Utah Westerners

April Announcement for the Utah Westerners

July 11, 2017 at 5:48 pm kenttschanz Leave a comment

Alma Richards: Olympian

Larry Gerlach

In 2016 the University of Utah Press published Alma Richards: Olympian by Larry Gerlach, our speaker for April.  Larry’s compelling biography recounts and interprets the life of Alma Richards, who in 1912 became the first and only Utahn and Mormon to win an Olympic gold medal in the 20th century.  Instead of recounting the particulars of Alma’s life, however, Larry will talk about more general topics–why he wrote the book, the nature of biography, what impressed him most about Alma and, finally, what he learned from the project. This will be a fascinating presentation by one of the outstanding historians of Utah and sport.

Larry Gerlach is Professor Emeritus of History, University of Utah.  His eclectic teaching and research interests—early America, especially the Revolution; the history of sport in America, notably baseball; the Olympic Games; and Utah history—are reflected in his publications, which include Blazing Crosses in Zion: The Ku Klux Klan in Utah, The Men in Blue: Conversations with Umpires, and The Winter Olympics: From Chamonix to Salt Lake City.  Larry has received numerous awards for his writing, research, and teaching.

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