This article from the Dunn County Historical Society was posted on their Facebook page earlier this month. Shared here with permission.
Athletics events (track and field) begin today at the Paris Olympics. Here's the story of a Menomonie Olympian:
Frank Waller was a Menomonie high school student and standout track athlete. He graduated in 1902 and enrolled at the University of Wisconsin, joining the track team there. In the third modern Olympiad held in St. Louis in 1904, Waller claimed silver medals in the men's 400 meters and 400-meter hurdles, finishing behind gold medalist Harry Hillman in both events.
The St. Louis games were the first to be staged in the United States with only 13 nations sending athletes. More than 500 of the 687 competing athletes were Americans. The Sept. 1, 1904, Menomonie Times proclaimed "Frank has won a reputation for himself and the state he represents. We are glad to claim him as a Menomonie boy."
His athletic achievements continued and, in the years following the Olympics, he was the U.S. champion in the men's 440 yards in 1905 and 1906, and the 220-yard hurdles while competing for the Milwaukee Athletic Club.
Waller graduated from the University of Wisconsin in 1907 and went on to tour with the singer Lillian Russell as her pianist. He later served as a voice coach and headed the voice department at the Kansas City Conservatory of Music.
During his career, Waller served as director of the Milwaukee Philharmonic Orchestra, the National Broadcasting Company in New York, and the WPA Orchestra in Richmond. Among the singers he coached were Charles Sears, Edith Mason, Rosa Raisa, Alice Neilsen, Luisa Tetrazzini, Frances Peralta and Olga Blani.
