- Allen Stack
Allen McIntyre Stack (
January 23 ,1928 inNew Haven, Connecticut –September 12 ,1999 inHonolulu, Hawaii ) was aU.S. backstroke swimmer , who won the 100m Backstroke at the1948 Summer Olympics inLondon . From 1948 to 1951, during and after his college days, Stack broke six world and 22 American records in the backstroke.Stack was educated at
Deerfield Academy before graduating fromYale University in 1949, spent 1951 to 1954 in the Navy and graduated fromColumbia University Law School in 1956. He moved to Honolulu and practiced law there until 1998.At six feet five inches and 215 pounds, Stack was bigger than most other backstrokers. His stroke was long, looping and seemingly effortless. He would put his arm in the water pull through like a normal backstroker, but as he brought the arm to his side he would bend it a little at the elbow and push with his hands toward his feet. Stack therefore revolutionized backstroke swimming.
In the 100-meter backstroke, Stack also won the gold medal at the
1951 Pan American Games inBuenos Aires . He also won ten national championships. He entered theInternational Swimming Hall of Fame in 1979.In 1952, Stack tried to retain his Olympic title, but just before the event he fell off a motor scooter. Swimming with a bandaged hand, he finished fourth. After the
1952 Summer Olympics , he married Elizabeth Loy Marks of Honolulu.His two Olympics were marked by startling moments. As a friend and former Yale swimmer,
Everett MacLeman , recalled inThe New York Times : "Seconds before the starting gun in the 1948 final, he was in the water and pulled up his trunks. The cord broke and the trunks started to slip off. He hollered to the starter, who let him get out of the water and into new trunks that stayed up, and he became Yale's first-ever Olympic gold medal swimmer."Stack had suffered from
bone cancer for more than a year, before he died in 1999. The illness prevented him from attending the 100th anniversary of Yale swimming.References
* Obituary in
The New York Times , on Sunday, September 19, 1999
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