Turning the pages back... September 7, 1936 (09/03/00)

Turning the pages back...

September 7, 1936

This newspaper recently focused on the Ukrainian Diaspora Olympiad held in the Philadelphia area over the Fourth of July holiday weekend. Our reports both prior to and after the sports event noted that this was the third such mega-meet and that all three were held in and around Philadelphia.

The first Olympiad was held 64 years ago, on September 7, 1936. The Weekly of June 12, 1976, published an article by Walter N. Nackoney titled "The First Ukrainian Olympiad." Following are excerpts from that op-ed article, written on the 40th anniversary of the landmark event.

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With a general awakening of a Ukrainian consciousness in the early 1930s and with the rise of the Ukrainian youth movement, a unique event was conceived, developed and staged in Philadelphia, Pa., on Labor Day, September 7, 1936, known as the First Ukrainian American Olympiad.

Under the encouragement and guidance of Dr. Walter Gallan and the late Stephen Shumeyko, who was then a pioneering editor of The Ukrainian Weekly, a youth committee was formed in Philadelphia to plan a wide program of athletic events to be held in conjunction with the convening of the Fourth Ukrainian Youth Congress in 1936.

Representatives of various youth clubs in Philadelphia met and formed the First Ukrainian American Olympiad Committee. ...

Preparations began in early 1935 by planning a Field Day for July 1935. It was held on Malendevich's Farm and Picnic Grove in Blackwood, N.J. All Philadelphia clubs were invited to come and compete in a variety of athletic contests. This event was to serve as a lead-up for 1936 event. It was staged under very modest, but enthusiastic conditions.

A primitive 220-yard track was laid out in a flat area of a field for the running events. Anticipating more than the usual number of spills because of the rough race course, a young local physician, Dr. Peter W. Romanow, later to become an outstanding orthopedic surgeon of the Philadelphia area, volunteered to be on hand to attend to athletic casualties. ...

As the concept of the Ukrainian American Olympiad was further publicized in the coming months, a number of other preparatory local meets in Ukrainian communities in the eastern part of U.S. were reported. The goal of the committee was to offer as many types of athletic contests as possible, besides the standard track and field events. Therefore, as part of the projected program, plans were made to include swimming meets, volleyball, baseball and a Ukrainian folk dancing contest.

An official sanction was obtained from the Middle Atlantic Association of the Amateur Athletic Union of the U.S., and the track events were considered as Ukrainian American championship events. A section of the program was set aside for American competitors from AAU clubs who were invited to take part in the Ukrainian Olympiad.

On the day of the First Ukrainian American Olympiad a large crowd of spectators came out to watch the activities at Northeast High School Field. ...

Included in all the goings-on were about 100 athletes from various American clubs as guest competitors in events which ran parallel to the Ukrainian events. As for the Ukrainian events, there were over 150 boys and girls, mostly of high school age, who took part in the competition.

The Ukrainian organizations which sent athletes to Philadelphia to represent their clubs were as follows: Ukrainian Softball League of Toronto, United Young Organizations of Detroit, Tridents of New York City, Brameruks of Brooklyn, N.Y., New York Ukrainian A.C., Ukrainian A.C. of Bayonne, N.J., Ukrainian A.A. of Trenton, N.J., St. Josaphat's Catholic Athletic Club of Frankford, Pa., Ukrainian Social Club of Elizabeth, N.J., "Rochester Ukrainians" of Rochester, N.Y. "Newark Ukes" of Newark, N.J., Ukrainian Cultural Center of Philadelphia, Ukrainian A.C. of Philadelphia and the Ukrainian Catholic Schools of Palmerton, Pa.

... The whole tone of the First Ukrainian American Olympiad in its uniqueness, was characterized by the message printed on the Olympiad program as follows:

"We wish to thank our American athletes and friends for coming and helping us to celebrate our first great athletic event - an Olympiad in every sense of the word - which is being held in conjunction with our Fourth Ukrainian Youth Congress.

"This is a joyous occasion for all of us! Meeting on the common grounds of athletics as we do, and keeping abreast with creative international athletic activity, we feel certain that we have much to offer to each other.

"The Ukrainians, the youngest generation in the panorama of the American scene, through the medium of its recently initiated youth movement, have produced three great Olympians - Kojac, Halaiko, Fick (Note: Ukrainian American athletes who were then members of the U.S. Olympic Team). And considering the number of near Olympian caliber, only the future knows how many more will be produced."

At the time of the first Ukrainian American Olympiad there was some hope that regular athletic activity on a national scale could be patterned after the German "Turngemeinde Society" and the Slovak "Sokols," which were well-established athletic organizations with a national identification.

An Ukrainian athletic union embracing all Ukrainian youth groups, affiliated with the AAU of the U.S., was within the realm of possibility along with a Second Olympiad.

Of course, by the time of the next international Olympic Games scheduled for 1940, such plans were out of the question. The disruptions that ensued because of wartime conditions brought to a standstill many Ukrainian youth activities. As the United States was drawn into the war, Ukrainian Americans responded universally to the war effort. The young men of the Ukrainian communities, with typical ardor and great patriotism, were absorbed in large numbers into the armed forces of United States and, thus, a whole generation of youth left a scene which was never to be quite the same again.

Source: "The First Ukrainian Olympiad" by Walter N. Nackoney, The Ukrainian Weekly, June 12, 1976.

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