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Bio
George Anthony Stanich (born 4 November 1928) was an
American athlete who was a collegiate all-American in one sport,
and Olympian in another and a professional in still
another.
As a basketball player at UCLA, Stanich was a 2-time
all-conference guard and in 1950, he led his team to its first NCAA
tournament appearance. He scored 9 points in the East-West All-Star
Game and was a first-team all-American (as named by Converse), the
first of 24 Bruins who would earn this honor under John Wooden. As
a Bruin baseball player, he was a pitcher for 3 seasons, including
throwing a 5-hit shutout as a sophomore as UCLA beat USC for the
first time in five years. He would become a professional baseball
player after graduation, pitching for the Oakland Oaks of the
Pacific Coast League, as well as Idaho Falls Russets and
Stockton.
But it was a high jumper that George soared highest.
According to the an unpublished thesis at CSU-Sacramento, "In the
summer of 1948, George, a 19-year old having just completed his
sophomore year of college, traveled to Chicago to compete at the
collegiate tryouts to qualify for the Olympic track and field
trials. UCLA paid for the trip, but George, who competed in the
high jump, was not one of the six athletes to qualify. The Los
Angeles Athletic Club paid for George to stay in Chicago for two
weeks so that he could participate in the AAU meet from which the
other six tryout qualifiers would be chosen. George finished in
eighth place, but because two of the AAU qualifiers had already
made the trials in the college competition, he became the final
high jumper to qualify for the trials (G. Stanich, personal
communication, September 10, 1997). Stanich moved on to the Olympic
trials, where he barely cleared 6 ft 6 in (1.98 m) on his last
attempt, but then was the first to clear 6 ft 7 in (2.01 m) and
placed second with a jump of 6 ft 8.25 in (2.04 m).
On the morning of July 30, 1948, George Stanich,
representing the Los Angeles Athletic Club, was one of 26
participants in the high jump trials at the 1948 Olympic Games in
London. Twenty men qualified for the finals, and 18 participated in
the finals in the rain later that day. The gold medal was won with
a jump of 6 ft 6 in (1.98 m); Stanich was one of four competitors
who cleared 6 ft 4.75 in (1.95 m). While he thought he had cleared
the bar on his last attempt at 6 ft 6 in (1.98 m), his trail leg
hit the bar ("Stanich," July 30, 1948). Officials from the
International Amateur Athletic Federation initially announced that
fewer misses would be used to determine the finishing places of the
four tied jumpers; the IAAF then announced all four would share
second place and the silver medal. Days later they reversed
themselves again, and George Stanich became the bronze medal winner
(Bushell, 1948)."
Stanich later Coached and became a professor at El Camino
College from 1955-1992.