Representing your hometown, state, or country in a team is a dream come true for future athletes.
For Tanoh Kpassagnon, an Ambler native and 2012 Wissahickon High School alumnus who was drafted by the Kansas City Chiefs in 2017. It was a dream come true for him to play football in a national level. That team went on to win Super Bowl LIV,
For Katie O'Donnell, a Blue Bell native and 2007 Wissahickon High School alumni, it was competing in field hockey on the world stage. She qualified to play with the US Women's Field Hockey Team at the 2012 London Olympics and then the 2016 Rio Olympics.
Field hockey is an interesting sport. I never knew women didn't start playing field hockey in the Olympics until 1980. I had always thought this sport was only for women, but it turns out it has been played by men for a long time. There were athletes on the men's field hockey 1932 and 1936 teams who were from Ambler and Spring House and also made their debuts on the world stage.
The 1932 Olympics was in the middle of the Great Depression. Due to the worldwide economic crisis, not every country was able to send their teams to the United States. For the field hockey event, only three teams were able to complete: the US (host), Japan, and India. 37 countries were represented in the Olympics with 1,503 athletes and 14 events held.
The International Olympic Committee (IOC) held their meeting in Rome in 1923 to determine the location for the 1932 Summer Olympics. Los Angeles was less known to the world, but it was the only city to make a bid to host the Games. So by default, the city of Angles was chosen for the 1932 Olympics.
Despite facing the Great Depression, the Olympics was a success. At the opening ceremony, over 100,000 spectators were in attendance.
The United States won 103 medals out of 346 medals given.
India took the gold while Japan took silver and the US took bronze in the field hockey event.
Fun Fact #1: The Indian field hockey team faced a problem raising money to afford the trip to Los Angeles. The Indian Hockey Federation was able to raise money by playing at exhibition matches. Their enthusiasm to participate in the Olympics while facing an economic crisis was well-recognized.
Warren Ingersoll - Spring House
Warren "Waddy" Ingersoll (1908-1995) was born in Spring House on March 22, son of Edward (1884-1918) and Emily Norris Vaux Ingersoll (1885-1961). He was the grandson of Francis E. Bond, whose mansion was transformed into the Gwynedd Mercy University.
NOTE: Read more about the Ingersoll family here!
His father died in 1918 of the Spanish Flu after catching it during military service in World War I.
Warren was educated at the St. Paul's School in Concord, NH, and then attended Princeton University where he played football, hockey and baseball. He left Princeton after sophomore year to work on a family railroad in Oklahoma. He did end up graduating in 1931.
A year later, he became a member of the 1932 US Men's Field Hockey Olympics Team, but he was omitted from being listed as one of the medalists.
Despite being omitted, he later led an accomplished life: he moved up the ranks to Major while serving in World War II, won the U.S. Amateur Racquets Championship in 1940, chairman and served as president of the pharmaceutical company F. G. Okie, Inc., and as president of the U.S. Seniors Golf Association.
David McMullin, III - Ambler
David McMullin, III (1908-1995) was born on June 30 in Ambler. He graduated from Episcopal Academy in Newtown Square, PA, and Princeton University one year later to play tennis and soccer.
"I learned hockey by playing something called shinny at The Episcopal Academy here. Now, that was a damn rough game. We'd play it in an enclosed courtyard with sticks and a ball about the size of a squash ball. Went through a pair of sneakers a week."
- Sports Illustrated Vault
David, along with Warren, were part of the 1932 US Men's Field Hockey Olympics Team in Los Angeles where the team earned bronze medals.
"In its first match of the Games, it lost to Japan 9-2. And then the U.S. had to face India, which hadn't been scored on in the 1928 Olympics. McMullin thinks it was Sheaffer who scored the only U.S. goal, although other accounts had a forward named Boddington doing the honors. Sheaffer doesn't remember who scored, although he does recall that Boddington once got to the floor of the Grand Canyon by going hand-over-hand down a water pipe."
- Sports Illustrated Vault
He participated with the field hockey team again in the 1936 in Berlin. Despite losing every match in the 1936 Olympics, David and his teammates shared memories of being on the ship that took them to Germany.
David won both the US and the Canadian doubles squash rackets championship in 1947 with Stanley Pearson, Jr., a fellow Princeton alum.
He lead a successful career after playing in the Olympics. He spent seven years in the US Army reserves, then was transferred to the Navy in 1942. He then served at Wanamaker's for 40 years until his retirement in 1974 and also served as president of the Wanamaker Millrose Track Games.
The 1936 Summer Olympics, also known as the "Popular Olympics" or "People's Olympics," was one of the most recognizable and controversial events in Olympic history. It was considered the first Olympics to face a boycott due to Nazi Germany's fascist ideology, but the boycott movement failed, knowing the actions from Hitler and Nazi Germany.
The International Olympic Committee (IOC) decided to come up with another plan by holding an alternative Olympics. The Catalan government in Spain offered to host an "antifascist Olympics," even though the country was facing conflict at home lead by a Fascist regime.
There were rumors of speculations of unrest of what would happen in Barcelona if the Republican elected Anti-Fascist government were to be overthrow. After the US arrived in Barcelona, they showed no fear about the conflict. When they saw the unrest happening, they helped the civilians fight against the Spanish army, being led by Fascist leader Gen. Francisco Franco. Franco led a Nationalist government fighting to overthrow the recently elected Second Spanish Republic. They were also joined by exiled Germans and Italians. As a result, the coup was defeated, but it began the Spanish Civil War. This lead to the cancellation of the People’s Olympiad, causing the IOC to officially hold the Olympics in Berlin.
The most well-known event in the 1936 Summer Olympics was in track and field where US star Jesse Owens won 4 gold medals.
The Indian Field Hockey Team earned their third consecutive gold medal, defeating Nazi Germany 8-1. Its legendary player and captain was Major Dhyan Chand.
Fun Fact #2: The Indian Field Hockey Team faced media scrutiny after defeating Hungary 4-0. The responses from reports stated, "Most disappointing was revelation that Dhyan Chand, world’s greatest centre forward is past his best days…" and "if Germany wins, it will be a lesson to India that she deserves." Even with the media's criticisms, Germany respected Dhyan Chand and India's performance.
Ellwood Godfrey - Ambler
Ellwood Watson Godfrey (1910-1990) was born in Ambler to Dr. Andrew and Margarett Godfrey on July 17. He was educated at the Lawrenceville School in New Jersey and then attended Princeton University where he graduated in 1933. He followed in his father's footsteps by attending medical school at the University of Pennsylvania in the field of radiology. He earned his degree in 1943.
In 1936, he was a field hockey player for the US Men's Olympics team in the Berlin Olympics.
He continued his medical profession while serving in World War II in the Navy Medical Corps in the South Pacific. He later became the commander in 1946. After the war, he lived in Hartford, CT and later Princeton, NJ, where he continued to practice medicine.
Fun Fact #3: He created the radiology department at the Princeton, NJ Hospital.
Bibliography
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Bond Centennial and Heritage Committee and Marion K. Rosenbaum. Gwynedd-Mercy College. (Charleston: Arcadia Publishing, 2006): 22.
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