View source for James Brendan Connolly

{{short description|American triple jumper}}
{{Other people|James Connolly|James Connolly (disambiguation)}}
{{Infobox sportsperson
| headercolor = #cccccc
| birth_name = James Brendan Bennet Connolly
| name = James B. Connolly
| image = James Brendan Connolly, 1906 1.JPG
| caption = Connolly in 1906
| country = {{USA}}
| sport = [[Athletics at the Summer Olympics|Athletics]]
| birth_date = October 28, 1868
| birth_place = [[Boston, Massachusetts]]
| death_date = {{death date and age|1957|1|20|1868|10|28}}
| death_place = [[Brookline, Massachusetts]]
| height = 5 ft 8+1/2 in
| weight = 159 lb
| pb = 
| website = 
| medaltemplates = {{MedalSport  | Men's [[Athletics at the Summer Olympics|athletics]]}}
{{MedalCountry | the {{USA}} }}
{{MedalCompetition | [[Olympic Games]]}}
{{MedalGold   | [[1896 Summer Olympics|1896 Athens]] | [[Athletics at the 1896 Summer Olympics – Men's triple jump|Triple jump]]}}
{{MedalSilver | [[1896 Summer Olympics|1896 Athens]] | [[Athletics at the 1896 Summer Olympics – Men's high jump|High jump]]}}
{{MedalSilver   | [[1900 Summer Olympics|1900 Paris]] | [[Athletics at the 1900 Summer Olympics – Men's triple jump|Triple jump]]}}
{{MedalBronze | [[1896 Summer Olympics|1896 Athens]] | [[Athletics at the 1896 Summer Olympics – Men's long jump|Long jump]]}}
| show-medals = yes
}}

'''James Brendan Bennet Connolly''' ({{langx|ga|Séamas Breandán Ó Conghaile}}, October 28, 1868 &ndash; January 20, 1957) was an American [[Athletics (sport)|athlete]] and author. In 1896, he became the first modern [[Olympic Games|Olympic]] champion.<ref>{{cite web|url=http://www.olympic.org/james-connolly|title=James CONNOLLY|publisher=Olympic.org|access-date=September 23, 2013}}</ref><ref>{{cite web|url=https://www.olympedia.org/athletes/78257 |title=James Brendan Connolly |work=Olympedia |access-date=20 December 2020}}</ref>

== Early life ==
Connolly was born to poor [[Irish people|Irish]] immigrants from the [[Aran Islands]], fisherman John Connolly and Ann O'Donnell, as one of twelve children, in [[South Boston, Massachusetts]]. Growing up at a time when the parks and playground movement in Boston was slowly developing, Connolly joined other boys in the streets and vacant lots to run, jump, and play ball.

He was educated at Notre Dame Academy and then at the Mather and Lawrence grammar school, but never went to high school. Instead, Connolly worked as a clerk with an insurance company in [[Boston, Massachusetts|Boston]] and later with the [[United States Army Corps of Engineers]] in [[Savannah, Georgia]].

His predisposition to sport also became apparent. Calling a special meeting of the Catholic Library Association (CLA) of Savannah in 1891, he was instrumental in forming a [[American football|football]] team. Soon thereafter, Connolly was elected captain of the CLA Cycling Club and aggressively sought to promote the sport on behalf of the Savannah Wheelmen.

Altogether dissatisfied with his career path, Connolly sought to regain the lost years of high school through self-education. In October 1895, he sat for the entrance examination to the [[Lawrence Scientific School]] and was unconditionally accepted to study the classics at [[Harvard University]].

== Olympic Games ==
[[Image:BASA-3K-7-422-18-1896 Summer Olympics.jpg|thumb|Connolly at the 1896 Olympics]]

After the creation of the [[International Olympic Committee]] in 1894 the first modern edition of the [[Olympic Games]] were scheduled for April 6 to 15, 1896 in [[Athens]], [[Greece]]. Connolly decided to participate, and submitted a request for a leave of absence to the Chairman of the Harvard University Committee on the Regulation of Athletic Sports and was denied. According to Connolly himself, he was informed that his only course of action would be to resign and make a reapplication to the college. Connolly then claimed to have replied:

<blockquote>I am not resigning and I'm not making application to re-enter. I'm getting through with Harvard right now. Good day!</blockquote>

It is unclear whether this really happened. Harvard records do show a request by Connolly for a leave of absence to Europe, which was denied. Connolly then requested an honorable withdrawal as a student, which was granted on March 19, 1896.

