George Saling was born in 1909 in Memphis, MO. When he was 3 months old the family moved to Corydon, Iowa where he graduated from high school in 1927. George’s first love was basketball and he was captain of the Corydon team in 1926 and 27.
He went out for track, partly because that was what most of the other boys did in the spring. In meets he filled in wherever he was needed most, running anything from the 100 to the 440, in addition to the hurdles.
In the fall of 1927 Saling began classes at the University of Iowa and turned his ambitions toward basketball. One night as he was leaving the court after practice, he raced over a couple of hurdles that were nearby, as George Bresnahan, the U of I head track coach happened to be passing.
Coach Bresnahan spotted Saling’s natural gift for the hurdles and immediately began an intense campaign to recruit George away from basketball and on to the track team. ….Saling credited Bresnahan for much of his success.
During his senior year at Iowa, in 1932, Saling established himself as a world class high hurdler. He set records in many meets that year, including the Drake Relays and the National Collegiate championships, where he equaled Percy Beard’s world record of 14.1. At the 1932 AAU Championships, Saling lost in the high hurdle final to Jack Keller, but still earned a place on the US Olympic team by winning the 200M hurdle title.
In the first heat at the Los Angeles Olympic Games, Saling came in second to Don Finlay of Great Britain. He came back in the semis to run 14.4 breaking the Olympic record. In the final Saling ran 14.6 and took home the gold medal. In fact, Team USA took home both gold and silver as Percy Beard finished 2nd.
Corydon and the track world were stunned by the untimely death of George Saling on April 14, 1933, as a result of a car accident near St Louis. He was just 23 years old.
George Saling’s memory was honored by his hometown high school in 1938 when its newly lighted athletic field was dedicated as “Saling Field”. In 1983, during Corydon’s Old Settlers Celebration, Saling was honored in a special ceremony and a bronze plaque honoring his Olympic Gold Medal winning effort was mounted on the east side of the bandstand on the Wayne County courthouse grounds. In 1989, the University of Iowa established an Athletic Hall of Fame and George Saling was one of the athletes and coaches named to the inaugural class.
Saling’s Olympic track uniform, warm-up suit, Olympic jacket, photos, and clippings are on display in a special case of the 20th Century wing at the Prairie Trails Museum.