At 6-7 (2.00), Charles Grimes played football for two years at Yale, as well as playing on the freshman basketball team and rowing for his entire college stay. In 1956 the Yale eight beat Harvard, but lost the Eastern Sprints. Despite this setback they persevered to win the Olympic Trials and take the Olympic gold medal without the loss of a race. Grimes entered law school after his 1957 graduation from Yale, and later became an independent financial advisor and investor. His wife, Jane Brown Grimes, was for a time chairman of the US Tennis Association.
United States