The 1920’s were called the “Golden Age of Sport”.  Athletes like Babe Ruth in baseball, Robert Jones in golf, Red Grange in football, Jack Dempsey in box and Paavo Nurmi in track and field dominated the sport pages.  Called the “Flying Finn” he competed in three Olympics 1920, 1924 and 1928, winning 9 gold medals and 3 silver medals.1  At a track meet at Stockholm on August 25, 1923, he set a time of 4 minutes 17 seconds for the mile becoming the world fastest man.2

(see image, Paavo Nurmi running in 1920 Olympics at Antwerp Belgium, Wikipedia)

Paavo Johannes Nurmi was born on 13 June 1897 in Turku, Finland,3 his father was a carpenter.  The young Nurmi was influenced by the exploits of Hannes Kolehmainen at the 1912 Stockholm Olympics winning the first medals for Finland.4  His talent for running was noticed during his military service and encouraged to train for the 1920 Olympics, which made his reputation as “The Flying Finn”.5

In the April 2025 issue of the Finnish American Reporter is an article about Paavo Nurmi, about his American tour in the winter and spring of 1925 throughout the United States and Canada6. Did Paavo Nurmi as part of the tour run in a meet in Cleveland?  To answer this question, I used Cleveland the Making of a City by William Ganson Rose which covers Cleveland history from 1796 to 1946.  On page 830, “The Finnish world champion runner Paavo Nurmi at the Public Auditorium on March 10 and won the international 1.5-mile race.”7