Golden Opportunities

This summer, the Olympic Games will take place in Paris—just as they did a century ago—and members of the Osborn family will be there to honor their ancestor’s triumph.

At the 1924 Games, Harold Osborn ’22 ACES, a high school teacher and former Illini track star, leaped to the pinnacle of his track-and-field career, earning a gold medal in the high jump and, just days later, another gold in the decathlon. In all of Olympic history, no athlete has won gold in the same Games in the decathlon and another event, a distinction that earned Osborn being named the “greatest athlete in the world” by an admiring press. All this, despite being blind in one eye.

In his 22 years of competition (1917 to 1939), Osborn took home a slew of accolades, including another Olympic medal—this time a silver in the high jump—in the 1928 Olympics. His achievements include six world records and 17 national titles, induction into the National Track and Field Hall of Fame and the Illinois Athletics Hall of Fame, international championships, and a stint as a University of Illinois assistant track coach in the 1940s. But in his personal life in Champaign, Illinois, he remained a modest osteopathic physician whose daughters, oblivious to their father’s fame, played with his tributes in a self-styled “trophy club” in the attic. Only his beautiful Olympic certificates were openly displayed in the waiting room of the doctor’s office he had established on the first floor of his house.

“He was not the kind of person to brag,” said Susan Osborn Jones ’69 LAS, the youngest of “Doc’s” four daughters. “I think we learned [about his feats] after he was gone. . . . When we were growing up, the trophies and the medals were just things that we played with.”

The sisters—Carol Osborn Grimm ’55 ED; the late Roberta Osborn Huneryager; Elizabeth Osborn, MS ’73 AHS; and Susan—all attended Illinois and gradually came to understand the scope of their father’s accomplishments, as well as the contributions of their mother, Margaret Bordner Osborn ’32 LAS, whom Harold courted via long-distance letters during his competitive years on the track circuit. Beginning in the 1980s, Margaret began donating various family memorabilia to the university; over the years, the daughters decided that the best place to assemble the treasured items in one place was the Student Life and Culture (SLC) Archives, which welcomed the artifacts with open arms.

“We’re just really excited,” said Ellen Swain, MS ’95 LIS, head archivist at SLC. “It’s been a joy to work with the family. And it’s such a rich resource for 1920s student life and Olympic history.”

The materials include track and Olympic medals; Osborn’s black book detailing his personal and career statistics; photos, clippings, and certificates; a track uniform and shoes; and a flapper dress that Margaret bought in Paris while on a U of I study trip.

Perhaps most touching, however, is the trove of more than five dozen love letters that Harold wrote to Margaret in the 1920s. (After Margaret died, her daughters found them in a shoebox in her closet.) Each missive addresses Margaret with a different endearment—including one in which the Olympian called her “someone more precious than gold.”

“It’s so wonderful to have it all together,” Swain said of the rich conglomeration of Osborn materials, both personal and professional. “The context . . . just tells an amazing story, both of her life and his.

“Researchers will benefit from these materials for years to come.”

In conjunction with the opening of the 2024 Paris Olympics, the Library is coordinating with the Osborn family to host a webinar on July 25 about Harold Osborn’s accomplishments. The occasion may be attended in person or via live stream. Please watch for event details on the Library’s website at go.library.illinois.edu/calendar.

In addition, this fall the Main Library will mark another significant 1924 event—100 years in its present location. As part of that Nov. 15 celebration, the Osborn collection will also be featured.