Universal Studios' Gold Medal Winning Olympic Basketball Team

This year has been…a year. Every prediction that I could have had for 2020 is out the window. Anytime that I think that something else can’t happen, something else happens. In a parallel universe where summer isn’t cancelled, the Olympics would be starting right now, which feels weird to say even because we forgot about it a little, which makes sense. I did gymnastics for almost 14 years, and I always thought that I was Olympic-bound, so the Olympics was always a really exciting time for me. I would watch and dream about if it was me up there. Anyway, this post is not about me and gymnastics. This is about Universal and the Olympics. I’m going to give away the end at the beginning because I don’t think that you can hear the end and then not want to know more. I think that this story is too cool and it’s too random. Here it is:

The Olympic Basketball team that won the gold medal in the 1936 Olympics was comprised of Universal Studios employees. Universal Studios is responsible for the first ever gold medal winning team! Well, half of it at least. Also featured in this story are Hitler and some moral dilemmas that I still don’t know the answers to. Before I start, I want to give credit to Andrew Maraniss’ book Games of Deception which really helped me while I was putting this story together. It does into the entire story in way more detail. It’s very informative and important, so I really recommend that you read it. You can buy Games of Deception at most major bookstores, and I’ll link to it on Amazon as well. I believe that Andrew and I are going to do an interview together soon, so I’ll fill you in on those details once I have them.

I sometimes forget that even though the Olympics originated in Ancient Greece, they were only pretty recently revived and they’re still adding new sports all the time. Basketball too is not an ancient sport, it was created in 1891 by James Naismith. Inventing the sport was part of a goal to bring people closer to Christianity through athletics. Fast forward to 1912, my Uncle Carl Laemmle, a German Jewish immigrant, starts Universal Studios. He was very much a family man, and he made Universal a family business. He hired friends and family in different positions on the lot - and because of this, when you were at the studio it felt like your neighborhood. By the 1930s, Universal had grown to be one of the biggest studios in the world. Carl had a real knack for publicity, and in the two or two and a half decades that he had been in the industry he had invented the movie star, created the studio tour, and now he was really solidifying Universal’s place in history with the Monster movies like Dracula and Frankenstein.

Still, the studio was full of Carl’s friends and family. In addition to the normal work and events, there was also the Universal City Club, which would host dinners and parties, and put on different sports leagues like softball and bowling and basketball. The basketball team called themselves the Universals and was run by none other than Jack Pierce. I know that every monster lover here knows exactly who that is, but for anybody who doesn’t know, Jack Pierce was the Universal makeup artist responsible for some of the most iconic looks in history. Including Frankenstein, the Mummy, the Wolfman, and a ton of other Universal looks. I love picturing that amidst running the Universal makeup department, Jack Pierce was also running and recruiting for this basketball team.

Now here’s where there’s an interesting spin to the basketball team, and where it connects back to my Uncle Carl’s gift for promoting. Carl realized that the basketball team could be a really great tool to market his films. Jack Pierce would go scout for players around LA. They would get hired on as crew for films, and then they would travel to games and use those to promote Universal and its upcoming movies. They had a banner that they’d bring promoting their movies and the producers, and a whole bunch of pre-show stunts and shenanigans. One player who would run around in the audience dressed as Frankenstein’s monster to promote the Bride of Frankenstein. Despite this, the Universals really were the best team! They won game after game, and really made a name for themselves.

Carl realized that the basketball team could be a really great tool to market his films.

So now we’re coming up on 1936, basketball is about to be in the Olympics for the first time ever. The Olympic committee just needs to figure out who’s going to represent Team USA. Mini tournaments were held all over the country to determine the Elite Eight teams, who then went head-to-head against each other at Madison Square Garden. The final two teams were combined to make the Olympic team. I didn’t keep it a secret, the first spot went to The Universals and the second went to The Globe Refiners from Kansas and together they would represent the United States. This is where the story takes a few more turns that I really wasn’t expecting the first time I learned about it.

