New Aquisition - Gurney Godfrey Scrapbooks, donated to ISHOF by, Liz Mader

Gurney Godfrey was a well-known swimmer and diver at the Buffalo (NY) YMCA in the early

1920’s.  The scrapbooks contain a treasure trove of photos and news articles from the era, not only locally, but nationally and internationally, with many original photos and articles of the stars of the day. An example is this studio photo of Gurney, with his “friend and Pal,” the sensational George Young, winner of the 1927 William Wrigley Ocean Marathon.

“My grandfather, Gurney J. Godfrey, swam in high school and at the local YMCA.  He lived in Buffalo, NY and swam and dived against a lot of Olympic swimmers. He made a scrapbook of articles and when he died, my mom got the books.  She died in 1993 and I found the books in her closet. They were in a box and had fallen apart. The box sat in my closet since then and I decided to donate it to the Swimmers Hall of Fame.  Hope you can use these articles. I also have some medals.  You will see pictures of him diving and swimming. My mother said he could have gone to the Olympics (1928), but he married my grandmother instead.  He and my grandmother became famous flyfishermen and went all of the world.  Hope this helps, Liz”