Bill Schmidt
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| Born | December 29, 1947 (age 69) | ||||||||||||||||||
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Bill Schmidt (born December 29, 1947) is a retired male American javelin thrower from the Pittsburgh suburb of Southview, Pennsylvania. He is the son of Helen and Louis Schmidt, and won the bronze medal at the 1972 Summer Olympics.
His dad was born in Germany and came to the United States at the age of 7. His dad was a coal miner for 29 years and marched with John L Lewis, the UMW organizer and President. Bill is the youngest of seven children, six boys and one girl. He has an identical twin named Bob Schmidt.
He attended Canon McMillan Senior High School in Canonsburg, Pennsylvania and competed in football and track and field. He played linebacker and threw the javelin. His personal best in the javelin was 204'4". He played American Legion Baseball and made the Western Pennsylvania All Star Team. He also had a tryout with professional baseball. Bill graduated in June 1965.
In 1966 he was a walkon track and field athlete at North Texas State University (later named University of North Texas) in Denton, TX. He later earned a full scholarship, throwing the javelin. His sophomore year his best throw was 219'2", his junior year 253'1" and his senior year 280'7". He earned All American honors and placed second at the NCAA Championships in 1970 at Des Moines, IA. He was also named track captain his senior year. He graduated in August 1970 with a Bachelor of Business Administration (BBA) degree with a major in Business and minors in Psychology and Personnel Management. He competed in the World University Games in Turin, Italy in September 1970.
On September 20, 1970 he was drafted into the United States Army. He did his Basic Training at Ft. Dix, NJ and his Advanced Infantry Training at Ft. Polk, LA. He was stationed at Ft. Ord, CA, Ft. MacArthur, CA and The United States Military Academy at West Point, NY. He competed in the CISM (Conseil International du Sport Militaire) Games, the World Military Championships with competition in over 20 sports and 40 countries. He won the military championships, setting a new world military record in the javelin at Turku, Finland in August 1971.
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