LA CROSSE, Wis. — In the All-American City of La Crosse, Wisconsin, a little-known secret is finally being revealed.
"I think that knowledge is growing over time," UW-La Crosse Assistant Professor and Archivist Laura Godden says. "I'd say in the 1990s that that knowledge was very limited. He was on the La Crosse High School track team."
Yet like the snow-covered track at La Crosse Central High School, the story of George Poage was mostly silent.
"I feel like if his skin would have been a different color that La Crosse would have had something named after him long before it did," Godden says.
In 1904, Poage became the first Black American to win an Olympic medal with two bronze finishes.
"George Poage was wronged at many turns," Godden says. "It's unfortunate that he's no longer alive and can't see how he's finally being recognized and appreciated for the person that he was."
The university didn't exist back then. But in this city, Poage ran track and was the salutatorian of his class when he became one of the first Black people to graduate from La Crosse High School.
"I imagine that life couldn't have been particularly easy for him," Godden says. "Being a person of color and taking on all these first roles."
Later at UW-Madison, he became the first Black athlete to win a Big Ten conference track championship.
"As many people that thought he was a talented person that must be encouraged, there were probably people that thought that he shouldn't be doing these things because of the color of his skin and he probably faced racism every day of his life," Godden says.
That's when he caught the eye of the Milwaukee Athletic Club who sponsored him to run in St. Louis and bring home two medals from the 1904 Olympic Games.
"He wasn't the type to back down," Godden says. "I mean when you're that kind of athlete that you succeed and you win and you medal, I think that's a good metaphor for why sports build character. Sports build leaders."
Poage didn't mind being outspoken. When civil rights activists urged boycotting the Games because fans would be segregated, Poage felt strongly to run anyway.
"I think that he did have some strong convictions," Godden says. "I think that he did have a personality that he was looking to address these sorts of things."
Yet for years, Poage's story buried racism and more.
"And then when he went to St. Louis and he was fired from his teaching job," Godden says. "The records don't spell it out explicitly. But from the other evidence gathered, it was most likely because he was gay."
Over decades, Poage wasn't even well known in La Crosse. Finally, in the '90s archivists at UW-La Crosse pushed a spotlight on him with a city monument in his honor.
TMJ4 Lance Allan said, "Now here in La Crosse, they have the renamed George Poage park. But unfortunately during his lifetime, he never received his flowers."
Now as the Olympics have grown into a billion-dollar global phenomenon, at long last, some are realizing Wisconsin holds a historical starting point for a first in Black athletic history.
"Maybe if the Olympics wanted to honor Black athletes at some point, to see George Poage honored with other memorable Black athletes that are household names like Jesse Owens," Godden says.
