Glenn Edgar Morris (June 18, 1912 – January 31, 1974) was a

U.S. The United States of America (U.S.A. or USA), commonly known as the United States (U.S. or US) or America, is a country primarily located in North America. It consists of 50 states, a federal district, five major unincorporated territori ...

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 eve ...

athlete. He won a gold medal in the Olympic decathlon in

1936 Events January–February * January 20 – George V of the United Kingdom and the British Dominions and Emperor of India, dies at his Sandringham Estate. The Prince of Wales succeeds to the throne of the United Kingdom as King E ...

, setting new world and Olympic records. He attended Colorado A&M — now known as Colorado State University — and played football as well as

. He was also an occasional actor, he portrayed

Tarzan Tarzan (John Clayton II, Viscount Greystoke) is a fictional character, an archetypal feral child raised in the African jungle by the Mangani great apes; he later experiences civilization, only to reject it and return to the wild as a heroic adv ...

in ''

Tarzan's Revenge ''Tarzan's Revenge'' is a 1938 American adventure film starring Glenn Morris in his only outing as Tarzan. Eleanor Holm, a popular swimming star, co-starred as Eleanor Reed. The film was produced by Sol Lesser, written by Robert Lee Johnson an ...

''.

Biography

Born on his family's homestead farm near

Simla, Colorado Simla is a statutory town in Elbert County, Colorado, United States. It is northeast of Colorado Springs. The population was 601 at the time of the 2020 United States Census. History Simla was founded in 1909 by a man with the name of Altman ...

, Morris was the second of seven children. A natural athlete whose record in the hurdles stood for forty years at his high school, Morris entered Colorado Agricultural College (now Colorado State University) at

Fort Collins A fortification is a military construction or building designed for the defense of territories in warfare, and is also used to establish rule in a region during peacetime. The term is derived from Latin ''fortis'' ("strong") and ''facere'' ...

in 1930, and became a star athlete, excelling in several sports and being named

All-America The All-America designation is an annual honor bestowed upon an amateur sports person from the United States who is considered to be one of the best amateurs in their sport. Individuals receiving this distinction are typically added to an All-Am ...

n in track and field. Working as an assistant coach and automobile salesman after graduation in 1934 (with degrees in economics and sociology),''Do You Know About—Former Athlete Glenn Morris'', Colorado State University Athletics News, February 4, 2009 Morris began training as a decathlon athlete in hopes of competing in the 1936 Olympics. In the U.S. Olympic track and field trials for

, Morris scored a new world record of 7,880 points, earning him

Newsweek ''Newsweek'' is an American weekly online news magazine co-owned 50 percent each by Dev Pragad, its president and CEO, and Johnathan Davis, who has no operational role at ''Newsweek''. Founded as a weekly print magazine in 1933, it was widely ...

's sobriquet "the nation's new Iron Man." Morris broke his own world record, and the Olympic record, in the Berlin games, with a decathlon score of 7,900 points. It was said that

Adolf Hitler Adolf Hitler (; 20 April 188930 April 1945) was an Austrian-born German politician who was dictator of Nazi Germany, Germany from 1933 until Death of Adolf Hitler, his death in 1945. Adolf Hitler's rise to power, He rose to power as the le ...

never left his seat while Morris was competing, and that the

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thereafter offered Morris $50,000 to stay in Germany and appear in sports films, an offer Morris refused. German

filmmaker Filmmaking (film production) is the process by which a motion picture is produced. Filmmaking involves a number of complex and discrete stages, starting with an initial story, idea, or commission. It then continues through screenwriting, castin ...

and documentarian

Leni Riefenstahl Helene Bertha Amalie "Leni" Riefenstahl (; 22 August 1902 – 8 September 2003) was a German film director, photographer and actress known for her role in producing Nazi propaganda. A talented swimmer and an artist, Riefenstahl also became in ...

claimed in her memoirs that during and after the 1936 Olympics, she had an affair with Morris, which she ended because of a very disparaging report about him that was given to her by a

graphologist Graphology is the analysis of handwriting with attempt to determine someone's personality traits. No scientific evidence exists to support graphology, and it is generally considered a pseudoscience or scientifically questionable practice. Howe ...

