About the 1968 U.S. Olympic Team Oral History Project
The H.J. Lutcher Stark Center for Physical Culture and Sports (Stark Center), a recognized research center at the University of Texas at Austin, is a library, archive, and exhibition space dedicated to documenting, preserving, and sharing the history of physical culture and sports. In 2011, the International Olympic Committee officially designated the Stark Center an Olympic Studies Center (OSC), recognizing the Center’s commitment to promote public and scholarly debate on the Olympic Movement. With great pride, the Stark Center announces its first academic project: a comprehensive oral history of the 1968 U.S. Olympic Team.
In September 2010, Tom Lough, who competed on the 1968 U.S. Olympic Team in modern pentathlon, approached the Center to explore forming a partnership to preserve the legacy of the 1968 U.S. Olympic Team. Lough and the Stark Center staff determined that the first step in securing this legacy would be to create a repository of oral histories of 1968 team members. To that end, Dr. Thomas M. Hunt created a team of interested graduate students, providing them oral history training and background information on the 1968 Olympic Games. This group is now conducting interviews of those 1968 U.S. Olympic Team members who wish to contribute their memories to a permanent archive.
Many historians believe the 1968 Olympic Games in Mexico City were among the most culturally significant in the modern history of the Olympic Movement. In addition to serving as the first Olympic Games to be held in Latin America and the first to include testing for performance-enhancing drugs, the 1968 Games are considered one of the apogees of the Civil Rights Movement. Indeed, these are the broad themes explored by most historians. Missing in this historical scholarship, however, are the individual experiences of each athlete. The preservation of those experiences therefore serves as the primary purpose of the 1968 U.S. Olympic Team Oral History Project. In doing so, the Project will:
1. Record the words of each participating team member as a service to that individual and his or her family and descendants.
2. Accumulate material for historical research and teaching.
3. Provide members of the general public a prism through which to contemplate the Olympic Movement at a nuanced, personal level.
4. Inspire the youth of the world by exploring Olympism, a philosophy that places sport in service to peace, promotes the harmonious development of humankind, and champions the preservation of human dignity.
Over the past several months, the Center staff has completed a series of pilot interviews. Using feedback from these interviews, the Center staff, with assistance from Tom Lough, has refined the process. We have now expanded the project to include any Team member, coach or official who wishes to participate.
Through the oral history interview process, we seek to preserve the personal experiences and reflections of individual Team members, in particular, those that have not been previously documented or revealed through traditional historical research. This oral legacy will be valued by historians, researchers, and students—by anyone who recognizes and respects the demanding path to excellence.
Contact Us
Have feedback or comments?Interested in getting involved? Do you have information to contribute to the project? Please contact us using one of the methods below and we will get back to you as soon as possible.
Email: info@starkcenter.org
Phone: (512) 471-4890
Important Documents
Use the links below to download required documents and forms (PDF format)
