Nipper in the Sands of Time

[DoubleRBar]

Happy 91st birthday today (Thursday) to an Olympic champion who grew up on a farm and won the Olympic gold medal at the age of 29.

Our birthday athlete weighed about 128 pounds when winning this Olympic championship.

A pilot during World War II, this athlete competed in two Olympic Games.

One of the brothers of our birthday person also competed in the Olympics.

Lillian and our birthday athlete celebrated 65 years of marriage in June of 2010.

The indoor facility at our birthday person's alma mater is named for this Olympic champion.

Born on a Tuesday, this athlete was not the favorite going into the Olympic Games competition.

There were about 36 in the graduating class at Collegeville High School when our birthday champion graduated from high school.

Golf has been a favorite activity of this person during the past several years.

I could give it away by saying that our birthday athlete's father graduated from the same university in 1914. Or I could talk about the FBI, the Sullivan Award, and the fact that this gold medalist climbed Ayers Rock.

Don't forget the hurdles and name this champion.

[mcgato]

Re: Nipper in the Sands of Time

Horace Aschenfelter? Not sure if I spelled that right. I know he was in the FBI, so that fits. He was a steepler, so that fits.

I ran the Aschenfelter 5M race in NJ a few times. It is on Thanksgiving day.

I hope I'm right after writing all of that.

edit: got his first name wrong initially

[KDFINE]

Re: Nipper in the Sands of Time

"Nip" should have been a give away even for me.

[DoubleRBar]

Re: Nipper in the Sands of Time

Very good, mcgato and happy birthday today to Horace "Nip" Ashenfelter. If you don't know (and you should), Ashenfelter won the steeplechase in the 1952 Helsinki Olympic Games. That was the first Olympic tour that Track and Field News conducted. I am not sure, but Mrs. Ashenfelter (his wife, Lillian) might have been on that tour. At least she sat in the stands near the TFN tour group.

Two days before the steeplechase final, Lillian told Horace that she was pregnant. The rest is history.

Ashenfelter and his father both graduated from Penn State University.

KDFINE knew his famous nickname, "Nip", which came from a comic strip in the newspapers way back when.