Spartan Olympians: Clarke Scholes
CLARKE SCHOLES, Member, U.S. Olympic swimming team, Gold Medal, 100-meter freestyle, Summer Games in Helsinki, Finland, 1952
In 1952, Clarke Scholes, ’52, of Detroit, swept all the major 100-meter swimming titles—Big Ten, NCAA, AAU, and the Olympics in Helsinki.
“Just outstanding,” Scholes, now 77, says of his Olympics experience. “Nothing can top it. It’s a thrill beyond all thrills.”
In February he was inducted into the Michigan Sports Hall of Fame. A five-time NCAA champion, including three straight 100-yard freestyle titles, he was the first American sprinter to beat 50 seconds in the event. Scholes was inducted into the International Swimming Hall of Fame in 1980 and the MSU Athletics Hall of Fame in 1992.
Scholes never received a scholarship from MSU. He attended MSU on his own and did not go out for the swim team his freshman year. “I wanted to enjoy my college days and not swim three to four hours a day,” he recalls. But his coach at the Detroit Boat Club, Olympian diver Clarence Pinkston, persuaded Scholes to swim for coach Charles McCaffree.
A native of Grosse Pointe Park, Scholes learned to swim at age four when his father tossed him into Lake Erie. As a senior at Redford High School, he won the Detroit championship in 50-yard and 100-yard freestyle. He was not the fastest swimmer in the state, but after sitting out a year at MSU, he used some short workout techniques developed by Pinkston and soon became the world’s fastest swimmer.
Today Scholes is a retired manufacturer’s representative and known as much for his performances on stage at the Grosse Pointe Theatre. He gave up swimming in 1975 and plays tennis and golf. He remains a legend in “water basketbrawl”—a combination of water polo and basketball that is played by the “Beavers” at the Detroit Athletic Club.
“There’s a lot more rough-housing than in water polo,” he explains. “It allows grown men to behave like little boys and have a lot of fun.”