Eddie Eagan

Edward Patrick Francis Eagan (April 26, 1897 – June 14, 1967) was an American athlete who won a gold medal as a light-heavyweight boxer at the 1920 Summer Olympics and a gold medal in four-man bobsled at the 1932 Winter Olympics. Few athletes have competed in both the Summer and Winter Olympic games; Eagan is the only one to have won gold in each in different events.

Early life

Eagan was born into a modest family in Denver, Colorado. He graduated from Longmont High School and attended college at Denver University for one year, during which time he won the western middleweight boxing title. During World War I he was an artillery lieutenant and was the middleweight champion of the American Expeditionary Forces. After the war he attended Yale University. In 1919, he won the AAU's heavyweight title. After graduating from Yale in 1921, Eagan attended Harvard Law School and the University of Oxford.

Olympics Summer Olympics In 1920, he competed as a boxer at the 1920 Summer Olympics in Antwerp, and won the gold medal in the light-heavyweight division. He also competed at the 1924 Summer Olympics, but this time as a heavyweight. He failed to medal, having lost in the first round to Arthur Clifton (see Boxing at the 1924 Summer Olympics - Men's heavyweight).

Winter Olympics Eagan returned to the Olympics eight years later, this time as a member of the bobsled crew of Billy Fiske, who steered to victory at the 1932 Winter Olympics in Lake Placid. Eagan became the first of six Olympians to medal in both the Winter and Summer Games, followed by Jacob Tullin Thams (Norway), Christa Luding-Rothenburger (East Germany), Clara Hughes (Canada), and Lauryn Williams (United States). Eddy Alvarez joined Eagan and Williams in 2020 as the only Americans to win medals in both the Winter and Summer Olympics. Eagan is one of two competitors to win gold in both Olympic seasons (the other being Gillis Grafström whose only summer gold was in figure skating).

Personal life

In 1927 Eagan married Margaret Colgate, who was a member of the family that founded Colgate-Palmolive.

Eagan appeared as a contestant on the CBS television program, I've Got a Secret on the October 13, 1954 episode.

He died at age 70 in New York City and was interred at Greenwood Union Cemetery.