Allie Morrison

Allie Morrison, 1928

Alvin "Allie" Roy Morrison (born June 29, 1904 in Marshalltown , Iowa , †  April 18, 1966 ) was an American wrestler . He was Olympic champion in the Olympic Games in Amsterdam in 1928 freestyle featherweight.

Career

Allie Morrison attended high school in his hometown of Marshalltown and then the University of Illinois . He had already started wrestling in Marshalltown. He also won several national free style competitions there. In 1924 he took part in the US elimination for the Olympic Games in Paris in featherweight. He suffered a defeat there in the final battle and did not qualify for the US Olympic team. Allegedly, this defeat should have been the only one in his whole wrestling career.

In 1926 he was the first American featherweight champion. He repeated this title win in 1927 and 1928. In 1928, the first US student championships (NCAA Championships) took place, but he could not participate because he was preparing for the Olympic Games in Amsterdam .

In Amsterdam he won the gold medal in featherweight freestyle wrestling with victories over Petrus Bressnink, Belgium , Hans Minder , Switzerland , and Kustaa Pihlajamäki , Finland . This win was his only one in an international championship. But that was mainly due to the fact that there were still no world championships in which he could have participated. World championships in freestyle wrestling for amateurs were not introduced until 1951.

In 1929, Allie Morrison sustained a severe vertebral injury that forced him to give up wrestling. He switched to coaching and until his retirement was a coach at several universities and high schools, such as Omaha Central High School, the University of Nebraska and Pennsylvania State University. He was a soldier from 1943 to 1945.

International success

• 1928, gold medal at the Summer Olympics in Amsterdam , free style, featherweight (up to 61 kg body weight), with victories over the Belgian Petrus Bressnink, the Swiss Hans Minder and the Finn Kustaa Pihlajamäki

swell

• Athletics magazine from 1928,
• Documentation of International Wrestling Championships , FILA, 1976,
• Website "www.wrestlingmuseum.org" archive link

Web links

• Portrait of Allie Morrison in Engl. language
• Allie Morrison in the Sports-Reference database (English; archived from the original )