On a recent episode of Newman University’s “The Newman Bond” podcast, which features professional speakers, alumni, students and other members of Newman’s network, Director of Annual Giving Laura Hartley chatted about a few lesser-known Kansas sports icons.
Hartley is especially equipped to talk about such icons. In addition to growing up loving and playing sports, she also worked at the Kansas Sports Museum in Wichita for 10 years, where she helped tell the story of Kansas sports figures, including those many people don’t know about.
Janell (Smith) Carson
First up on the episode, Hartley introduced listeners to Janell (Smith) Carson, who has the distinction of being the only female athlete from Kansas to ever be on the cover of Sports Illustrated.
“They wrote about her experiences being a track star in a world where women just did not compete that much in sports,” Hartley explained.
At the age of 15, during her time at Fredonia High School, Carson set new American records in the 220- and 440-yard dash. She also represented the United States at the 1964 Olympic Games in Tokyo at age 17, as well as won two gold medals at the World Games in San Paulo, Brazil.
“People just loved her,” Hartley said. “She was a hometown hero if there ever was one.”
Margaret Thompson Murdock
Hartley also discussed Margaret Thompson Murdock, who started shooting competitively at the age of 11. It’s a sport she first got into because her father taught all his kids to shoot on their family farm outside Topeka.
Murdock eventually became the first woman ever on the U.S. Olympic shooting team and the first woman to win a medal in shooting at the Olympic Games. She was also the first female to win an individual open World Shooting Championship. In international competition, Murdock set four individual world records and nine team world records.
During the 1976 Olympics, Murdock tied for gold with her team captain Lanny Bassham. He requested a shoot-off, but the Olympics wouldn’t allow it, and he ended up winning on a technicality. During the national anthem, Bassham pulled Murdock up to stand with him on the podium’s gold medal spot.
“I think this just shows how much comradery is in high-level sports,” Hartley shared. “Regardless of race, religion, class and sex, if you’re competing at that level, you really have respect for each other.”
Pete Mehringer
To wrap up the podcast episode, Hartley chatted about Kansas wrestler Pete Mehringer. He grew up as the youngest of 10 children in Kinsley, Kansas.
“Pete decided to learn to wrestle really out of self-preservation,” Hartley shared. “He would get beat up by his older brothers, and he decided he was fed up with that so he learned how to defend himself.”
Mehringer saved up $3 and sent off for a correspondence course that promised to teach him how to wrestle in six easy lessons. Later as a high school student, he would become a world-class wrestler, winning two state championships.
Hartley shared a story about the second state championship Mehringer won. His hometown was nearly 200 miles from Manhattan, where the state tournament was held. Neither the school nor his family had the money to send him to the tournament, so he hitchhiked. After his big win, he hitchhiked all the way back home so he could return to school and get his chores done.
“Nowadays that would seem kind of crazy, but for the 1930s, it was just what Pete had to do,” Hartley said. “And again, this just shows the determination that some of these people have to be the best.”
Mehringer also won three Missouri Valley Conference titles while attending the University of Kansas and a gold medal at the 1932 Olympic Games as a sophomore student, becoming the first Kansas University athlete to ever have won an Olympic gold medal.
To learn more about these fascinating Kansas sports figures, check out the rest of Hartley’s podcast episode.
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