Cahners, Norman

Norman L. Cahners

Sport:
track and field

Country Represented:
United States

Years Competed:
1936

Olympic Info:
A track star at Harvard University in the mid-1930s, Cahners qualified for the 1936 U.S. Olympic Trials in track and field. He boycotted the trials, and thus the Olympics, in opposition to Nazi discrimination against Jewish athletes in Germany. Cahners and Harvard teammate (and captain), Milton Green, spoke to a rabbi prior to the U.S. Olympic trials and decided to boycott the Games. Shocked at what they heard about the atrocities committed by the Nazis, Green and Cahners refused to even compete at the trials, although their coach at Harvard tried to convince them otherwise.

Career Highlights:
Cahners, who graduated from Harvard in 1936, is a member of the Harvard Varsity Club Athletic Hall of Fame. He founded Cahners Publishing and Modern Materials Handling Magazine later in life; the Norman L. Cahners Award is annually given by the Material Handling Education Foundation.

Birth and Death Dates:
b. June 5, 1914 - d. March 1986

Origin:
Maine

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