Brutus Hamilton

Who was Brutus Hamilton?

Brutus Kerr Hamilton, is most renowned as one of the leading coaches in American and international track and field.

Hamilton was born on July 19, 1900 in Peculiar, Missouri, and in Missouri he grew up as a farm boy whose parents' property was next door to the Harry S. Truman family farm. In the Missouri State High School championship meet in 1918, he won the high jump, pole vault, broad jump, and shot put. After that, he went on to the University of Missouri, where he won the U.S. decathlon and pentathlon championships in 1920. This qualified him for the U.S. Olympic team; he won the silver medal in the decathlon in the 1920 Summer Olympics held in Antwerp, Belgium, losing to the Norwegian winner by only four points. He qualified for the Paris Olympics in 1924 as well, but was less successful because of injury.

Track and field was Hamilton's main sport, but he was accomplished in other sports too. He was a second-string end on the 1921 Walter Camp All-American football team, and in 1923, he played on the Kansas City Athletic Club basketball team that won the National AAU Championship. Some called him the nation's most versatile athlete.

After the 1924 Olympics, Hamilton coached track and field at Westminster College in Fulton, Missouri, where he also instructed students in English and history. At Westminster, his teams won their conference championships from 1926 to 1929. In 1930, Hamilton moved to the University of Kansas, where his team won the Big Six title in 1930 and 1931 and came in second in 1932. At Kansas he coached the miler Glenn Cunningham and the decathlon world record holder Jim Bausch. In the 1932 Olympics in Los Angeles, Hamilton was the U.S. decathlon coach; Bausch won the gold medal.