Josiah McCracken

Josiah McCracken

athletics
silver	1900	Shot put
bronze	1900	Hammer throw

Josiah Calvin McCracken (born March 30, 1874 in Lincoln , Tennessee , † February 15, 1962 in Chestnut Hill , Philadelphia , Pennsylvania ) was an American athlete and surgeon who was successful in the shot put and hammer throw and in the late 19th century Headed various medical schools in the 20th century.

Life

Josiah McCracken was the son of Isaac Lawrence McCracken and Ella Watson Steward. In 1896 he began to study medicine at the University of Pennsylvania , after which he worked for two years in the surgical outpatient department of St. Luke's Hospital at Columbia University in New York and for a few years at the University Hospital of Pennsylvania as an assistant doctor. As the son of a Presbyterian minister in Kansas , Christianity was an essential part of his life. At Columbia University he was appointed chairman of the Christian Association there and later general secretary of the Young Men's Christian Association. Finally, the Penn's Christian Association sent him to China in 1907, where he founded a Christian medical school attached to the college in Canton . In the following years he trained Chinese doctors and took care of the establishment and expansion of training centers. From 1907 to 1913 he served as President of the University Medical School in Canton and from 1914 to 1942 as Dean of the newly founded Pennsylvania Medical School of St. John's University in Shanghai . In 1942 he and his wife were deported to the USA by the Japanese occupiers and accepted the post of Chief Resident Physician at the Pennsylvania Hospital in Philadelphia . After the end of the war, he returned to China and became dean of St. John's Medical School, which he continued to campaign for even after he left his professional life until the school was taken over by the communists in 1952.

Josiah McCracken has received numerous academic awards and was a. a. Member of the American College of Surgeons.

He died in 1962 at the age of 87.

successes

Four IC4A championships:

• 1898: Shot put 13.32 m, hammer throwing 45.54 m

At the AAU Championships in the same year he reached 2nd place with the ball (42-7) and 3rd place with the hammer (132-8)

• 1899: Shot put 12.81 m, hammer throwing 43.92 m

Olympic Games 1900 in Paris:

• Shot put: Silver with 12.85 m behind Richard Sheldon (gold with 14.10 m) and in front of Robert Garrett (bronze with 12.35 m)
• Hammer throw: bronze with 43.58 m behind John Flanagan (gold with 51.01 m) and Truxtun Hare (silver with 46.26 m)

In 1898 he set a world record with 46.84 m, which he lost to John Flanagan that same year.

Web links

• http://www.archives.upenn.edu/histy/people/1800s/mccracken_josiah.html ( Memento from February 4, 2008 in the Internet Archive )
• Josiah McCracken in the Sports-Reference database (English; archived from the original )