Keeper of the Golden Putter Greg Fredericks has passed on the news that Dr. John Lucas will be leaving State College soon to live with his son in Missouri. There will be a party in his honor prior to his departure and anyone able should stop by and wish him well. I have nothing but admiration and respect for what great men like Dr. Lucas have done for Penn State and its Track and Field family.
When: Thursday, April 26, 1PM-3PMWhat: John Lucas Farewell ReceptionWhere: BrooklineWindsong Dining Room1930 Cliffside Drive
Greg also included a short biography of Dr. Lucas's accomplishments, some of which I knew, but others I did not. It is important to note that these represent an incomplete listing!
Dr. John A. Lucas
* Dr Lucas was the third of four brothers; was born December 24, 1927.
* His father, Apostal Llukka, came to America 1909 to join an older brother already in Hudson, Massachusetts.
* His mother Antigone Mihaledes Zhitomi came to America in 1917.
* His parents were of Albanian descent.
* He joined the United States Army in 1946, spending thirteen months as a private, then corporal, in the Army of Occupation in South Korea, a bitter cold isolation at the former Japanese air and sea base in Yosu, Korea, on the Yellow Sea.
* Upon leaving the Army, he entered the Boston University School of Physical Education for Men with government support provided through the G. I. Bill of Rights and graduated first in his class.
* Participated as “middle leg” on the 1950 Boston University distance medley relay.
* Received his Master's degree from the University of Southern California, where he was rewarded with an academic scholarship in the School of Physical Education.
* To help finance his degree at USC, he was fortunate to earn $100 for half days of work at the Metro-Goldyn Mayer Motion Picture Studios performing as a stunt man and extra. He played tiny roles in four films: Mario Lanza in “Because You’re Mine”; Burt Lancaster in “Jim Thorpe—All-American”; Robert Taylor in “Quo Vadis”; and with Spencer Tracy and Katherine Hepburn in “Pat and Mike.”
* Dr Lucas qualified for the 10k USA Olympic trials in 1952, finishing in 33 minutes, 30 seconds; the first three men destined for the Summer Olympics in Helsinki, Finland were Curtis Stone and Horace Ashenfelter (first and third) from Penn State University, and Fred Wilt, from Indiana University, in second place.
* In August of 1952, he received a teaching position in Natick, Massachusetts. During his six years there, he coached track and field at the Huntington (Boston) Preparatory School for Boys, winning all 77 competitions, including the National Indoor Championships in New York City’s Madison Square Garden in the winter of 1957.
* During this time of teaching and coaching he met Joyce Vaughan who was enrolled at Boston University.
* John and Joyce married in July of 1955 in the old 1696 Congregational Church in Boston’s Copley Square.
* 1958 Dr Lucas decided to seek a doctoral program with an opportunity to coach at the college level and accepted a graduate degree opportunity at the University of Maryland and served as assistant coach at the University of Maryland from 1958 to 1962.
*1959 the Lucas' traveled to Turkey as an American State Department assignment, for a challenging four-month stint helping the Turkish Olympic team to prepare for the Rome Olympic Games of 1960.
* Son, Mark Langley Lucas was born in the summer of 1960.
* In 1962 he completed his doctoral dissertation, “Baron de Coubertin and the Formative Years of the Modern International Olympic Movement, 1883-1896.”
* 1962 Ernest B. McCoy, athletic director and Dean of the College of Health and Physical Education of Penn State University, invited Dr Lucas for an interview with him, President Eric Walker, and members of the Board of Trustees. After only a few hours, Dean McCoy offered him the position of coaching three sports: cross-country, indoor, and outdoor track and field, which he did from 1962-1968.
* At the end of the academic year 1968, Dr Lucas requested and received permission to enter the challenging, uncertain world of the non-tenured associate professor. Dr Lucas taught various courses, exercise classes, history of world physical education, American sport history, and a graduate course on sport philosophy.
In addition, he taught a course open to graduate and undergraduate students, the “History, Philosophy, and Politics of the Modern Olympic Games” for thirty years before retirement. He was invited to continue teaching the Kinesiology 443 course for many more years and beyond his eightieth birthday. He estimates that some 1,700 students have taken the Olympic Games course.
* In 1989 he was awarded the Pauline Schmitt Russell Distinguished Research Career Award
* In 1992, IOC president, Juan Antonio Samaranch (1920-), awarded Dr Lucas the title of “Official IOC Lecturer.”
* In 1994 he was awarded the College of Health and Human Development "The Evelyn R. Saubel Faculty Award Teacher of the Year”.
* 1996, at the Atlanta Olympic Games, he was invited into the private IOC meeting, where President Samaranch awarded him the honor of “Olympic Order” gold medal.
