Charles Sherrill

Charles Sherrill had eclectic interests, serving as a lawyer, sports star, author, sports administrator, and international diplomat. Sherrill graduated from Yale in 1889, having won the IC4A 100 yard dash in 1887-90, and the 220 at that meet in 1888-90, doubling in the sprints in 1888-90. He later set up a series of international track & field athletic meets between colleges, beginning with Yale vs. Oxford in 1894.

Sherrill continued at Yale, earning his law degree in 1891, and he had a lucrative New York law practice from 1891-1909. In 1909 he was named US Minister to Argentina, withdrawing from that post in 1911 because of health problems, which caused him to turn down an Ambassadorship to Japan, after which he resumed his law practice. He was later US Ambassador to Turkey in 1932-33. For his international diplomacy, Sherrill was honored with awards by the governments of France, Italy, Belgium, Yugoslavia, Czechoslovakia, Sweden, the Netherlands, Austria, and Hungary. Sherrill wrote over 20 books, most on international diplomacy, but several on his hobby, studying stained glass windows.

In 1922, Charles Sherrill was made an IOC Member, serving on the committee until his death. In 1926 he became the first US member of the IOC Executive Board. In 1936 he resisted calls for a United States’ boycott of the Berlin Olympics, stating that “there never was a prominent Jewish athlete in history.” Along with Avery Brundage and IOC President Count Henri de Baillet-Latour he helped engineer the ouster from the IOC of his adversary, Ernest Lee Jahncke, who supported calls for a Berlin boycott.