THE 2024 Paris Olympics will dominate the headlines, be they online, on air or in paper, but 100 years ago, The Northern Echo confined its coverage to a couple of columns hidden away in the sports pages.
Its report of the opening ceremony on July 5, 1924, concentrated on a concerning “cracking noise” which “heralded the imminent collapse” of the judge’s grandstand at the newly built Colombes Stadium.
“To the great amusement of the crowd, an elderly and dignified official was suddenly precipitated from his vantage point to the ground – luckily a distance of only four feet,” said the Echo. The poor fellow was so shaken by his ejection that he was unable to carry on.
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The only time that the Olympics made the front page was when the tennis scandal broke out, with the players criticising the facilities, especially the lack of water for drinking or washing.
There was just “two trickling shower-baths” for the women players who were then struck down by “maidenly embarrassment” as a “squad of French carpenters” overtook their dressing rooms for a day while they were playing.
Tennis, which had been played at every games since 1896, was already at loggerheads with the International Olympic Committee over the “amateur” status of its players and whether Wimbledon should be cancelled during Olympic years. After the scandal, tennis was kicked out of the games and was not re-admitted until 1988.
Most of the Echo’s headlines on the sports pages concern the progress of Harold Abrahams as he went through the heats to win the 100 metres gold – and for his story to be made into the Chariots of Fire film.
But several headlines also told how a local hero – the greatest Olympian ever produced by Teesside or the Tees Valley – was doing.
He was Jack Hatfield, definitely the greatest swimmer of his generation, possibly of all-time.
His father, Tom, was known as “Professor Hatfield”. In the summer of 1893, just months before Jack was born, Tom was serving on his fruit stall on Coatham Pier, at Redcar, when he heard two people struggling in the sea, so he dived in and rescued them. He was awarded a medal, and capitalised on his fame by touring the area with Professor Hatfield’s swimming exhibition.
A couple of years later, Professor Hatfield was appointed superintendent of Middlesbrough Corporation Baths in Gilkes Street (now beneath Captain Cook Square), and young Jack took to the baths like a fish to water. He trained there, as well as in the Tees, in Smith’s Dock, in the Albert Park boating lake and, when on holiday, in a flooded quarry at Ayton.
He was one of the first to employ the “Trudgen crawl”, with the arms coming out of the water, accompanied by a powerful scissor kick of the legs. He began winning titles across Durham and North Yorkshire from 1907, and, only, he was the youngest swimmer selected for the 1912 Olympics - largely so he could gain experience.
Yet, unexpectedly, he stole the Stockholm show.
He finished with two silvers and a bronze – half of all the medals Britain won in the pool in those Games, and the last Olympic swimming medals that Britain would win for more than 50 years.
He returned home to Middlesbrough to be greeted by 20,000 people at the station who carried shoulder-high to his charabanc, while a band struggled to make heard its rendition of See the Conquering Hero Comes above the cheering cacophony.
He opened a sports shop to capitalise on his success, and one of his most popular lines was the daring cotton costume, without arms and legs, to which he attributed his Olympic success.
Jack broke more records and won national titles in 1913, but instead of competing in Berlin at the 1916 Olympics, he was on the Somme fighting against Germany with the Royal Artillery – he’d joined as a saddler, possibly because, as the proprietor of a sports shop, he had experience with leather goods.
He would have been at the peak of his physical powers, but the war blew away his chances of Olympic gold, although at least he survived – his elder brother, Tom, was killed in the trenches in 1916.
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In peacetime, Jack camped out in the Cleveland Hills in a bid to rebuild his body, but at the 1920 Antwerp Olympics, he fell short. In the heats of the 400m and 1,500m he came third, swimming more than a minute slower than he had eight years earlier. He failed to qualify even for the semi-finals.
But he continued to work hard, and he continued to win English championships. Still the country’s best swimmer, he had to go to the 1924 Olympics in Paris, although expectations were not high.
Yet he did great. After his first event, the 1,500m, the Echo’s headline said: “Hatfield swims remarkably well and enters final.”
In the final, he swam 30 seconds faster than he had 12 years earlier in Stockholm, yet times had moved on, and he finished fourth, seven seconds behind the bronze medal winner.
A couple of days later came his second event, the 400m. "Hatfield," said the Echo of the 30-year-old, "though not so good as he once was, swam exceedingly well in the semi-final, and as the fastest loser, qualified for the final. He will not win, but he may be in excellent form and run very near to the great Australian and American cracks."
The Echo was right. Jack came fifth, nearly 30 seconds behind the American crack, Johnny Weissmuller.
This was Weissmuller’s first of five Olympic golds. He is one of the greatest swimmer of all time, setting 67 world records and never losing a race. And, of course, when he retired he starred as the central character in 12 Tarzan movies, even creating the famous Tarzan yell (although there are many competing claims to its creation).
In 1928, Jack, now 35, was selected for his fourth Olympics, this time in Amsterdam. He came second in his 400m heat, but rather than pursue a solo medal, he opted to play in a water polo match, scoring Britain’s only goal as they were drubbed 7-1 by France.
That was the end of a remarkable Olympic career, and Jack’s swansong was carrying the flag at the head of the England team at the inaugural Empire Games in Canada in 1930.
He remained big box office in his home area, appearing in the Big Swims in the Tees, at Stockton, which were organised by The Northern Echo in the early 1930s and were watched by crowds of thousands.
The 1934 Tees Big Swim was one of 41-year-old Jack Sr’s last major trophies. He devoted more time to his iconic shop and from 1952, he was a director of Middlesbrough Football Club.
He died in 1965. An obituary described him as “possibly the most popular man on Teesside”. As well as the three Olympic medals and the four Olympic Games, he won 42 English championships, set four world records and three English records, was the centre forward of England’s water polo team for 12 years and was installed in the Swimming Hall of Fame in Fort Lauderdale in 1984.
All that, yet the First World War robbed him of his finest years.
READ MORE: THE 55-YEAR-OLD WHO BECAME THE FIRST MAN FROM DARLINGTON TO WIN AN OLYMPIC GOLD
- The famed Jack Hatfield Sports Shop closed in 2018
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