* Retired from Penn State in 1996 but continued to teach and was awarded Professor Emeritus of Kinesiology, from The Pennsylvania State University
* John is especially proud of his son Mark who received his doctorate in Higher Education from Rutgers University and moved to the Columbia campus of the University of Missouri as the Director of Student Life. He and his wife, Pamela, have two children, Katherine Gail and Matthew John.
* Dr Lucas was the third of four brothers; was born December 24, 1927.
* His father, Apostal Llukka, came to America 1909 to join an older brother already in Hudson, Massachusetts.
* His mother Antigone Mihaledes Zhitomi came to America in 1917.
* His parents were of Albanian descent.
* He joined the United States Army in 1946, spending thirteen months as a private, then corporal, in the Army of Occupation in South Korea, a bitter cold isolation at the former Japanese air and sea base in Yosu, Korea, on the Yellow Sea.
* Upon leaving the Army, he entered the Boston University School of Physical Education for Men with government support provided through the G. I. Bill of Rights and graduated first in his class.
* Participated as “middle leg” on the 1950 Boston University distance medley relay.
* Received his Master's degree from the University of Southern California, where he was rewarded with an academic scholarship in the School of Physical Education.
* To help finance his degree at USC, he was fortunate to earn $100 for half days of work at the Metro-Goldyn Mayer Motion Picture Studios performing as a stunt man and extra. He played tiny roles in four films: Mario Lanza in “Because You’re Mine”; Burt Lancaster in “Jim Thorpe—All-American”; Robert Taylor in “Quo Vadis”; and with Spencer Tracy and Katherine Hepburn in “Pat and Mike.”
* Dr Lucas qualified for the 10k USA Olympic trials in 1952, finishing in 33 minutes, 30 seconds; the first three men destined for the Summer Olympics in Helsinki, Finland were Curtis Stone and Horace Ashenfelter (first and third) from Penn State University, and Fred Wilt, from Indiana University, in second place.
* In August of 1952, he received a teaching position in Natick, Massachusetts. During his six years there, he coached track and field at the Huntington (Boston) Preparatory School for Boys, winning all 77 competitions, including the National Indoor Championships in New York City’s Madison Square Garden in the winter of 1957.
* During this time of teaching and coaching he met Joyce Vaughan who was enrolled at Boston University.
* John and Joyce married in July of 1955 in the old 1696 Congregational Church in Boston’s Copley Square.
* 1958 Dr Lucas decided to seek a doctoral program with an opportunity to coach at the college level and accepted a graduate degree opportunity at the University of Maryland and served as assistant coach at the University of Maryland from 1958 to 1962.
*1959 the Lucas' traveled to Turkey as an American State Department assignment, for a challenging four-month stint helping the Turkish Olympic team to prepare for the Rome Olympic Games of 1960.
* Son, Mark Langley Lucas was born in the summer of 1960.
* In 1962 he completed his doctoral dissertation, “Baron de Coubertin and the Formative Years of the Modern International Olympic Movement, 1883-1896.”
* 1962 Ernest B. McCoy, athletic director and Dean of the College of Health and Physical Education of Penn State University, invited Dr Lucas for an interview with him, President Eric Walker, and members of the Board of Trustees. After only a few hours, Dean McCoy offered him the position of coaching three sports: cross-country, indoor, and outdoor track and field, which he did from 1962-1968.
* At the end of the academic year 1968, Dr Lucas requested and received permission to enter the challenging, uncertain world of the non-tenured associate professor. Dr Lucas taught various courses, exercise classes, history of world physical education, American sport history, and a graduate course on sport philosophy.
In addition, he taught a course open to graduate and undergraduate students, the “History, Philosophy, and Politics of the Modern Olympic Games” for thirty years before retirement. He was invited to continue teaching the Kinesiology 443 course for many more years and beyond his eightieth birthday. He estimates that some 1,700 students have taken the Olympic Games course.
* In 1989 he was awarded the Pauline Schmitt Russell Distinguished Research Career Award
* In 1992, IOC president, Juan Antonio Samaranch (1920-), awarded Dr Lucas the title of “Official IOC Lecturer.”
* In 1994 he was awarded the College of Health and Human Development "The Evelyn R. Saubel Faculty Award Teacher of the Year”.
* 1996, at the Atlanta Olympic Games, he was invited into the private IOC meeting, where President Samaranch awarded him the honor of “Olympic Order” gold medal.
* Retired from Penn State in 1996 but continued to teach and was awarded Professor Emeritus of Kinesiology, from The Pennsylvania State University
* John is especially proud of his son Mark who received his doctorate in Higher Education from Rutgers University and moved to the Columbia campus of the University of Missouri as the Director of Student Life. He and his wife, Pamela, have two children, Katherine Gail and Matthew John.
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