Henry Norwood "Barney" Ewell (1918-1996)
Lancaster, Lancaster County, Pennsylvania
Marker Inscription
A graduate of McCaskey High School and Penn State Univ., Ewell was one of the world's leading sprinters and long jumpers in the late 1930s and 40s. Cancellation of the 1940 and 1944 Olympics during WWII prevented Ewell from competing in his prime. He maintained his conditioning and at age 30 matched the world record in the 100-meter dash at the Olympic Trials. He competed in the 1948 Olympics in London and won a gold and two silver medals.
Erected by Pennsylvania Historical and Museum Commission
The Story
Barney Ewell of Lancaster was one of the fastest men alive in the years when there were no Olympics to prove it—the 1940 and 1944 Games were cancelled by World War II, robbing him of his athletic prime. A star at McCaskey High School and Penn State, he refused to quit, and in 1948 at age thirty he tied the world record in the 100 meters at the U.S. Olympic Trials. At the London Games that summer he came home with a gold and two silver medals.
Why it matters
Ewell's persistence embodies a generation of American athletes whose careers were interrupted by war, and his triumph at the 1948 Games marked the return of Olympic competition to a recovering world.
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Related people
- · Henry Norwood "Barney" Ewell
Related events
- · 1948 Summer Olympics
Themes & tags
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