On This Day in History: July 20

The first Special Olympics

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Arnold Schwarzenegger has done some shit, not all of it good. But I always admired him for his support of the Special Olympics. It turns out, he has a family connection: his mother-in-law, who was sister to JFK, was a key figure in starting the event.

--On This Day in History, Shit Went Down: July 20, 1968--

Eunice Kennedy Shriver was close to her older sister Rosemary, who had an intellectual disability, causing her to have seizures and mood swings. In 1941, when Rosemary was 23, her father Joe Kennedy decided to have her lobotomized. It didn’t help, and she spent the rest of her life in an institution.

Influenced by this, Eunice became Executive VP of the Kennedy Family Foundation in 1957 and shifted it from Catholic charities to focus on intellectual disabilities. Then, in 1962, a frustrated mother spoke with Eunice about her inability to find a summer camp that would accept her additional-needs child. Eunice decided to turn her own home into a summer camp that was free for children with intellectual disabilities.

Eunice had been disheartened at how such children were seen by many as a burden and focused Camp Shriver on what the children could do, rather than what they couldn’t. In 1967, Anne McGlone (now Anne Burke, who is currently Chief Justice of the Illinois Supreme Court) was a physical education teacher with the Chicago Park District. After teaching special needs children she came up with the idea for hosting a citywide track meet for them, and contacted Shriver to ask for help.

Shriver was delighted with the idea, and opened the foundation’s purse strings, transforming the event from a track meet to a full-on Olympics-style event. The first Special Olympics was held on July 20, 1968, in Soldier Field, Chicago. A thousand athletes attended from the U.S. and Canada. In her opening address Shriver said to the assembled athletes, “Many of you will win, but even more important, I know you will be brave, and bring credit to your parents and your country.”

The Special Olympics World Games are now held every two years, alternating between summer and winter events, and attracts thousands of international athletes, supported by hundreds of thousands of volunteers and coaches.

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