve Officers' Training Corps (ROTC ( or )) is a group of college- and university-based officer-training programs for training commissioned officers of the United States Armed Forces. Overview While ROTC graduate officers serve in all ...

program, serving in the

Colorado Army National Guard The Colorado Army National Guard is a component of the United States Army, United States National Guard, and Colorado National Guard. Nationwide, the Army National Guard comprises approximately one half of the US Army's available combat forces ...

before it was federalized. During

he originally served in the 157th Infantry Regiment, formed out of the Colorado National Guard, and later in the 180th Infantry Regiment; he first saw action in Italy in the summer of 1943 as a

major Major (commandant in certain jurisdictions) is a military rank of commissioned officer status, with corresponding ranks existing in many military forces throughout the world. When used unhyphenated and in conjunction with no other indicators ...

of the 180th Infantry. In the

in 1944 Cruikshank led his battalion as a

, earning a

for his actions in the battle. Cruikshank also earned both the

Bronze Star The Bronze Star Medal (BSM) is a United States Armed Forces decoration awarded to members of the United States Armed Forces for either heroic achievement, heroic service, meritorious achievement, or meritorious service in a combat zone. Wh ...

and the

Silver Star The Silver Star Medal (SSM) is the United States Armed Forces' third-highest military decoration for valor in combat. The Silver Star Medal is awarded primarily to members of the United States Armed Forces for gallantry in action against an e ...

during the war.

External links

CSU Athletics Hall of Fame Bio

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Cruikshank, Chester 1913 births 1970 deaths American male hammer throwers American male discus throwers Colorado State Rams men's track and field athletes Colorado State Rams football players United States Army colonels Recipients of the Distinguished Service Cross (United States) Recipients of the Silver Star Male weight throwers United States Army personnel of World War II Players of American football from Colorado