July 31, 1928

Lonoke (Lonoke County) native long-jumper Eddie Hamm broke the Olympic record and won a gold medal with a leap of 25′ 4 ¾” at the 1928 Olympics in Amsterdam, Holland. After the Olympics, he was part of a track and field team that toured England and Germany, winning the long jump in every meet. Hamm graduated from Georgia Tech in 1928, served as the school’s track coach for a few years, and then spent the rest of his life in private business, much of it as an executive with Coca-Cola on the West Coast and in Alaska.