Irving "Moon" Mondschein (February 7, 1924 – June 5, 2015) was an American track and field athlete and college football player and coach.^[1][2]

Personal life

Mondschein, who was Jewish, was born in Brooklyn.^[1][3][4] He attended Boys High School, where he ran track.^[5] He also ran for the New York Pioneer Club.^[1][6] He entered the US Army in 1943.^[7] He became a member of the Pi Lambda Phi fraternal organization while attending New York University^[8] His son, Brian, was a world-class decathlete in the 1980s.^[7] His grandson, also named Brian, was an All-American pole vaulter at Virginia Tech.^[9]

Decathlon, high jump, and football career

Mondschein was AAU decathlon champion in 1944, and in 1946 and 1947.^[1][10] He won the 1944 Olympic trials and would have been the top American representative had the Olympic Games been held that year.^[11] He was NCAA high jump champion in both 1947 and 1948, competing for New York University.^[1][4][10] As of 2015, he still held NYU's record in the outdoor high jump—6 feet, 7¾ inches.^[9] He also played football as an end for NYU in 1946, earning All-East honors.^[7][10][12] He competed in the 1948 Olympics for the United States in decathlon, coming in eighth, as teammate Bob Mathias won the gold medal.^[1] In his career, he was ranked third in the world in outdoor high jump and tenth in the decathlon in 1947; sixth in the indoor high jump and eighth in the decathlon in 1948; and third in the outdoor high jump and sixth in the decathlon in 1949.^[13]

Coaching career

Mondschein later coached track, basketball, and football at Lincoln University in Oxford, Pennsylvania, starting in 1949.^[1][14] He coached the US track and field team at the 1950 Maccabiah Games, which included Olympian Henry Laskau (national champion and world record holder) who won a gold medal in racewalking, and was also an advisor to the Israeli Ministry of Education, helping for two years to prepare the country's athletes for the 1952 Olympics.^[15][1][7] Irv was also athletic coach (Track) at Lawrence High School, Cedarhurst, NY ( Nassau County) from 1956-65. He was then a coach at the University of Pennsylvania; first the assistant track coach (1965–79) and then the head coach (1979–87).^[7] He was also an assistant coach on the 1988 U.S. Olympic team.^[12] He was previously an assistant coach at Kutztown University of Pennsylvania,^[7] and also volunteered as an assistant coach at Haverford College. He also served as an assistant coach at La Salle University in Philadelphia.^[16]

Honors

Mondschein is a member of the Philadelphia Jewish Sports Hall of Fame, the New York Jewish Sports Hall of Fame, and the National Jewish Sports Hall of Fame.^[12][17][18] He is also a member of the NYU Athletics Hall of Fame, and the U.S. Track & Field and Cross-Country Coaches Association Hall of Fame.^[9][19]

Head coaching record

References

External links

• University of Pennsylvania profile