Members of the Boston Athletic Association Olympic Team, Athens, Greece, 1896. Thomas Burke is second from the left in the back. | Photo courtesy of Boston Public Library

Looking Back

First Olympic Gold

On the 125th anniversary of the first modern Olympic Games, BU Law celebrates Thomas Burke (Class of 1897), who won gold medals in the 100-meter and 400-meter dash.

April 6, 2021 marks the 125th anniversary of the first modern Olympic Games. From April 6 through April 15, 1896, 241 athletes from 14 countries competed in 43 events. The following article, celebrating the success of BU Law alum Thomas Burke (Class of 1897) at those games, has been adapted from the fall 1996 issue of the Boston University School of Law alumni magazine.

In 776 BC Emperor Theodosius of Greece suppressed the ancient practice of the Olympic Games as part of a greater effort to abolish all remnants of paganism in his country. Fifteen hundred and two years later, the games were brought back to life in the city of Athens in a momentous celebration of international friendship, sportsmanship, and participation. Thomas Edmund Burke, BU Law Class of 1897, applied for permission from Dean Edmund H. Bennett to take a six-week leave of absence from the School of Law in 1896. He wished to join the Boston Athletic Association’s team that would participate in these first modern Olympic Games. Bennett gave his blessing and Burke went on to win two gold medals.

Our modern version of the Olympic athlete—trained and coached almost since birth, survivor of the most grueling of competitive processes—bears small resemblance to those eager young men who ventured off to Athens in 1896 to participate in the first modern Olympiad.

Thomas Edmund Burke was an avid runner and gifted member of the Boston Athletic Association (BAA). The BAA organized an impromptu team for those first Olympics including Tom Burke, sprinter; Arthur Blake, middle- and long-distance runner; Ellery H. Clark, a star jumper; Thomas P. Curtis, hurdler; John and Sumner Paine, revolver shooters; W.H. Hoyt, pole vaulter; G.B. Williams, swimmer; and John Graham as coach. Four juniors and a coach from Princeton University formed another team, and from Harvard University, James B. Connolly determined to go on his own.

These first Olympic competitions were modeled on the ancient games of Athens, but much of the organization evolved on an ad hoc basis. Teams were drawn from England, France, Germany, Denmark, Hungary, Switzerland, and Greece. The American group took passage by ship from New York to Naples, attempting to remain as fit as possible by exercising on deck. They arrived in Athens the day before the games were to begin. Athens was in a frenzy of festivity—the opening of the games coincided with Greek Easter Sunday, Western European Easter Sunday, Greek Independence Day, and the announcement by Princess Marie of her betrothal to Grand Duke George of Russia. The Greeks paraded their foreign guests through the streets, toasting them at every corner. Needless to say, the athletes faced the first day of the Games somewhat exhausted—apparently their hosts did not understand the concept of being “in training.”

To accommodate this first Olympiad, the Greeks constructed a grand new stadium in the classical style. On opening day, the stadium filled to overflowing, with crowds estimated between 80,000 and 120,000, according to John MacAloon’s history of the event, The Great Symbol. An equal number gathered on the surrounding hills. “Until it [the number] was surpassed four days later—the day of the Marathon—it was one of the largest single assemblies for a peaceful celebration ever gathered in the modern world. It is hard for us, who are used to such crowds, to imagine the impression made by such a mass of humanity, all the more so since it was the spirit of participation that drew them,” notes MacAloon. “We are helped by recalling that Athens had at the time a population of scarcely 130,000. An entire city had been practically emptied, transported, and reassembled. It was, the official report repeated, ‘a magic spectacle.’”

Through the following days, the small collection of enthusiastic American athletes, cobbled together to represent their country in what came to be an extraordinarily significant international event, walked away with nine of the twelve medals in track and field events. According to John Kiernan and Arthur Daley, in their historical review, The Story of the Olympic Games, “Tom Burke romped away with the finals in the 100-meter dash and the 400-meter run. Lean, lanky Tom was entirely too fast for his field.” Curtis won the 110-meter hurdles, Hoyt took the pole vault. E.H. Clark won both the running high jump and the running broad jump, and Connolly took a great lead in the hop, step, and jump.

Bob Garrett of Princeton had decided before he left the US that he might enter the discus throwing for the sport of it. Having had little or no practice, Garrett flubbed his first two throws, but astounded the crowd with a third throw that went far beyond that of the Greek champion. He went on to win the shotput with equal ease. His astonishing feats were later attributed to his athleticism and use of the full force and weight of his body in the throw. The traditional Greek discus throw was done with the arm alone.

The final day of the track and field events was reserved for the marathon, a competition of truly great significance for the Greeks—particularly because they had failed to take a single victory thus far. Twenty-five contestants began the race in the little village of Marathon, where the Persians had fled in 490 BC. Among those contestants was an unknown Greek shepherd, Spyridon Louis, who saved the day with a tremendous victory for Greek endurance.

The victories the American sportsmen carried home inspired great enthusiasm for expanded competition in the United States. BAA Olympic team manager John Graham decided to organize a Boston marathon. The first Boston Marathon was inaugurated one year later, on the 19th of April 1897. BAA runner and Olympic champion Thomas Burke, about to receive his law degree from Boston University, served as starter for that first field of 15 marathon runners. What had begun as an impromptu expression of sportsmanship and enthusiastic sense of adventure in 1896, ultimately inspired generations of American athletes to carry on traditions of victory and goodwill.