The 1908 Olympic Games

The 1908 Olympic Games were controversial. There was almost constant bickering among the American team and the British officials. Because of the controversies, the 1908 Olympics have been termed “The Battle of Shepherd’s Bush,” referring to the site of the Olympic Stadium. Reports of the 1908 Olympics have been rare and do not for instance contain full results for archery, track and field athletics, football (soccer), gymnastics, motorboating and shooting. A great deal of new information has been discovered by the authors, and this work gives complete results for all events.
The information presented is based primarily on 1908 sources. For the first time, definitive word on the sites, dates, events, competitors, and nations as well as the event results are available for all of the 1908 Olympic events, including boxing, cycling, diving, fencing, field hockey, lacrosse, polo, raquets, swimming, lawn tennis, tug-of-war, weightlifting, wrestling and yachting, among other sports. A series of appendices include rarely seen information about the many controversies surrounding the Games.

Bill Mallon is a co-founder and vice-president of the International Society of Olympic Historians (ISOH) and the original editor of the Journal of Olympic History. He is a surgeon in Durham, North Carolina.
The late Ian Buchanan was president of the International Society of Olympic Historians and lived in Norwich, England.

Bill Mallon and Ian Buchanan
Format: softcover (7 x 10)
Pages: 536
Bibliographic Info: maps, facsimiles, tables, statistics, references, appendices, notes, index
Copyright Date: 2009 [2000]
pISBN: 978-0-7864-4068-9
eISBN: 978-1-4766-0952-2
Imprint: McFarland
Series: History of the Early Olympics

Introduction      ix

Abbreviations and Usage Notes      xi

References      xv

1908 Olympic Games—Background      1

NOTES      17

Summary and Statistics      18

NOTES      36

Archery      39

NOTES      43

Athletics (Track & Field)      44

NOTES      101

Boxing      116

NOTES      121

Cycling      122

NOTES      138

Diving      141

NOTES      146

Fencing      147

NOTES      166

Figure Skating      168

NOTES      174

Football (Association Football) [Soccer]      175

NOTES      179

Gymnastics      180

NOTES      187

Hockey (Field)      189

NOTES      193

Jeu de Paume (Tennis [Court/Real Tennis])      194

Lacrosse      197

NOTES      199

Motorboating      200

NOTES      204

Polo      205

NOTES      207

Racquets      208

NOTES      211

Rowing & Sculling      212

NOTES      218

Rugby Union Football      219

NOTES      221

Shooting      222

NOTES      238

Swimming      242

NOTES      254

Tennis (Lawn)      256

NOTES      267

Tug-of-War      268

NOTES      271

Water Polo      272

NOTES      275

Wrestling      276

NOTES      292

Yachting      293

NOTES      297

Other Sports and Events      298

NOTES      303

Appendix I: The 1908 Olympic Program      305

Appendix II: Controversies and Protests      313

Appendix III: The British and American Responses to “The Battle of Shepherd’s Bush”      327

Appendix IV: Maps of Olympic Sites      407

Appendix V: Music—“Dorando” by Irving Berlin      411

Appendix VI: Competitors (by Country)      417

Notes      484

Index      487

“a great deal of new information has been discovered by the authors…an interesting book that will prove to be an asset to libraries and devotees of the Olympic Games”—ARBA; “an invaluable, addition to any library, public or private, with a collection relating to the Olympics”—Journal of Olympic History; “well organized…a mine of factual detail and a useful summary of the controversies that led to an improved organization for the Stockholm games in 1912”—The International Journal of the History of Sport.