Brundage, Avery

Avery Brundage was an American amateur athlete, sports official, art collector, and philanthropist. He was born in Detroit in 1887 but moved to Chicago when a young child. Brudage competed in the 1912 Olympics and was the US national all-around athlete in 1914, 1916 and 1918. Rising to president of the Amateur Athletic Union, Brundage became the president of the United States Olympic Committee in 1929 and rejected any idea of a boycott of the 1936 Summer Olympics that were to be held in the capital of Nazi Germany. He became the fifth president of the International Olympic Committee in 1952; he held that position for 20 years and retired in 1972. An opponent of mixing politics and sports, he was subsequently acknowledged for his even-keeled handling of the 1972 Summer Olympics in Munich following the terrorist massacre of Israeli athletes there. Brundage died in 1975 in Germany. In addition to his role in sports, Brundage was a noted collector of Asian art, most of which is at the Asian Art Museum of San Francisco (Brundage helped create the institution). The letter is written on Comité International Olympique letterhead (with envelope).