Name James Bausch Role Olympic athlete | Awards James E. Sullivan Award | |
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Birth name James Aloysius Bernard Bausch Olympic medals Athletics at the 1932 Summer Olympics – Men's decathlon | ||
James Aloysius Bernard Bausch (March 29, 1906 – July 9, 1974), also known as "Jarring Jim", was an American athlete who competed mainly in the decathlon.
Bausch grew up in Garden Plain, Kansas, graduated from Cathedral High School in Wichita, Kansas, and went to college at the University of Kansas, where he starred in football and basketball. He competed for a United States in the 1932 Summer Olympics held in Los Angeles in the decathlon. Bausch was only fifth after the first day, but splendid performances in discus throw and pole vault helped him to build an insurmountable lead and win the gold medal over the heavily favored Finn Akilles Järvinen.
Bausch also played professional football as a halfback in the National Football League (NFL) for the Chicago Cardinals and Cincinnati Reds.
After retiring from competitions Bausch tried a career of a nightclub singer before becoming an insurance salesman. During World War II, while serving with the U.S. Navy in the Pacific, he contracted osteomyelitis, and the associated pain resulted in alcoholism. Bausch eventually overcame both problems, and in his late years helped other osteomyelitis patients.