. Riefenstahl also claimed that the affair began when, after winning the gold medal, he tore off her blouse and kissed her breasts, in front of the audience of 100,000 people. In reality, Morris merely received his medal and laurel from Hitler's mistress

Eva Braun Eva Anna Paula Hitler (; 6 February 1912 – 30 April 1945) was a German photographer who was the longtime companion and briefly the wife of Adolf Hitler. Braun met Hitler in Munich when she was a 17-year-old assistant and model for his ...

in an otherwise standard ceremony.Chapman, Mike (2003) ''The Gold and the Glory: The Amazing True Story of Glenn Morris, Olympic Champion and Movie Tarzan''. Culture House Books Morris' success at the 1936 Olympics resulted in a brief flurry of fame, including a

New York City New York, often called New York City or NYC, is the most populous city in the United States. With a 2020 population of 8,804,190 distributed over , New York City is also the most densely populated major city in the Un ...

ticker-tape parade and a statewide Colorado celebration. He received the 1936

James E. Sullivan Award The AAU James E. Sullivan Award, presented by the Amateur Athletic Union (AAU), is awarded annually in April to "the most outstanding amateur athlete in the United States". Representatives from the AAU created the AAU Sullivan Award with the int ...

as the top amateur athlete in the United States, and he had a short stint as an

NBC The National Broadcasting Company (NBC) is an American English-language commercial broadcast television and radio network. The flagship property of the NBC Entertainment division of NBCUniversal, a division of Comcast, its headquarters are l ...

radio commentator.Doria, Richard Paul Jr. (1980) ''A Brief History of the American Olympic Decathlon Gold Medalists—Traits and Characteristics: 1912–1976'', Western Illinois University. In November 1937,

Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer Studios Inc., also known as Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer Pictures and abbreviated as MGM, is an American film, television production, distribution and media company owned by Amazon through MGM Holdings, founded on April 17, 1924 ...

released the ten-minute short film "Decathlon Champion: The Story of Glenn Morris," depicting how he trained for and won the decathlon event. Morris portrayed himself in the film, before becoming the fourth Olympic athlete to play

. He appeared in only one Tarzan film, ''

'' (1938), an inexpensive independent film produced by

Sol Lesser Sol Lesser (February 17, 1890 – September 19, 1980) was an American film producer. He received a star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame in 1960 and was awarded the Jean Hersholt Humanitarian Award in 1961. Biography In 1913, while living in San F ...

and released by

Twentieth Century Fox 20th Century Studios, Inc. (previously known as 20th Century Fox) is an American film production company headquartered at the Fox Studio Lot in the Century City area of Los Angeles. As of 2019, it serves as a film production arm of Walt Dis ...

. Reviews for the film cited both the silliness of the production and the exaggerated acting of the theatrically untrained Morris (though Variety called him "a highly acceptable Tarzan"). After only one minor additional film role, in the 1938 comedy "Hold That Co-ed," Morris left the movie business forever. Morris played four games with the Detroit Lions of the

National Football League The National Football League (NFL) is a professional American football league that consists of 32 teams, divided equally between the American Football Conference (AFC) and the National Football Conference (NFC). The NFL is one of the ...

(NFL) in

1940 A calendar from 1940 according to the Gregorian calendar, factoring in the dates of Easter and related holidays, cannot be used again until the year 5280. Events Below, the events of World War II have the "WWII" prefix. January * Januar ...

before injury curtailed this new career, then worked as an insurance agent. 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 opposing ...

