Irving "Moon" Mondschein (February 7, 1924 – June 5, 2015) was an American track and field athlete and football player.[1][2]

Personal life

Mondschein, who was Jewish, was born in Brooklyn, New York.[1][3][4] He attended Boys High School, where he ran track.[5] He also ran for the New York Pioneer Club.[1][6] He entered the US Army in 1943.[7] He became a member of the Pi Lambda Phi fraternal organization while attending New York University[8] His son, Brian, was a world-class decathlete in the 1980s.[7] His grandson, also named Brian, was an All-American pole vaulter at Virginia Tech.[9]

Decathlon, high jump, and football career

He was AAU decathlon champion in 1944, and in 1946 and 1947.[1][10] He won the 1944 Olympic Trials and would have been the top American representative had the Olympic Games been held that year.[11] He was NCAA high jump champion in both 1947 and 1948, competing for New York University.[1][4][10] As of 2015, he still held NYU's record in the outdoor high jump—6 feet, 7¾ inches.[9] He also played football as an end for NYU in 1946, earning All-East honors.[7][10][12] He competed in the 1948 Olympics for the United States in decathlon, coming in eighth, as teammate Bob Mathias won the gold medal.[1] In his career, he was ranked third in the world in outdoor high jump and tenth in the decathlon in 1947; sixth in the indoor high jump and eighth in the decathlon in 1948; and third in the outdoor high jump and sixth in the decathlon in 1949.[13]

Coaching career

He later coached track, basketball, and football at Lincoln University in Oxford, Pennsylvania, starting in 1949.[1][14] He coached the US track and field team at the 1950 Maccabiah Games, which included Olympian Henry Laskau (national champion and world record holder) who won a gold medal in racewalking, and was also an advisor to the Israeli Ministry of Education, helping for two years to prepare the country's athletes for the 1952 Olympics.[15] [1][7] Irv was also athletic coach (Track) at Lawrence High School, Cedarhurst, NY ( Nassau County) from 1956-65. He was then a coach at the University of Pennsylvania; first the assistant track coach (1965–79) and then the head coach (1979–87).[7] He was also an assistant coach on the 1988 U.S. Olympic team.[12] He was previously an assistant coach at Kutztown University,[7] and also volunteered as an assistant coach at Haverford College. He also served as an assistant coach at La Salle University in Philadelphia.[16]

Honors

He is a member of the Philadelphia Jewish Sports Hall of Fame, the New York Jewish Sports Hall of Fame, and the National Jewish Sports Hall of Fame.[12][17][18] He is also a member of the NYU Athletics Hall of Fame, and the U.S. Track & Field and Cross-Country Coaches Association Hall of Fame.[9][19]

Head coaching record

Football

Year Team Overall ConferenceStanding Bowl/playoffs
Lincoln Lions (Colored Intercollegiate Athletic Association) (1949–1950)
1949 Lincoln 3–52–413th
1950 Lincoln 3–3–12–3–19th
Lincoln: 6–8–14–7–1
Total:6–8–1

References

  1. 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 "Irving Mondschein Biography and Olympic Results". Sports-reference.com. February 7, 1924. Archived from the original on January 28, 2012. Retrieved August 12, 2011.
  2. ↑ "Penn Athletics Mourns Passing of Irv Mondschein". Archived from the original on 2016-03-03. Retrieved 2015-06-05.
  3. ↑ Bernard Postal; Jesse Silver; Roy Silver (1965). Encyclopedia of Jews in sports. Bloch Publishing Company. Retrieved August 12, 2011. Irving Mondschein.
  4. 1 2 Bob Wechsler (2008). Day by day in Jewish sports history. ISBN 9780881259698. Retrieved August 12, 2011.
  5. ↑ Frank Litzky (March 5, 2004). "Eighty Years Old and Coaching Yet Another Generation". NYT. Retrieved August 12, 2011.
  6. ↑ Pamela Cooper (1999). The American Marathon. ISBN 9780815605737. Retrieved August 12, 2011.
  7. 1 2 3 4 5 6 Litsky, Frank (March 5, 2004). "Eighty Years Old and Coaching Yet Another Generation". The New York Times. Retrieved August 12, 2011.
  8. ↑ 2011 Pi Lambda Phi Membership Directory
  9. 1 2 3 "moon_hall". Pennalumnitrack.com. Retrieved August 12, 2011.
  10. 1 2 3 Wechsler, Bob (2008). Day by day in Jewish sports history. ISBN 9780881259698. Retrieved August 12, 2011.
  11. ↑ http://decathlonusa.typepad.com/deca/files/history_of_the_us_olympic_trials_repaired.pdf
  12. 1 2 3 "Irv Mondschein, USTFCCCA Class of 2007". U.S. Track & Field and Cross Country Coaches Association. Retrieved August 12, 2011.
  13. ↑ "Inductions | Philadelphia Jewish Sports Hall of Fame". Phillyjewishsports.com. Retrieved August 12, 2011.
  14. ↑ Litsky, Frank (March 5, 2004). "Eighty Years Old and Coaching Yet Another Generation". The New York Times. Retrieved August 12, 2011.
  15. ↑ "MONDSCHEIN IS NAMED; Will Coach U.S. Track Team for Maccabiah Games in Israel". The New York Times.
  16. ↑ Goldstein, Irving (June 6, 2015). "Irving Mondschein, Decathlete, Coach and Track Patriarch, Dies at 91". The New York Times. Retrieved 10 July 2015.
  17. ↑ "Mondschein, Irv "Moon"". Jews In Sports @ Virtual Museum. Retrieved August 12, 2011.
  18. ↑ "Jewish Sports Hall of Fame". Jewishsports.org. March 29, 1998. Retrieved August 12, 2011.
  19. ↑ "New York University – Hall of Fame". Gonyuathletics.com. Retrieved August 12, 2011.
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