Harry Livingston Hillman Jr. (September 8, 1881 – August 9, 1945) was one of the longest serving Dartmouth Track and Field Coaches from 1910–45, and an American track and field athlete who won three gold medals at the 1904 Summer Olympics and a silver at the 1908 Summer Olympics.
Biography
Born in Brooklyn, New York, Hillman was a member of three Olympic teams at the turn of the century. He also was a coach at Dartmouth College and was an associate Track coach for the American Olympic Team for three Olympics from 1924-32. Like Lawson Robertson, and several other New York athletes, he served as a Lieutenant in the National Guard of New York—Company E of the old 13th Regiment of Brooklyn. Robertson, who became a University of Pennsylvania track coach, was on several Olympic Teams with Hillman, and was also a graduate of Brooklyn Boys School.
Hillman’s first major titles came in the 1902 AAU junior and senior 220-yard hurdles, and the following year he added the AAU senior title in the open quarter mile.
1904 Olympics
Hillman won three gold medals at the 1904 Olympics in St. Louis, Missouri, taking the flat 400 metres, the 200 metres hurdles and the 400 metres hurdles. He had Olympic record times in all three events, but he tripped one hurdle in the 400 metres, which meant that his time of 53.0 seconds could not be counted as a world record (the record had stood at 57.2 seconds since 1891). In addition, the race was run over hurdles that were too low at 76 centimetres instead of the normal 91,4.
Dartmouth Track coach
The focal point of his career was serving as the track and field and cross-country coach at Dartmouth College for 35 years, from 1910 until his death in 1945. Hillman was elected an assistant professor of physical education at Dartmouth in 1919 and as assistant professor, without limitations, in 1922. He served as chairman of the department from 1921 to 1925. At Dartmouth, Hillman advised hurdlers to swallow raw eggs, which he believed to be "excellent for the wind and stomach." Some of the track athletes who were hurdlers or runners, sports in which he excelled, that he developed at Dartmouth were Don Burnham '44 in the mile; Gus Braun '15, Monty Wells '28, and Jack Donovan '38, in the hurdles. In the high jump, intercollegiate champions he trained included Russ Palmer '10, Roy Brown '23, and Tom Maynard '29. He also trained Mark Wright '13, C. E. Buck '13 and Laddy Myers '20 in the pole vault; Bud Whitney '15, Jack Shelburne '19, W. C. Beers '21, and Tony Geniawicz '37 in the shot. One of his most famous athletes was Canadian hurdler Earl Thomson, Dartmouth Class of 22, the winner of the gold medal in the 110 metres hurdles at the 1920 Summer Olympics. In 1930, Hillman, along with Thomson and Harold Barron, was involved in the design of a new safer hurdle, with a view to reducing the danger of bad falls and injuries.
Hillman also served as Secretary-Treasurer of the College Track Coaches Association of America. He wrote many articles on Track and Conditioning for newspapers and magazines that included The Boston Herald, The New York Times, The Athletic Journal, and The Scholastic Coach.