USA’s 1st Paris Medalist, All American Notre Dame Football Champion
This is the story of the USA’s first medal winner at the legendary Chariots of Fire/Paris Olympics. Born with a disability that forced him to wear painful metal braces, no one would have imagined the athletic future awaiting Gene. But through grit this crippled bookworm eventually exceeded his wildest dreams, winning an Olympic medal–the USA’s only such medal in a half-century.
Learn the story behind the life of Gene “Kentuck” Oberst, growing up in a Twain-like river town , to his time playing football for a National Championship Notre Dame team. These monumental moments would introduce him to some of the most influential people of his life, people such as the winningest college football coach, Knute Rockne, the unbeatable George “The Gipper” Gipp, the legendary Four Horseman and one of the two founders of football, Alonzo Stag.
Press
NBC NEWS
Diary traces U.S. javelin thrower’s historic path to Olympic glory in 1924
By Corky Siemaszko, July 14, 2024
The stands in the stadium on the outskirts of Paris were packed with fans. The excitement was building. But the strapping 22-year-old American who picked up his javelin and prepared to make history had no problem tuning out the crowd at the Olympic Stadium in Colombes.
Eugene Oberst had played football for the legendary Knute Rockne at Notre Dame before he began chasing Olympic glory. “Almost 40,000 people were in attendance, but crowds never affect me when I am in competition, so I did not pay any attention to them,” Oberst wrote in the journal he kept while competing in the 1924 Olympics. Instead, Oberst got into the zone.
Diary traces U.S. javelin thrower’s historic path to Olympic glory in 1924
CHANNEL 19 NEWS
John Carroll’s Eugene Oberst’s accidental ride to the 1924 Olympics
By Ashley Holder, July 29 2024
Eugene Oberst made Olympic history 100 years ago in Paris, France. At 22, he became the first American to win a medal in the javelin event. The Kentucky native’s throw of 58.35 meters earned him a bronze medal at the 1924 games. Since then, only seven other Americans have medaled in this event.
Video: John Carroll’s Eugene Oberst’s accidental ride to the 1924 Olympics
Cleveland.com
Cleveland family members to trace 1924 Olympian’s journey
By Marc Bona, cleveland.com, July 26 1924
When the javelins slice through the air during the Summer Olympics in Paris, a few Clevelanders at Stade de France might get a bit emotional as the crowd cheers. They will have a connection, but it’s not with anyone on the field in front of them. It’s a bond that goes back 100 years.
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John Carroll
Remembering JCU’s Gene Oberst 100 Years after His Paris Bronze
By Joe Ginley, July 31, 2024
PARIS — Exactly 100 years ago, a young American javelin thrower was making history and rubbing elbows with some of the world’s most legendary athletes in Paris. …
It’s time you met Gene Oberst. His is a tale of a young man who was discovered by the legendary Knute Rockne, leading to a decorated football and track career at Notre Dame. The javelin carried him across the Atlantic to the 1924 Olympics, where he encountered a who’s who of future movers and shakers.
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Heights Observer
Remembering CH’s early Olympians
Robert Oberst, August 31 2016
Several early Olympians once lived in or practiced near Cleveland Heights, within blocks of one another… Three of those Olympians were in the same “Chariots of Fire” Olympics, in Paris in 1924.
Up until 1924, Nordic countries dominated the javelin, winning all the medals at the previous Olympics. Gene Oberst became the first and only American to win a medal (bronze) in the javelin in the first half-century of the Olympic games. This was also America’s first medal at the VIIIth Olympiad, when the stars and stripes flew over Colombes stadium for the first time.
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Chagrin Valley Times
Solon: Man recalls father’s role in ’24 Olympics
By Sue Reid, February 24, 2014
Like many people around the world, Solon resident Robert Oberst is glued to the Winter Olympics each night.
He isn’t just a passing fan, though. The Olympics are a meaningful piece of his past and a large part of his family’s life. That’s because Mr. Oberst’s late father, Eugene, threw the javelin nearly 192 feet to earn a bronze medal in the 1924 Olympics. An all-around sportsman, the elder Mr. Oberst’s medal was earned at the summer games in Paris.
“It was the Chariots of Fire Olympics,” Mr. Oberst explained, “the one they made the movie of.”
His father threw the javelin for the first time by chance while at Notre Dame. He was the 1921 NCAA javelin champion. He was “naturally good at it,” his son explained. He threw as long as 212 feet.
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