Bellmore High School

Indiana's Lost Olympian--Orval Martin Orval Martin was the second of ten children born to Edith and Preston "Dick" Martin near Ferndale, Indiana, (just east of Rockville in Parke County) and attended Bellmore High School. He would win the mile at the 1926 IHSAA state finals and place second in the National Interscholastic Meet. Martin's years at Purdue would produce nine Big Ten championships. He won the 880-yard run indoors in 1928 and 1930 and outdoors in 1929. He also won the mile indoors in 1929 and 1930 and outdoors in 1928, 1929 and 1930. He also won the cross country championship in 1929. During that time, Orval also won five Indiana Intercollegiate championships. Record-setting times were established by Martin at the Drake Relays in the two-mile run and the 1500-meter run, as well as in the 1000-yard run at the Illinois Relays. Orval won the half mile at the 1930 NCAA Championships at Stagg Field in Chicago in record time (1:54.2), his greatest thrill since it was set in his last collegiate meet. As a result of these performances, Martin earned Purdue's first All-American honors. In his sophomore year in 1928, Martin ran in the United States Olympic Trials at Harvard, winning a place on the United States team that would participate in Amsterdam. At that time, four runners qualified for the Olympic team and he had placed fourth. Martin was then fitted for his official United States Olympic uniform and told where and when to meet the ship to Amsterdam. He learned just before the ship left that Olympic Coach Lawson Robertson of Pennsylvania and the selection committee had replaced him with the 800-meter winner Lloyd Hahn from the Boston Athletic Club. College coaches all over the country were up in arms and American Olympic Association president Avery Brundage cited this case as a reason not to give star athletes any special treatment at the next Olympic Trials. After graduating, Martin ran for the Los Angeles Athletic Club and trained for the 1932 Los Angeles Olympics. He never retained his conditioning, though, and paid to see the Olympics of Los Angeles as a spectator. Martin would return to Purdue as their track coach from 1932-1937. Shortly after leaving Purdue University, Martin was hired at Lafayette Jefferson as a teacher of agriculture and biology, in addition to his work as director of the track program. He would remain in that position from 1937 until his retirement in 1971. Martin's Jefferson teams had much success, especially in the relay events.