Glenn Edgar Morris (June 18, 1912 â€" January 31, 1974) was a U.S.
track and field athlete. He won a gold medal in the Olympic decathlon
in 1936, setting new world and Olympic records. He was also an
occasional actor, he portrayed Tarzan in Tarzan's Revenge.Born on his
family's homestead farm near Simla, Colorado, Morris was the second of
seven children. A natural athlete whose record in the 220-yard (201 m)
hurdles stood for forty years at his high school, Morris entered
Colorado Agricultural College (now Colorado State University) at Fort
Collins in 1930, and became a star athlete, excelling in several
sports and being named All-American in track and field. Working as an
assistant coach and automobile salesman after graduation in 1934 (with
degrees in economics and sociology), Morris began training as a
decathlon athlete in hopes of competing in the 1936 Olympics.In the
U.S. Olympic track and field trials for 1936, Morris scored a new
world record of 7,880 points, earning him Newsweek's sobriquet "the
nation's new Iron Man." Morris broke his own world record, and the
Olympic record, in the Berlin games, with a decathlon score of 7,900
points. It was said that Adolf Hitler never left his seat while Morris
was competing, and that the Germans thereafter offered Morris $50,000
to stay in Germany and appear in sports films, an offer Morris
refused.
track and field athlete. He won a gold medal in the Olympic decathlon
in 1936, setting new world and Olympic records. He was also an
occasional actor, he portrayed Tarzan in Tarzan's Revenge.Born on his
family's homestead farm near Simla, Colorado, Morris was the second of
seven children. A natural athlete whose record in the 220-yard (201 m)
hurdles stood for forty years at his high school, Morris entered
Colorado Agricultural College (now Colorado State University) at Fort
Collins in 1930, and became a star athlete, excelling in several
sports and being named All-American in track and field. Working as an
assistant coach and automobile salesman after graduation in 1934 (with
degrees in economics and sociology), Morris began training as a
decathlon athlete in hopes of competing in the 1936 Olympics.In the
U.S. Olympic track and field trials for 1936, Morris scored a new
world record of 7,880 points, earning him Newsweek's sobriquet "the
nation's new Iron Man." Morris broke his own world record, and the
Olympic record, in the Berlin games, with a decathlon score of 7,900
points. It was said that Adolf Hitler never left his seat while Morris
was competing, and that the Germans thereafter offered Morris $50,000
to stay in Germany and appear in sports films, an offer Morris
refused.
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