Irving Warren Jaffee (September 15, 1906 in

New York City New York, often called New York City or NYC, is the List of United States cities by population, most populous city in the United States. With a 2020 population of 8,804,190 distributed over , New York City is also the L ...

– March 20, 1981 in

San Diego, California San Diego ( , ; ) is a city on the Pacific Ocean coast of Southern California located immediately adjacent to the Mexico–United States border. With a 2020 population of 1,386,932, it is the eighth most populous city in the United States ...

) was an American

speed skater Speed skating is a competitive form of ice skating in which the competitors race each other in travelling a certain distance on skates. Types of speed skating are long track speed skating, short track speed skating, and marathon speed skating. ...

who won two gold medals at the

1932 Winter Olympics The 1932 Winter Olympics, officially known as the III Olympic Winter Games and commonly known as Lake Placid 1932, were a winter multi-sport event in the United States, held in Lake Placid, New York, United States. The games opened on February ...

, becoming the most successful athlete there along with his compatriot Jack Shea.

Early life

Jaffee, who was

Jewish Jews ( he, יְהוּדִים, , ) or Jewish people are an ethnoreligious group and nation originating from the Israelites Israelite origins and kingdom: "The first act in the long drama of Jewish history is the age of the Israelites""The ...

, was born to Jewish parents who had emigrated from Russia in 1896. He grew up in the

Crotona Park Crotona Park is a public park in the South Bronx in New York City, covering . The park is bounded by streets of the same name on its northern, eastern, southern, and western borders, and is adjacent to the Crotona Park East and Morrisania neig ...

section of

The Bronx The Bronx () is a borough of New York City, coextensive with Bronx County, in the state of New York. It is south of Westchester County; north and east of the New York City borough of Manhattan, across the Harlem River; and north of the New Y ...

, where he played baseball with future Hall of Famer

Hank Greenberg Henry Benjamin Greenberg (born Hyman Greenberg; January 1, 1911 – September 4, 1986), nicknamed "Hammerin' Hank", "Hankus Pankus", or "The Hebrew Hammer", was an American professional baseball player and team executive. He played in Major Leagu ...

. He briefly attended

DeWitt Clinton High School , motto_translation = Without Work Nothing Is Accomplished , image = DeWitt Clinton High School front entrance IMG 7441 HLG.jpg , seal_image = File:Clinton News.JPG , seal_size = 124px , ...

, but dropped out after failing to make the varsity baseball team.

Career

At age 14, Jaffee took up skating at the Gay Blades of Iceland rink (which later became the

Roseland Ballroom The Roseland Ballroom was a multipurpose hall, in a converted ice skating rink, with a colorful ballroom dancing pedigree, in New York City's theater district, on West 52nd Street in Manhattan. The venue, according to its website, accommodated ...

). Rather than pay the 75-cent admission fee, he worked as an ice cleaner to gain admission. He entered numerous skating races in the 1920s. He finally won the Silver Skates two-mile race in 1926, won the national five- mile event the following year, and qualified for the U.S. Olympic team in 1928. At the

1928 Winter Olympics The 1928 Winter Olympics, officially known as the II Olympic Winter Games (french: IIes Jeux olympiques d'hiver; german: II. Olympische Winterspiele; it, II Giochi olimpici invernali; rm, II Gieus olimpics d'enviern) and commonly known as St. M ...

in St. Moritz, Jaffee finished fourth in the 5000-meter skate, the best finish by an American in that event to that date. In the later 10,000-meter race, Jaffee was leading the competition, having outskated Norwegian defending world champion

Bernt Evensen Bernt Sverre Evensen (18 April 1905 – 24 August 1979) was a Norwegian speed skater and racing cyclist who competed in skating at the 1928 and 1932 Winter Olympics. In 1928 he became the first Norwegian skater to win an Olympic gold medal by w ...

in their heat, when rising temperatures thawed the ice. In a controversial ruling, the Norwegian referee canceled the entire competition. Although the

International Olympic Committee The International Olympic Committee (IOC; french: link=no, Comité international olympique, ''CIO'') is a non-governmental sports organisation based in Lausanne, Switzerland. It is constituted in the form of an association under the Swiss ...

reversed the referee's decision and awarded Jaffee the gold medal, the

International Skating Union The International Skating Union (ISU) is the international governing body for competitive ice skating disciplines, including figure skating, synchronized skating, speed skating, and short track speed skating. It was founded in Scheveningen, Net ...

later overruled the IOC and restored the ruling. Evensen, for his part, publicly said that Jaffee should be awarded the gold medal, but that never happened. That year he also set a world record in the mile (2:30.6). Jaffee competed again at the 1932 Winter Olympics in

Lake Placid, New York Lake Placid is a village in the Adirondack Mountains in Essex County, New York, United States. As of the 2020 census, the population was 2,303. The village of Lake Placid is near the center of the town of North Elba, southwest of Plattsburgh. ...

