Caspar Whitney loved sports from his youth in California. He attended St. Matthew’s College in California, graduating in 1879, and was captain of the football, baseball, and lacrosse teams there. He then spent five years in the West and in Mexico, hunting, writing, exploring, and mining. He then settled back in New York, where he used his writing skill to start the New York Sportsman, a weekly newspaper devoted to sports. In 1888, however, he joined Harpers Weekly, first as a sports columnist and then as editor. The Sportsman folded in the 1890s, but Whitney then bought Outing Magazine, a monthly magazine on sports, serving as editor-in-chief. He also spent several years as a newspaper correspondent, covering sports and foreign affairs, including two as a war correspondent. In 1898 he reported on the Spanish-American War for Harpers and he covered World War I for the New York Tribune. He also edited Collier’s Outdoor America and, in 1913, became editor of Recreation. During World War I he was involved with the Commission for the Relief of Belgium, for which he was decorated by both the French and Belgium governments. Whitney also edited the 16-volume American Sportsman’s Library and was a fellow of the Royal Geographical Society of London and the American Geographical Society. He was known for his devotion to amateur sports. Serving from 1900-04, Whitney was the third American on the IOC. After his resignation from the IOC he served as President of the USOC from 1906-10.
United States