For starters, the tournament to determine the Olympic team wasn’t exactly fair. Black players weren’t allowed to compete at all, and one of the top teams in the country decided to boycott because their team had five Jewish players, and this was the 1936 Olympics happening in Nazi Germany. There was a large faction of the United States that felt we should boycott the 1936 Olympics altogether. In fact, Carl himself withdrew his support for the basketball team right before the qualifying tournament. Carl was a proud Jew, and he still held close ties to his hometown in Germany, but he was actively fighting against the Nazi regime and actively working to get Jews our of Germany. He was not about to send his own employees over there.

However, a boycott was never going to happen because the American Olympic Committee president was an anti-semite who stood a lot to gain financially and in status, by seeing the Games through. He publicly argued that we should keep politics out of it, and that the IOC was really running the show and not Germany, so it was pointless to meddle. It became the rallying cry by those who wanted to compete that the boycotters were un-American. The Germans, too, really wanted the Americans there partly because their athletes were known to be some of the best, and also because the American tourists and American media were vital for Germany’s propaganda to be effective.

I love picturing that amidst running the Universal makeup department, Jack Pierce was also running and recruiting for Universal’s basketball team.

Just one week after The Universals clinched their Olympic spot, Carl Laemmle lost Universal studios to Standard Capital. You should check out my post about how my family lost Universal Studios because it’s a pretty interesting story. The reason I bring it up here is because it wasn’t up to Carl anymore if they team wanted to go. The new owners weren’t too thrilled at the idea of the Universal team going to Nazi Germany either, but they did say that they were allowed to compete if they paid their own way. The Universals tried unsuccessfully to put on a couple fundraisers, but ultimately, director James Whale, and animator Walter Lantz stepped up to fund the team.

I feel like this is the right time to mention that one of the players on the Universals was Jewish. His name was Sam Balter, and I can’t imagine what he must have been going through trying to decide whether or not to play. Some people told him that if he went to Germany, he would be a traitor to his faith and he might never work in Hollywood again because so many studio heads were Jewish. On the other side, if he didn’t compete that might be seen as Un-American or maybe he’s letting his country down. Still others said to keep politics out of it and go to Nazi Germany and have fun. Ultimately, Sam Balter did decide to go. He was hoping for an opportunity to represent the Jewish people well and to show that they weren’t weak or inferior. However, when he arrived in Germany, things were pretty scary. There was a heavy Nazi presence everywhere, and that antisemitic American Olympic Committee President kept giving speeches and making comments about how great the Nazis were and how it was simply mischief makers back home trying to stand in the way of their noble cause. When Sam left the Olympic village, he saw newspapers with stereotypical caricatures of Jews and defamatory headlines. It made him question if he made the right decision by going.

As for the games, they went fine. Spain dropped out last minute because a civil war broke out. A lot of countries were still figuring out the fundamentals of basketball and the referees’ calls were wildly inconsistent. Then rain destroyed the court before the final match between the US and Canada. They relocated courts but it was still really muddy and full of puddles and the ball was very heavy and slippery, making it hard to hold and pass. Ultimately, the U.S. won, and the final score was 19-8. While the win was amazing, the excitement was pretty short-lived. Germany threw a final closing celebration as one last opportunity to spread their propaganda, and then the players headed home. Many without money in their pockets or without jobs to return to. Some of the players had to play in exhibition games in the U.S. merely to fund their trips back to Kansas and California.

Sam Balter decided to go. He was hoping for an opportunity to represent the Jewish people well and to show that they weren’t weak or inferior. However, when he arrived in Germany, things were pretty scary.

A few players and coaches went home wondering if they made the right decision to go. It was an honor to represent the United States to compete at the Olympics, but at what cost? What did they support in exchange? I honestly don’t know what I would do in that situation, especially as a Jewish person. If I were to boycott, I’ve stood my ground, but Hitler also wins because the last thing he wants is for me to compete and take home a medal. On the other side, maybe I’m putting my life in danger. I’m also given them an opportunity to falsely demonstrate that they’re treating Jewish people fairly and imply that Germany is doing no wrong. That doesn’t feel like the right move either. What would you do in this instance?

How cool to add to the list of amazing things in Universal’s history that the Universal basketball team won the gold medal in the Olympics the very first Olympics that even had basketball. Wow. Thank you again Andrew Marannis for writing Games of Deception: The True Story of the First US Olympic Basketball Team at the 1936 Olympics in Hitler’s Germany which was a huge part of researching this topic. Let me know your thoughts on this interesting story of Universal’s history!