Frank Clifford Wykoff (October 29, 1909 – January 1, 1980) was an American

athlete An athlete (also sportsman or sportswoman) is a person who competes in one or more sports that involve physical strength, speed, or endurance. Athletes may be professionals or amateurs. Most professional athletes have particularly well-devel ...

, triple gold medal winner in 4 × 100 m

relay A relay Electromechanical relay schematic showing a control coil, four pairs of normally open and one pair of normally closed contacts An automotive-style miniature relay with the dust cover taken off A relay is an electrically operated switch ...

at the

Olympic Games 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 ...

Career

Born in

Des Moines, Iowa Des Moines () is the capital and the most populous city in the U.S. state of Iowa. It is also the county seat of Polk County. A small part of the city extends into Warren County. It was incorporated on September 22, 1851, as Fort Des Moines, ...

, Frank Wykoff has a place in track and field history by being the first man to ever win three Olympic relay gold medals, all in

world record A world record is usually the best global and most important performance that is ever recorded and officially verified in a specific skill, sport, or other kind of activity. The book ''Guinness World Records'' and other world records organization ...

time. Wykoff made his debut at the

Amsterdam Amsterdam ( , , , lit. ''The Dam on the River Amstel'') is the Capital of the Netherlands, capital and Municipalities of the Netherlands, most populous city of the Netherlands, with The Hague being the seat of government. It has a population ...

, where he finished fourth in the 100 m and ran an opening leg in the American 4 × 100 m relay team, which equalled the world record of 41.0 seconds in the final. After the Olympics, in 1929, Wykoff enrolled at Glendale Community College. He enrolled for one year to be able to train one more season with his Glendale High School coach, Normal Hayhurst. He was close to death the previous fall with a severe throat infection but recovered enough in the spring to tie the world record four times as a sprinter for Glendale. He then transferred to the

University of Southern California The University of Southern California (USC, SC, or Southern Cal) is a Private university, private research university in Los Angeles, California, United States. Founded in 1880 by Robert M. Widney, it is the oldest private research university in C ...

where he came under the tutelage of the famous coach

Dean Cromwell Dean Bartlett Cromwell (September 20, 1879 – August 3, 1962), nicknamed "Maker of Champions", was an American athletic coach in multiple sports, principally at the University of Southern California (USC). He was the head coach of the USC track ...

. He won the AAU championships in 100 yd in 1928 and 1931 and the

NCAA The National Collegiate Athletic Association (NCAA) is a nonprofit organization that regulates student athletics among about 1,100 schools in the United States, Canada, and Puerto Rico. It also organizes the athletic programs of colleges an ...

championships in 100 yd in 1930 and 1931. He ran a new world record in 100 yd of 9.4 s in May, 1930 and repeated it a month later. In 1931, as an anchor of the University of Southern California 4 × 100 m relay team, he helped set a new world record of 40.8. While at USC, Wykoff became a member of the

Kappa Alpha Order Kappa Alpha Order (), commonly known as Kappa Alpha or simply KA, is a social fraternity and a fraternal order founded in 1865 at Washington College (now Washington and Lee University) in Lexington, Virginia. As of December 2015, the Kappa Alph ...

national fraternity. At the

1932 Summer Olympics The 1932 Summer Olympics (officially the Games of the X Olympiad and also known as Los Angeles 1932) were an international multi-sport event held from July 30 to August 14, 1932 in Los Angeles, California, United States. The Games were held duri ...

, Wykoff ran the anchor leg for the American 4 x 100 m relay team, which set a new world record of 40.0 seconds. At the

1936 Summer Olympics The 1936 Summer Olympics (German: ''Olympische Sommerspiele 1936''), officially known as the Games of the XI Olympiad (German: ''Spiele der XI. Olympiade'') and commonly known as Berlin 1936 or the Nazi Olympics, were an international multi-sp ...

he again finished fourth in 100 m and again anchored the American 4 × 100 m relay team to gold with a new world record of 39.8. Following his graduation from USC in 1932 Wykoff earned a master's degree in 1936 and became a teacher and administrator. Wykoff worked for the

Los Angeles County Los Angeles County, officially the County of Los Angeles, and sometimes abbreviated as L.A. County, is the most populous county in the United States and in the U.S. state of California, with 9,861,224 residents estimated as of 2022. It is the ...

school system until retiring in 1972. Frank Wykoff died in

Altadena, California Altadena () ("Alta", Spanish language, Spanish for "Upper", and "dena" from Pasadena, California, Pasadena) is an unincorporated area and census-designated place in the Verdugo Mountains region of Los Angeles County, California, approximately 14 ...

, aged 70. A slogan of Wykoff's, "Clean Speech, Clean Sport, Clean Scholarship, Clean Life," was adopted by the

YMCA YMCA, sometimes regionally called the Y, is a worldwide youth organization based in Geneva, Switzerland, with more than 64 million beneficiaries in 120 countries. It was founded on 6 June 1844 by George Williams in London, originally ...

in 1938. His medals can be viewed in Los Angeles, CA by contacting la84 Org

References

External links

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* {{DEFAULTSORT:Wykoff, Frank 1909 births 1980 deaths American male sprinters Athletes (track and field) at the 1928 Summer Olympics Athletes (track and field) at the 1932 Summer Olympics Athletes (track and field) at the 1936 Summer Olympics Olympic gold medalists for the United States in track and field University of Southern California alumni Sportspeople from Des Moines, Iowa Track and field athletes from California USC Trojans men's track and field athletes Medalists at the 1936 Summer Olympics Medalists at the 1932 Summer Olympics Medalists at the 1928 Summer Olympics USA Outdoor Track and Field Championships winners