JOHN RIEGEL DEWITT

The Lawrenceville School – Olympic Silver Medalist Hammer Throw 

Dewitt set school and national records while at Lawrenceville Prep in multiple throwing events. His school record in the Shot Put stood for 39 years, and his school record in the Discus stood for 20 years. 

The Hammer Throw was his main event.  His best high school mark of 188’4" was the national interscholastic record and as a Lawrenceville school record it has never been broken.

After graduating high school in 1900 he attended Princeton University.  At Princeton he won 4 IC4A Championships in the Hammer, and set the collegiate record.

At the end of his senior year he qualified for the 1904 United States Olympic Team.

At the 1904 Olympic Games in St. Louis he won the silver medal in the Hammer Throw--which was part of an American medal sweep.  Dewitt finished behind his US teammate John Flanagan and ahead of teammate Ralph Rose.

Dewitt excelled in football as well, and he starred on Princeton University’s undefeated 1903 football team. He is a member of the College Football Hall of Fame.

He graduated from Princeton in 1904 and served as assistant football coach for the Tigers.

1902

Throwing for Princeton University 1903

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