Al Bates portrait

1928 Amsterdam Olympics

  • NUMBER OF PENN STATERS COMPETING: 3
  • NUMBER OF PENN STATERS IN ALL ROLES: 3
  • NUMBER OF OLYMPIC ALTERNATES: 0

 

After sending a large contingent to the Paris Olympics in 1924, only three people who were or would eventually be affiliated with Penn State made the trip four years later to Amsterdam. Ray Conger was still a decade removed from taking a faculty position at Penn State when he competed in the 1500-meter race on the track. John Romig had graduated seven years prior to his heats in the 10,000-meter race.

Neither Conger nor Romig went far in their events. Conger qualified for the 1500-meter final out of his semifinal heat, but faded to 10th against stronger competition. Romig did not finish the 10,000-meter race, one of four runners who failed to complete the distance.

 

Profile: Al Bates

Al Bates
Al Bates (Pennsylvania State University, Intercollegiate Athletics, Athlete and Athletics personnel files)

That left all hopes for a medal on the shoulders of Al Bates, the Penn Stater who had just exhausted his college eligibility at the time of the 1928 Olympics.

Like the strong group of track and field stars four years earlier, Al Bates worked under Nittany Lions head coach Nate Cartmell prior to making the U.S. Olympic team in the long jump. Leading up to his Olympic journey, Bates boasted back-to-back IC4A titles in the long jump in 1927 and 1928 during his junior and senior seasons.

At the Olympics, Bates jumped 7.40 meters on his first qualifying jump to set the early benchmark for the competition. That mark held up as his best effort in Amsterdam, as Bates finished third in the event behind countryman Ed Hamm and Haiti’s Silvio Cator. His bronze medal was the only hardware won by Penn Staters in the Netherlands.

After the Olympics, Bates continued to compete for the Meadowbrook Club of Philadelphia while beginning his 40-year career as a budget analyst. Bates claimed the title in the AAU outdoor long jump championships in 1930 and 1931. Though he tried to qualify for the 1932 Olympics in Los Angeles, Bates failed to make the team.

 

SOURCES AND ADDITIONAL READING

  • “Al Bates,” Olympedia, https://www.olympedia.org/athletes/78087.
  • “Stella Makes Mark, But Track is Short,” Philadelphia Inquirer, May 31, 1931, S6.
  • “Three World’s Records Fall in Day’s Events,” Lancaster (PA) Intelligencer Journal, August 1, 1928, 11.