By Rit Carter
On Labor Day, Sept. 3, 1923, nearly 8,000 spectators passed through the 50-foot archway of Bridgeport’s Seaside Park for the American Legion Track and Field Meet. They arrived by trolley, train and motorcar to see one of New England’s most important meets.
Governed by the Amateur Athletic Union (AAU), 417 athletes from all over the East fought for track and field supremacy in Connecticut’s premier event.
On the women’s side of the ledger, some were there to see the New York State champion, Miss Katherine Carlson. She was running in the 100-yard dash representing City National Bank.
Carlson was battle-tested, having run against New York’s top sprinters, including Blanche Dixon, the captain of the U.S. team that went to Paris the year before.
The buzz through the park, though, concerned a 23-year-old Bristol runner named Florence Merrill and her entry in the 100-yard dash.
In July of 1922, running for the New Departure Athletic Association, she bested the much-favored Connecticut State champion, Carrie Gerard, in the 100-yard dash, to become the state champion.
And in September of that year, in the 50-yard dash, she had her most significant win when she broke the tape ahead of American Olympian Camilla Sabie.
Entering the Labor Day meet, Florence had won every Connecticut race she entered in 1923.
As the sounds of summer floated above the breeze from Long Island Sound, those who crowded around the eight-lane cinder track that afternoon had no idea that they would see the Bristol runner make history and stake her claim to be on the 1924 women’s Olympic team.
Becoming Florence Merrill
Florence E. Merrill was born in Bristol on Dec. 10, 1900. She was the second of four children to Ernest and Edith Merrill.
Census records show the family lived on Race Street, then Peacedale, and eventually settled on Burlington Avenue. Florence attended Bristol schools and worked as a stenographer for National Bank, but she excelled in athletics in an era when women were not encouraged to.
After enduring a world war and a pandemic, Americans needed a distraction going into the 1920s, and they found it in sports as both a recreational and spectator activity.
Stadiums and gymnasiums were built, professional and amateur leagues emerged, and athletes like Babe Ruth, Jack Dempsey, Jim Thorpe, Johnny Weissmuller and Red Grange became household names. However, it would be another decade before the first woman received similar recognition when Babe Didrikson won two gold and one silver medal at the 1932 Olympiad.
Due to their supposed weak, fragile and different bodies, women’s participation was limited in most Olympic competitions since their inception in 1894. As a result, in 1922, Alice Milliat, a pioneer in women’s athletics, organized an international competition called the Women’s World Games (also called the 1922 Female Olympics). There were 11 events, including the first international track and field competition for female athletes.
With societal norms as a backdrop discouraging women from participating in sports, Florence pushed back against that narrative and became Connecticut’s premier female athlete.
The Journal (of Meriden) wrote of her, “Miss Merrill is head and shoulders above the other Connecticut girl sprinters.”
While The Hartford Courant went further by writing that she was “one of the best girl track prospects in the country.”
Top Row: – Joseph Carroll, Coach; Alice McCarthy, Florence Merrill, Margaret McLoughlin | New Departure News
She dominated women’s track and field in Connecticut and, as captain of the New Departure Girls basketball team, led them in scoring during the 1922-1923 season. Her talents flourished as a sprinter, though.
Florence ran the 50-, 75- and 100-yard dashes and the 450 relay. The 100 was her primary focus, gaining her notoriety as she piled up the wins, including state championships in 1922 and 1923. Her accomplishments garnered significant attention and Olympic consideration on a track at Bridgeport’s Seaside Park on Labor Day 1923.
Labor Day Sept. 3, 1923, Bridgeport
Florence was coming off a championship win in Stamford on July 4. It was her second consecutive state championship, and she was hardly challenged.
Coming into Labor Day, there were whispers about Florence being on the Olympic team, but the whispers became talk by the end of the meet.
The festivities started at 2 p.m. Moderate temperatures and a slight east-to-south breeze greeted the athletes as they paraded into the park with Olympic splendor. The host Bridgeport team came in with winged Bs on their jerseys and a colorful display.
Florence was entered in a 450-yard relay with her New Departure teammates, but her entry in the “special” 100-yard race raised considerable interest.
Making history
The runners for the 100 yard-dash were called to the cinder track, which was a combination of crushed stone, ash and asphalt, and required runners to use longer spikes to pierce the surface. The track was installed after the 1921 season and was in great shape for the day’s races.
