By Satish Sekar © Satish Sekar (August 18^th 2020)

Another Club Football Olympiad

Paris’ first Modern Olympic Games in 1900 was the first to feature football. It was a far cry from modern football – even at the Olympic Games. It was at best a demonstration sport, rightly without medals.

The 1904 competition in St Louis, Missouri, in the USA, was little better. No European teams attended St Louis’ Olympiad. In fact, only three teams participated – again clubs rather than nations – but two other Canadian teams were due to participate but withdrew at the last minute.

Meanwhile, international football was well established across the Atlantic Ocean. The USA and Canada had played each other as nations in the 19^th Century – the 1880s. Argentina and Uruguay had also played internationals.

British teams had played internationals, so had Austria and Hungary and so had the founder members of FIFA, so there were plenty of teams with international experience. The reasons that the Olympic Games Football Tournament was still a club competition remains a mystery.

Nevertheless, that Olympic Games Football Tournament should have been bigger. Two Canadian clubs, Berlin Rangers and the University of Toronto, had also been due to compete in St Louis but the latter withdrew after losing a regional competition to Galt FC and Berlin Rangers pulled out as they could not afford to take part. 

Competition

Canada’s Galt FC beat the US teams, Christian Brothers College and St Louis’ own St Rose Parish, scoring 11 without conceding. Galt walloped Christian Brothers College 7-0 on November 16^th 1904. The thrashing included the first hat-trick[1] in an Olympic Games Football Tournament.

St Rose Parish were beaten 4-0 by Galt the following day. That left no doubt about the champions, but what about the minor medals? The first match between the American clubs ended 0-0 on November 20^th, so a replay was required – this was before penalty shoot-outs. Three days later Christian Brothers College beat St Rose Parish 2-0 to take second place.

Recognition

While the IOC recognise both competitions, FIFA, rightly, does not, as none of the participants in either of these Olympiads were national teams.

Consequently, neither Paris’ first Olympiad, nor St. Louis’ can be considered football World Championships of any description.

They were not even World Championships for clubs. But there were more sinister aspects to the 3^rd Olympiad of the modern era than its football competition.

The South African ‘Team’

An important development in the event in Missouri, passed largely unnoticed. St Louis’ Olympic Games was the first Olympiad to feature African athletes. The Tug-of-War team – the officially entered competitors – were eliminated quickly.

However, others competed by accident. The marathon runners Len Taunyane, Jan Mashiane and Robert Harris were in St Louis for other reasons – they were part of the shamefully racist Louisiana Purchase Exposition.

The Boycott

Taunyane, Mashiane and Harris were in St Louis, Missouri for the Exhibition. They were persuaded to run the Marathon when the Tswana men were noticed by Olympic Games organisers and asked to compete.

Taunyane and Mashiane were described as savages throughout and they were only recruited when seen at a running event at the Exposition and persuaded to run in the Olympic Games too – the organisers of the Exposition had blackmailed the IOC into moving the Olympic Games from Chicago to St Louis. It needed athletes but treated both them and black spectators appallingly – Apartheid before it had the name.  

Importantly, Taunyane and Mashiane were black. It should be noted that the racism of the American organisers of the Exposition was outrageous, as spectators were racially segregated – St Louis’ black community organised a boycott over it and also helped mistreated black African participants in the Exposition to escape from it, securing accommodation and work for them.

So, St Louis’ Olympic Games was appalling. It should be labelled the Apartheid Games. Nevertheless, the Tswana Marathon runners have an important place in African Olympic history. But rather than celebrate their Olympic achievement, South Africa’s government at the time compounded the racism.

The Homecoming

After the Olympic Games, the colonial government of the region – it was under British rule then – objected to any reference of Taunyane and Mashiane having represented South Africa in the Olympic Games.

A year later their participation was denounced by the colonial administration and a decision was taken that no black, or non-white athletes would be allowed to compete in the Olympic Games for South Africa again.

But racism was not reserved for foreigners at St Louis’ Olympic Games – the spectators were segregated too and conditions for non-white participants at the related Exposition was disgraceful as were the beliefs of the organisers in St Louis – people who should never have been allowed anywhere near the Olympic Games.

Despite the shocking racism of the Exposition organisers, which spilled over into St Louis’ Olympic Games, Taunyane has secured his place in the history of the Olympic Games. Like it or not, he was the first African to complete an Olympic Games Marathon. Nothing can change that.

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[1] It was scored by a Scottish emigré, Alexander Hall. He died in Toronto in 1943 aged 62.