Representing the [[Suffolk Athletic Club]], which paid for most of Connolly's expenses (Connolly later claimed he paid it all himself), he left for Greece on a German freighter, the ''Barbarossa'', along with most of the rest of the first American Olympic team. After arriving in [[Naples]], Italy he was robbed and almost lost his ticket to Athens. He managed to retrieve it only after a pursuit against the robber. Finally he took the train to Athens, arriving there just in time for the Games.

The first final on the opening day was the [[triple jump]] (then known as the ''hop, skip and jump''), one of the events in which Connolly competed. Connolly's style, taking two hops with the right foot, is no longer allowed in this event but was perfectly acceptable in 1896. With this style, he outjumped the field, finishing more than one meter ahead of his nearest opponent by jumping {{convert|13.71|m|ftin|abbr=on}} 11 3/4 in), earning him the first silver medal (gold medals did not yet exist). With this performance, he became the first Olympic champion since AD 385, when the Athenian [[Aurelios Zopyros|Zopyrus]] won the [[pankration]] (other sources name the Armenian [[Varasdates]], who won at [[boxing]] in 369).

He went on to take second place in the [[high jump]] ({{convert|1.65|m|ftin|abbr=on|disp=semicolon}}) tying with [[Robert Garrett]] behind [[Ellery Clark]], and third place in the [[long jump]] ({{convert|5.84|m|ftin|abbr=on|disp=semicolon}}). Back home in Boston, Connolly was welcomed enthusiastically, and was presented a gold watch by the citizens of South Boston.

Connolly competed at the [[1906 Intercalated Games|1906 Olympics]] in the Triple Jump and Long Jump.<ref>Wayback Machine. [https://web.archive.org/web/20161203013420/http://www.sports-reference.com/olympics/athletes/co/james-b-connolly-1.html//] Retrieved Sept 11, 2021</ref>

Connolly would also visit the [[1900 Summer Olympics|second edition of the modern Olympics]], held in [[Paris]]. There, he failed to retain his title in the triple jump, losing to compatriot [[Meyer Prinstein]].

In the 1984 [[NBC]] [[miniseries]] ''[[The First Olympics: Athens 1896]]'', he was portrayed by [[David Caruso]]. Contrary to what is portrayed in the film, Connolly did not emigrate to America from Ireland.

[[Connollystraße]] in [[Munich]] is notably associated with the [[1972 Summer Olympics]] and the tragic events of the [[Munich Massacre]]. It was on Connollystraße 31, within the Olympic Village, where members of the Israeli Olympic team were taken hostage by the Palestinian terrorist group Black September. The street is named in his honour. Thus, it holds both historical significance for its namesake and somber relevance due to its connection to the 1972 tragedy.<ref>{{cite book |last=Marcovitz |first=Hal |date=April 2002 |title=The Munich Olympics |url=https://archive.org/details/municholympics00marc|url-access=registration |page=[https://archive.org/details/municholympics00marc/page/31 31] |quote=James b connolly connollystrasse munich. |publisher=Chelsea House Publications |isbn=978-0791069110 }}</ref>

== Writer ==
The [[1904 Summer Olympics]] were also attended by Connolly, but as a journalist, not as an athlete. Earlier, he had already published his accounts of the [[Spanish–American War]] in the ''[[Boston Globe]]'' as ''Letters from the Front in [[Cuba]]''. He served there in the Irish 9th Infantry of Massachusetts.

Connolly became an authority on maritime writing, after spending years on many different vessels, fishing boats, military ships all over the world. In all, he published more than 200 short stories, and 25 [[novel]]s. Furthermore, he twice ran for [[Congress of the United States]] on the ticket of the [[Progressive Party (United States, 1912)|Progressive Party]], but was never elected.

He never returned to Harvard, but received an honorary athletic sweater in 1948. A year later, he was offered an honorary doctorate by Harvard University, which he turned down. He was a member of the [[National Institute of Arts and Letters]].<ref name=cne>{{Cite Collier's|wstitle=Connolly, James Brendan|short=x}}</ref> Connolly died in [[New York City]] at the age of 88. A collection of items related to Connolly, including his triple jump silver medal, is housed in the library of [[Colby College]] in [[Maine]].

==Schooner championship==
Connolly was a crew member of the victorious schooner [[Esperanto (schooner)|''Esperanto'']] in 1920, during the first International Fishing Schooner Championship Races in [[Halifax Regional Municipality|Halifax, Nova Scotia]]. He wrote of this in ''Collier's Weekly'' on December 25, 1920, and in ''The Book of the Gloucester Fishermen'', published in 1927.