As she readied herself for the 100, track observers noted that the Bristol runner was exceptionally nervous. Maybe it was the Olympic talk surrounding her, the size of the crowd or her desire to avenge her second-place finish at this very track the year before.
Whatever the cause, it resulted in her having a false start. As runners wandered in frustration, track officials conferred. They organized a restart and per the rules at the time, penalized Florence by moving her back one yard, forcing her to run 101 yards. This makes what happened next remarkable.
The starter gathered the sprinters, provided the race instructions again and lined them up. The runners were then told, “On your mark,” signaling that they move forward to the starting line which was slowly being worn away.
When they were settled, the starter studied the line and then directed them to “Get set” to which the runners pressed their fingertips and a knee into the gritty sharped edged small bits of stone.
With the anticipation growing and the cheering and clapping building, the starting gun was fired.
The runners pushed off their marks and surged forward. Their spikes gripped the track, kicking up small specs of stone and chalk from the running lanes.
With a burst of acceleration, Florence took the lead at the five-yard mark and quickly separated from the pack. With her gaze locked on the finish line and the sounds of the other runners and cheering crowd diminishing with each stride, this was now her race.
Athletes often discuss how to find another gear—the ability to go beyond one’s normal range and capacity. The 23-year-old Bristol sprinter found that gear this day in an untapped reservoir of speed and energy. While her worthy opponents went about determining who came in second, Florence was busy running into the history books.
When Florence broke the tape, she finished four yards ahead of the next runner, the New York Champion Katherine Carlson. It was a dominating performance. Impressed by her display, fans gave her a long and loud ovation.
As the usual congratulations between competitors were exchanged, a commotion surrounding her final time emerged. Several timekeepers clocked her at 12 seconds, while another had her at an astonishing 11.8 seconds. After a discussion amongst the timekeepers, her time was carded at 12 seconds, resulting in Florence tying the women’s world record in the 100-yard dash.
If not for the false start and the penalty, Bristol’s Florence Merrill would have not only toppled the record but shattered the record.
Headlines regaled Merrill and her performance in Bridgeport.
Headlines and news stories about her achievement were splashed across Connecticut newspapers. “The Bristol girl has repeatedly demonstrated that she is one of the best sprinters in the country, but her performance yesterday dazzled the spectators,” the Hartford Courant gushed.
On to Newark
Following her historic day in Bridgeport, Florence traveled to the national track and field championships in New Jersey.
On Sept. 29, 12,000 spectators crowded into Newark’s Weequahic Park to see 200 of the nation’s top female athletes from 12 organizations. They were from Boston, Philadelphia, Baltimore, New York and New Jersey. Ever proud of its Olympic hopeful, Bristol sent a large contingent to Newark.
Florence only entered the 100-yard dash and easily qualified for the semi-finals. Unfortunately, she took fifth place overall. According to coaches and competitors, she had run too much and too hard and had gone tired and stale.
1924 was expected to be a promising year for the Bristol sprinter because she was one of the leading candidates for the Olympic team, but it was not meant to be.
Due to the biases of the times, the International Olympic Committee decided that the women’s events at the 1924 Paris Games would be limited to tennis and swimming. Consequently, the ambitions of the track and field athletes and many others were thwarted.
It was not until Amsterdam in 1928 that women made inroads with five events, which included Track and Field. By then, Florence was no longer a competitive runner.
In October of 1926, she married Harold Grace at St. Joseph rectory. Harold was employed at New Departure as a traffic manager. They had a daughter and, eventually, grandchildren.
Florence worked for United Bank & Trust Co. for 36 years, retiring in 1965. She lived out her days in Bristol and passed away in 1980 at 79.
Summary
The 1920s are called the Golden Age of American Sports. With increased newspaper coverage and the advent of radio, fans could follow their favorite teams and athletes like never before. But during that time, female athletes were not on equal footing, despite valiantly trying to establish themselves.
They had to scratch, claw and fight for every piece of real estate they gained, and the gains did not come easy or quickly.
As recently as 1971, women were not allowed to compete in the Boston Marathon, the world’s oldest and most known road race.
Before Title IX and the recent advent of name, image and likeness, there was Florence Merrill and her contemporaries who just wanted an opportunity to participate, and when they did, they did so with the same competitive spirit and vigor as the men.
Although her achievements have been surpassed and mostly forgotten, Florence Edith Merrill from Bristol, Conn., for a brief time, stood atop the women’s track and field world shoulder to shoulder with the era’s other great female athletes. It is certainly an accomplishment still worthy today of inspiring, remembering and acknowledging.
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