. At the time, Jaffee recalled, there were signs in Lake Placid that said "No dogs or Jews allowed". There, he won gold medals in both the 5,000 and 10,000-meter races. In the 10,000-meter race, Jaffee won in a thrilling finish by leaping across the finish line ahead of

Frank Stack Frank Huntington Stack (born October 31, 1937 in Houston, Texas) is an American underground cartoonist and fine artist. Working under the name Foolbert Sturgeon to avoid persecution for his work while living in the Bible Belt, Stack published wh ...

and

Ivar Ballangrud Ivar Eugen Ballangrud (né ''Eriksen'', 7 March 1904 – 1 June 1969) was a Norwegian speed skater, a four-time Olympic champion in speed skating. As the only triple gold medalist at the 1936 Winter Olympics, Ballangrud was the most successful at ...

. In December 1932 his manager has announced that Jaffee, and also

, became professional. Jaffee served on the American board for the Second

Maccabiah The Maccabiah Games (a.k.a. the World Maccabiah Games; he, משחקי המכביה, or משחקי המכביה העולמית; sometimes referred to as the "Jewish Olympics"), first held in 1932, are an international Jewish and Israeli multi-sp ...

, along with

Benny Leonard Benny Leonard (born Benjamin Leiner; April 7, 1896 – April 18, 1947) was a Jewish American professional boxer who held the world lightweight championship for eight years, from 1917 to 1925. Widely considered one of the all-time greats, he was r ...

and

Nat Holman Nat Holman (October 19, 1896 – February 12, 1995) was an American professional basketball player and college coach. He is a member of the Naismith Memorial Basketball Hall of Fame and is the only coach to lead his team to NCAA and National In ...

. During the

Great Depression The Great Depression (19291939) was an economic shock that impacted most countries across the world. It was a period of economic depression that became evident after a major fall in stock prices in the United States. The economic contagio ...

, the unemployed Jaffee ended up on bread lines and was forced to

pawn Pawn most often refers to: * Pawn (chess), the weakest and most numerous piece in the game * Pawnbroker or pawnshop, a business that provides loans by taking personal property as collateral Pawn may also refer to: Places * Pawn, Oregon, an his ...

his Olympic and other medals for $3500. He obtained a job on

Wall Street Wall Street is an eight-block-long street in the Financial District of Lower Manhattan in New York City. It runs between Broadway in the west to South Street and the East River in the east. The term "Wall Street" has become a metonym for t ...

, he tried to redeem his medals, but the pawn shop went out of business, meaning that he never saw the medals again. In 1934, he worked as Winter Sports Director at

Grossinger's Catskill Resort Hotel Grossinger's Catskill Resort Hotel was a resort in the Catskill Mountains in the Town of Liberty, near the village of Liberty, New York. One of the largest Borscht Belt resorts, it was a kosher establishment that catered primarily to Jewish client ...

, and set a world record there by skating 25 miles in 1:26:01. breaking the 30-year-old record by five minutes. Jaffee appeared in a full-page ad for

Camel cigarettes Camel is an American brand of cigarettes, currently owned and manufactured by the R. J. Reynolds Tobacco Company in the United States and by Japan Tobacco outside the U.S. Most current Camel cigarettes contain a blend of Turkish tobacco and Virg ...

in 1934, entitled "It Takes Healthy Nerves for Jaffee to be the World's Champion Skater; Steady Smokers Turn to Camels". Jaffee was elected to the United States Skating Hall of Fame in 1940 and the

International Jewish Sports Hall of Fame The International Jewish Sports Hall of Fame ( he, יד לאיש הספורט היהודי, translit=Yad Le'ish HaSport HaYehudi) was opened July 7, 1981 in Netanya, Israel. It honors Jewish athletes and their accomplishments from anywhere around ...

in 1979. He died in San Diego in 1981.

References

External links

Harold and Meir Ribalow, "Irving Jaffee: Olympian Speedster", Jewsinsports.com HickokSports.com profile, with photo
{{DEFAULTSORT:Jaffee, Irving 1906 births 1981 deaths Sportspeople from the Bronx American male speed skaters Speed skaters at the 1928 Winter Olympics Speed skaters at the 1932 Winter Olympics Olympic gold medalists for the United States in speed skating American people of Russian-Jewish descent Jewish American sportspeople Medalists at the 1932 Winter Olympics DeWitt Clinton High School alumni 20th-century American Jews

Early life

Career

See also

References

External links