, he served as an

officer An officer is a person who has a position of authority in a hierarchical organization. The term derives from Old French ''oficier'' "officer, official" (early 14c., Modern French ''officier''), from Medieval Latin ''officiarius'' "an officer," f ...

in the

U.S. Navy The United States Navy (USN) is the maritime service branch of the United States Armed Forces and one of the eight uniformed services of the United States. It is the largest and most powerful navy in the world, with the estimated tonnage o ...

and was stationed in the Pacific, commanding amphibious-assault landing craft. Reportedly wounded, Morris was treated for psychological-trauma issues and spent several months in a naval hospital.

Later life

Following his release from duty, Morris worked for a dozen years in construction and as a steel rigger for the Atomic Energy Commission. Subsequently, he may have worked off and on as a parking lot attendant, and he was rumored to have been an alcoholic. He lived out his last years mostly in

Menlo Park, California Menlo Park is a city at the eastern edge of San Mateo County within the San Francisco Bay Area of California in the United States. It is bordered by San Francisco Bay on the north and east; East Palo Alto, Palo Alto, and Stanford to the south ...

, and as a patient in veterans hospitals. Too ill to attend his induction into the

Colorado Sports Hall of Fame The Colorado Sports Hall of Fame (CSHoF) is a hall of fame and museum that honors — by public acknowledgment or commemoration — individuals who merit recognition and distinction for their exploits, accomplishments, and leadership in spo ...

in 1967, where he was proclaimed "the world's greatest athlete," Morris nevertheless donated his Olympic gold medal to the Hall. The medal was subsequently given, along with Morris's other memorabilia, to Simla High School, which gives an annual Glenn Morris Award for athletic and academic excellence; the school, in turn, donated the medal in April 2011 to Colorado State University, the successor to Morris' college alma mater, where it is displayed in the 1926 field house named in his honor. At age 61 in 1974, Morris died of congestive heart failure "and other complications" at the veterans hospital in

Palo Alto, California Palo Alto (; Spanish for "tall stick") is a charter city in the northwestern corner of Santa Clara County, California, United States, in the San Francisco Bay Area, named after a coastal redwood tree known as El Palo Alto. The city was es ...

, and was buried in Skylawn Memorial Park in nearby San Mateo.Douglas County (Colorado) News-Register, February 3, 1974 He was married from 1937 to 1940 to Charlotte Edwards, whom he had met in college.

Books

* In 2003, author Mike Chapman wrote “The Gold and The Glory: The Amazing True Story of Glenn Morris, Olympic Champion and Movie Tarzan”. The foreword was written by Bob Mathias, Olympic decathlon champion in 1948 and 1952, and the book has over 120 photos, ranging from Morris's high school days up through college, the Olympics, Hollywood and his service as a Naval officer in World War II. * A 2013 novel ''Olympic Affair'' was published by Terry Frei which he depicts the life of Morris, and Frei imagines what the affair with

was like.

References

Bibliography

* Riefenstahl, Leni (1995), ''Leni Riefenstahl'', Picador

External links

Glenn Morris
at the

Colorado Encyclopedia All except one (New York) are free and deal with a state of the United States. See also * List of online encyclopedias {{Lists of encyclopedias Online state encyclopedias Online state encyclopedias Online state encyclopedias Wi ...

Glenn Morris
at the Colorado State University Athletics Hall of Fame * * * * {{DEFAULTSORT:Morris, Glenn 1912 births 1974 deaths American male film actors American male decathletes United States Navy personnel of World War II James E. Sullivan Award recipients Athletes (track and field) at the 1936 Summer Olympics People from Menlo Park, California Players of American football from California Sportspeople from the San Francisco Bay Area Track and field athletes from California 20th-century American male actors Medalists at the 1936 Summer Olympics Olympic gold medalists for the United States in track and field People from Elbert County, Colorado Track and field athletes in the National Football League Colorado State Rams men's track and field athletes Colorado State Rams football players Detroit Lions players United States Navy officers Military personnel from California Military personnel from Colorado