Ivies in Montreal Recap (1976)

1976 Montreal Summer Games
6,189 Athletes, 93 Countries, 198 Events

Swimming experienced significant change in Montreal with world records broken in 21 of 26 events. Ivy Leaguer Robert Hackett (Harvard '79) was part of this onslaught of the record books. In the 1500-meter freestyle, Hackett posted a time of 15:03.91. His time beat the world record going into the race (15:06.66), and bested the gold medal time from the 1972 Munich Games by nearly 50 seconds. Yet fellow American Brian Goodell, who posted a time of 15:02.40, beat him.

Frank Shorter (Yale '69) won the marathon at the 1972 Munich Games. In the four years since, Shorter was busy becoming a lawyer while still training attempting to see where his running career would 'level off.' From about the 15-mile mark onwards, Shorter was either in the lead or neck-and-neck with East German Waldemar Cierpinski. Cierpinski referred to Shorter as his 'idol as a marathon runner.' Shorter could not hold on to the very end Cierpinski won gold by a little less than a minute. Shorter would go on to become a lawyer, and an Olympic commentator for NBC. He also started his own sportswear line, Frank Shorter Sports.

Among the 38 Ivy Leaguers in Montreal were Marion Greig (Cornell '76), Anita DeFrantz (Penn), Carol Brown (Princeton '75), and Anne Warner (Yale '77). All four women were in the United States eight-oared boat in the first year that women's rowing was an official Olympic event. They managed a third-place finish. But more importantly, they were making strides in establishing gender equality. Earlier in the year at Yale, Warner was part of a protest by the Yale women's crew team in hopes of getting adequate facilities comparable to that of the men's team and upholding the four-year old Title IX. The protest was led by Warner's teammate and fellow Olympian, Chris Ernst '76, and received national attention. Many years later, it was subject of a documentary, 'A Hero for Daisy.'