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Irving Mondschein

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

Personal life

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Mondschein, who was Jewish, was born in Brooklyn.[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

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Mondschein 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

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Mondschein 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

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Mondschein 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

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Football

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Year Team Overall Conference Standing Bowl/playoffs
Lincoln Lions (Colored Intercollegiate Athletic Association) (1949–1950)
1949 Lincoln 3–5 2–4 13th
1950 Lincoln 3–3–1 2–3–1 9th
Lincoln: 6–8–1 4–7–1
Total: 6–8–1

References

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  1. ^ a b c d e f g h "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 March 3, 2016. Retrieved June 5, 2015.
  3. ^ Bernard Postal; Jesse Silver; Roy Silver (1965). Encyclopedia of Jews in sports. Bloch Publishing Company. Retrieved August 12, 2011. Irving Mondschein.
  4. ^ a b Bob Wechsler (2008). Day by day in Jewish sports history. KTAV Publishing House. 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. Syracuse University Press. ISBN 9780815605737. Retrieved August 12, 2011.
  7. ^ a b c d e f 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. ^ a b c "moon_hall". Pennalumnitrack.com. Retrieved August 12, 2011.
  10. ^ a b c Wechsler, Bob (2008). Day by day in Jewish sports history. KTAV Publishing House. ISBN 9780881259698. Retrieved August 12, 2011.
  11. ^ Zarnowski, Frank. "History of the Decathlon at U.S. Olympic Trials" (PDF). p. 8. Archived from the original (PDF) on May 27, 2023. Retrieved July 30, 2024.
  12. ^ a b c "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 July 10, 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. Archived from the original on February 27, 2010. Retrieved August 12, 2011.{{cite web}}: CS1 maint: unfit URL (link)
  19. ^ "New York University – Hall of Fame". Gonyuathletics.com. Retrieved August 12, 2011.
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