I N T H E S TA C K S
Detroit and the Olympics Detroit has tried to host the Olympic Games more than any other American city. Nine times, to be exact. The city came closest in 1968. Papers at the Bentley show how Detroit went for the gold—but came up short. By Heather L. Dichter
CAN YOU IMAGINE AN OLYMPIC GAMES IN DETROIT? The Motor City angled for every Summer Olympic Games beginning in 1939 through 1972. Detroit rarely garnered many votes from the International Olympic Committee (IOC), but the best chance the city had was for the 1968 Olympics. The people behind Detroit’s bid included prominent Detroiters as well as representatives from Ford, General Motors, Chrysler, Detroit Edison, Parke Davis, and the city’s largest bank, Detroit Bank & Trust, known today as Comerica. The city also had the support of Michigan Governor George Romney and Douglas F. Roby, a former U-M football and baseball player, who graduated in 1923. Roby became a prominent American sports leader involved in the Amateur Athletic Union (AAU), United States Olympic Committee (USOC), and the Pan American Games. He was also an IOC member from 1952 through 1985. Both Roby and Romney donated their papers to the Bentley Historical Library, and their collections show the political challenges confronting Detroit during this time, including Cold War politics and an infrastructure on the decline.
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In the early 1960s, the period of distrust and enmity between the United States and the Soviet Union—and its allies—known as the Cold War, was still in full effect. The erection of the Berlin Wall in August 1961 hardened the West’s position against East Germany. NATO tightened travel restrictions on East German citizens and on their national sports teams. However, East Germany was not barred from the Olympics because they competed on a combined German Olympic team with West German athletes. This meant that the IOC would be inclined to pick a country to which the East Germans could travel to compete—potentially ruling out Detroit as a host city. Roby jumped in to liaise between the Detroit bid committee and the U.S. State Department to prevent travel restrictions from hurting Detroit’s chances to win the Olympic Games. Roby was in frequent contact with the State Department about this matter, trying to make sure that a letter guaranteeing free travel, which Detroit provided, was accepted by the IOC. Meanwhile, the USOC selected Detroit as the America’s candidate city in October 1962, meaning the first hurdle was cleared. Now, Detroit could move on to the next round of selection against other candidate cities across the world. However, Los Angeles officials weren’t inclined to let Detroit through; they fought the USOC’s decision for the next five months. Romney and Detroit mayor Jerome P. Cavanagh attended the special USOC meeting in New York City in March 1963 that officially ended Los Angeles’s hopes and reaffirmed Detroit as the American candidate city for the 1968 Summer Olympics. “This was the greatest vote of confidence ever placed in Detroit and Michigan,” Governor Romney said of the victory.
