Forest McNeir competed 47 times in the Grand American Handicap at Vandalia, Ohio, despite many physical problems of his own. In 1910, McNeir received the Carnegie Hero Award Gold Medal for his efforts in freeing a trapped city fireman. The fireman was caught on a ladder, opposite a window from which flames and smoke were billowing. An electric wire was touching the ladder and had repelled previous attempts at rescue, but McNeir jumped onto the ladder, knocking the wire loose and freeing the fireman’s foot. McNeir was knocked unconscious and was disabled for weeks with scalp wounds and burns on his hands and face. McNeir went on to become one of the greatest American trapshooters ever, recording the third-high score on the 1920 Olympic trapshooting team. He won many titles through 1936 when, at his job as a building contractor, he fell from a third-floor framework, crushing his left hand and all his wrist bones. After major surgery he continued to shoot with a friend loading the gun for him and in 1937 he earned the 18-yard trophy at the Grand American Handicap.
United States