==Politics==
In 1912, Connolly was the Progressive nominee for Congress from South Boston and Dorchester.<ref>{{cite news|title=A Great American James B. Connolly
|url=https://newspapers.bc.edu/?a=d&d=bcheights19510202.2.42&e=-------en-20--1--txt-txIN-------|access-date=17 Aug 2021|last=Donovan|first=Jim|work=The Heights|date=2 Feb 1951|volume=XXXII|issue=16}}</ref> He was defeated by incumbent Congressman [[James Michael Curley]].

When Curley resigned to become Mayor of Boston in 1914, Connolly ran again in the special election to replace him, but finished third behind [[James A. Gallivan]] and Republican Frank Brier. He died in 1957 at 88.

== References ==
* ''Seaborne: Thirty years avoyaging'', by James B. Connolly, 1944.
* [https://web.archive.org/web/20030527174654/http://209.204.62.73/SportsLibrary/JOH/JOHv8n1/johv8n1f.pdf ''The first Olympic champion'', by Rusty Wilson, 2000. Appeared in the ''Journal of Olympic History, January 2000'']
* "The unexpected Olympians: How Harvard dominated the first modern games—in spite of itself", by Jonathan Shaw, 1996. Appeared in ''Harvard Magazine'', January 1996.
* [https://web.archive.org/web/20030506013708/http://rms-republic.com/connolly.html "'The English as poor losers' and other thoughts on the modernization of sport. The literary works of James Brendan Connolly", by Ralph C. Wilcox, 1997. Appeared in ''The Sports Historian'', May 1997.]

==Novels==
Connolly's novels include<ref name=cne />
* ''Out of Gloucester'' (1902)
* ''The Deep Sea's Toll'' (1905)
* ''The Trawler'' (1914)
* ''Running Free'' (1917)
* ''The U-Boat Hunters'' (1918)

== Notes ==
{{Reflist}}

==External links==
{{wikisource|works=or|James Brendan Connolly}}
{{Commons category}}
* {{Team USA Hall of Fame|new_id=james-connolly|name=James Connolly|old_id=James-Connolly|archive=20230720072402}}
* {{Olympedia|name=James B. Connolly}}
* {{Olympics.com}}
* [http://www.irishheritagetrail.com/neighborhoods/loc_12.php A statue of James B. Connolly in South Boston]
* [http://www.colby.edu/academics_cs/library/special/james-brendan-connolly-page.cfm James Brendan Connolly Collection, Colby College]
* [http://www.colby.edu/colby.mag/issues/85n2/spec1.html Colby Magazine article on Connolly's Olympic medal, May 1996]
* {{Gutenberg author |id=5241| name=James Brendan Connolly}}
* {{Internet Archive author |sname=James Brendan Connolly |sopt=t}}
* {{Librivox author |id=1221}}
* [https://web.archive.org/web/20070927210126/http://twelch.htohananet.com/ First International Fishing Schooner Championship]

{{Footer Olympic Champions Triple Jump Men}}
{{Authority control}}

{{DEFAULTSORT:Connolly, James Brendan}}
[[Category:1868 births]]
[[Category:1957 deaths]]
[[Category:20th-century American novelists]]
[[Category:American athlete-politicians]]
[[Category:American men high jumpers]]
[[Category:American male journalists]]
[[Category:American men long jumpers]]
[[Category:American people of Irish descent]]
[[Category:American men triple jumpers]]
[[Category:Athletes (track and field) at the 1896 Summer Olympics]]
[[Category:19th-century American sportsmen]]
[[Category:Athletes (track and field) at the 1900 Summer Olympics]]
[[Category:Athletes (track and field) at the 1906 Intercalated Games]]
[[Category:Harvard John A. Paulson School of Engineering and Applied Sciences alumni]]
[[Category:Olympic bronze medalists for the United States in track and field]]
[[Category:Olympic gold medalists for the United States in track and field]]
[[Category:Olympic silver medalists for the United States in track and field]]
[[Category:Track and field athletes from Boston]]
[[Category:People from South Boston]]
[[Category:American military personnel of the Spanish–American War]]
[[Category:American male novelists]]
[[Category:American male short story writers]]
[[Category:Medalists at the 1900 Summer Olympics]]
[[Category:Medalists at the 1896 Summer Olympics]]
[[Category:20th-century American short story writers]]
[[Category:Journalists from New York City]]
[[Category:20th-century American male writers]]
[[Category:Novelists from New York (state)]]
[[Category:20th-century American non-fiction writers]]
[[Category:Olympic men high jumpers]]
[[Category:Members of the American Academy of Arts and Letters]]
[[Category:Harvard Crimson men's track and field athletes]]
[[Category:Candidates in the 1914 United States House of Representatives elections]]
[[Category:20th-century American sportsmen]]