To say the Yanks were excited to arrive in Paris for the 1924 Summer Olympics is an understatement. Some 350 of them sailed from New York. They were at sea for more than a week, training on the deck of a ship moving slowly across the Atlantic.
The U.S. Rugby team, forbidden to disembark in Boulogne because of a visa snafu, charged off the ship anyway, scattering the gendarmes. “You watch us!” athlete Norman Cleaveland yelled at them. “See if we get off this boat!”
