Bob Mathias
The "World's Greatest Athlete", Bob Mathias, was born four years after Roscoe Bartlett. Mathias won the Olympic decathlon in the 1948 games in London when he was just 17 years old. After the gold medal, he enrolled at Stanford where he played fullback. He once returned a Frank Gifford kickoff 96 yards for a touchdown and led his team to the 1951 Rose Bowl. The following year he won a second gold medal in the decathlon at the Helsinki Olympics.
After graduating from Stanford, Mathias was drafted by the Washington Redskins, but never played professional football. Instead, he toured the globe for the State Department as a Good Will Ambassador. In 1966, he won the first of four terms as a Congressman from California. Bob Mathias died two years ago.
Bookmark/Search this post with:
