Almost an Olympian in 1924, the flying Queenslander, Norman J Grehan

A century on, guest blogger Madonna Grehan revisits a lost Olympic opportunity for an aspiring Queensland athlete.

Born in Blenheim near Laidley in 1902, Norman John (Norm) Grehan came to prominence in athletics in the early 1920s. Late in his teens, Grehan competed in professional races with the Brisbane Athletic Club at Glideway Sports Ground, a former skating rink in South Brisbane. At Glideway, Grehan raced off a large handicap, taking the “backmark”.

Professionals earned prize money thanks to lively betting on events, but these athletes were barred from participation in state and national championships, and from Olympic Games selection. Around 1922, Norm Grehan relinquished the professional circuit around 1922 and rejoined the Queensland Amateur Athletics Association (QAAA) to run with Christian Brothers Athletics Club. Coached by Joe Moylan, Grehan concentrated on sprints - the 100 yards (91.44 metres) and the furlong of 220 yards (201.168 metres), wearing spikes.

At the time in Australia, running was just one element in big sports carnivals. Athletes needed stamina because heats, semi-finals, and finals for an event, such as 220 yards, were held on the same day. Only officially-recognised tracks were used. Most were turf and all varied. In 1922, Brisbane’s Exhibition ground’s track was heavy. At the 1923 national championships in Hobart, the track was ‘slightly up hill’ with a very short straight. What’s more, sprinters dug small holes in the turf with a trowel to position their spiked shoes; officials put the soil back before the next race. Track condition could affect race times which were clocked manually by three timekeepers to fifths or tenths of a second.

Norm Grehan made his athletic mark in July 1922, winning the 24th Dave Scott Memorial Handicap, a 100 yards event named for a QAAA founder. From six yards, Grehan won in a time of 10.1/10ths seconds, earning a gold medal worth £4.4.0. A month later in August 1922, he won Queensland’s State Championship of 100 yards in 10.2/5ths seconds. George Kirk, QAAA Vice-President and a former 100 yards champion, supplied a gold medallion valued at £3.3.0.

The 1923 amateur athletics season opened in March with the St Patrick’s Day Championships at the Brisbane Exhibition grounds. A crowd of 15,000 witnessed Queensland’s inaugural 100 metres race, programmed to reflect a new event in the forthcoming Olympics. With two false starts, the atmosphere was electric. Eleven seconds later, Grehan triumphed. The Daily Standard’s commentator noted Grehan’s ‘really good time’, remarking that the distance beyond 100 yards had been ‘measured by guesswork’.

Brisbane Exhibition grounds also hosted the state championships in August 1923. Norm Grehan won the 220 yards in 21.3/5ths seconds, achieving a personal best and beating the Queensland record, later accepted as the Australasian record. The town of Cloncurry, where Grehan had lived as a child, proudly claimed him as one of their own.

By late 1923, speculation was mounting about Australian selections for the 1924 Olympic Games in Paris. The team was to have two sprinters, one a reserve. Queensland had three contenders: Norm Grehan, Les Parker of Mayne Harriers Club and Harold “Pat” Scouller of Thompson Estate Club. QAAA ran test events to place them. In January 1924, racing on an oppressively hot day in Toowoomba, Grehan came third in the 100 metres, behind Parker. The same day, Grehan won the furlong in 22.2/5ths seconds, ahead of Parker.

Final selections for the Olympic team came after the Australasian Championships at Hobart in February 1924. The 100 metres was ‘a fiasco’. Parker jumped the starter’s gun gaining a two-yard advantage and claiming the win. Scouller was second and Grehan third. The next day, Grehan won the Australasian 220 yards championship against a strong headwind. The track was mostly curved and ‘not conducive to speed’.

After his performance in Hobart, Norm Grehan felt that he had ‘a chance of selection for the Olympic Games’. The Daily Mail agreed, reporting that Grehan ‘will do honour to his country and to this State. He is a really great young sprinter, and his best time is as good as [Loren] Murchison’s (America) best. Grehan is young, keen, and capable. What better qualities could an aspirant for Olympic honours have?’

Australia’s team for Paris was announced in late February 1924. Norm Grehan was a reserve in case NSW sprinter Edwin “Slip” Carr was unavailable. But Grehan’s Olympic aspirations were contingent on funding. Per athlete, the return journey to Europe by sea, accommodation and meals for several weeks was estimated in 1924 to cost £200, in today’s money around $20,000. If Queensland’s athletes were to go, £1000 was needed by mid-March.

In the end, Norm Grehan’s Olympic ambition was stymied. A telegram from the Olympic Council in April confirmed that Queensland had not raised enough money and Grehan would not run in Paris. The Daily Mail bemoaned the public’s lack of support for the Games, writing, ‘the contest is a traditional one, emblematic of the progress of nations; the honours are great and to secure them is sufficient to give the conquering nations an advertisement that is worldwide’.

Running at the Olympic Games in July 1924, Slip Carr reached the semi-finals of the 100 and 200 metres but did not progress. Harold Abrahams of Britain won the 100 metres in a time of 10.6 seconds. His win was immortalised in the movie ‘Chariots of Fire’. In retrospect, Norm Grehan’s form in 1924 placed him in rarefied athletic company. He was known to thrive on competition and it’s tantalising to think that, had he had the opportunity, he may have reached his potential in Paris and made Queensland history.

Between 1920 and 1929, Norm Grehan set records in the 100, 220 and 440 yards races. In novelty events, he raced champion cyclists. The furlong was his best event, hence the nicknames, ‘Furlong Flash’ and ‘flying Queenslander’. He retired from athletics in 1930. At one point, Virginia State School had a Norman Grehan Trophy for athletics.

SOURCES

This blog has drawn on newspaper articles from 1919 to 1947, sourced from the National Library of Australia via Trove.

Dr Madonna Grehan was the 2015 John Oxley Library Fellow.

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