Samuel GERSON

In 1920 while a junior at Penn, Sam Gerson won the Eastern Intercollegiates and the Middle Atlantic Wrestling Championships. They were the biggest titles of his short wrestling career. He was also a top-level chess player, beginning in high school. Gerson later became a chemical engineer, but a hobby occupied much of his time. He was the founder of the United States Olympian Society, an organization of former Olympic athletes. In addition he was instrumental in starting a similar world-wide organization, Olympian International – later the World Olympians Association. Gerson also served as historian of the U.S. Olympians and spent much of his time collecting data on former athletes. In 2006 he was inducted into the International Jewish Sports Hall of Fame. Gerson was a native Ukrainian but immigrated to the United States when he was 11-years-old.