This month’s Lunchbox Lecture features Thane Baker and Catherine Baker Nicholson, who will share Thane Baker’s experience running, with borrowed shoes and socks, in the 1952 Helsinki Olympics at the Nebraska History Museum on June 17 from 12 PM to 1 PM.
Baker is the oldest living United States Olympic medalist in track and the second oldest male track medalist in the world. Nicholson wrote a book about her father’s experiences in the 1952 Olympics called Running in Borrowed Shoes: Thane Baker and the 1952 Summer Games.
Event admission is free. LNKTV will record the lecture and make it available to the public.
Special thanks to the Nebraska State Historical Society Foundation for providing funding for the recording of this event.
About Thane Baker
Nebraska resident Thane Baker, at age ninety-three, is the oldest, living, United States Olympic medalist in track and the second oldest male track medalist in the world. A walk-on to the Kansas State track team, Baker earned a silver medal in the men’s two hundred meters in Helsinki, Finland, in the 1952 Olympics, wearing borrowed socks and shoes. Four years later, he won a gold medal in the four by one-hundred-meter relay, which set a world record, a silver medal in the one hundred meters, and a bronze medal in the two hundred meters at the 1956 Melbourne, Australia, Olympics.
About Catherine Baker Nicholson
Catherine Baker Nicholson is currently pursuing her PhD in Olympic history from the University of Nebraska-Lincoln. She also earned her law degree from the University of Texas School of Law and her Bachelor of Arts degree from Rice University, where she was a collegiate national champion in the 800-meter run. Nicholson wrote a book about her father’s experiences in the 1952 Olympics called Running in Borrowed Shoes: Thane Baker and the 1952 Summer Games.
