Burton Strange

An avid sportsman, Al Strange participated in swimming, hockey, and American football while a student at Yale University and excelled in all three. He attended numerous collegiate swimming championships and travelled across the Atlantic on the Marble T in 1931, but it was his talent in football that sent him to the 1932 Summer Olympics. Selected as the left guard of the “East” team for the demonstration football event, Strange scored the East’s only touchdown after three scoreless quarters. Eddie Mays’ attempted conversion was blocked, however, and East lost 7-6 after a touchdown by Gaius Shaver and a successful extra point kick from Ed Kirwan in the dying minutes of the game.

Strange graduated from Yale in 1932 and Harvard Business School in 1934 and played rugby in New York before moving to Canada in the late 1930s. He fought in World War II as a member of the Canadian Navy, eventually becoming one of the Allies’ first frogmen. He returned to civilian life in 1947 and resumed his career as a stock broker until his retirement.