George Nissen
George Peter Nissen
Background
Born on February 3, 1914, in Blairstown, Iowa, to Franklin C. Nissen and Catherine M. (Jensen) Nissen, George became a keen gymnast in high school and won three NCAA gymnastics championships while a student at the University of Iowa. Nissen went to high school at Washington High School in Cedar Rapids, Iowa.[3] Nissen was also an initiated member of the Pi Kappa Alpha fraternity while he was in school. He had seen circus trapeze artists use their safety nets as an elastic bed to rebound and perform additional tricks. He thought that this would be useful training tool for his tumbling. In 1934, Nissen and his coach, Larry Griswold, built the prototype trampoline from angle iron with a canvas bed and rubber springs. Nissen used it to help with his training and to entertain children at a summer camp.
After he had graduated in Business Studies in 1937, Nissen and two friends toured the United States of America and Mexico performing at fairs and carnivals. While in Mexico, he heard the word trampolín, springboard in Spanish, and decided to use it for his bouncing apparatus. He trademarked the word in an anglicised form. He built a few trampolines and promoted the sale of his trampolines by touring performances, which did gradually increase sales. In 1941, he and Griswold set up the Griswold-Nissen Trampoline & Tumbling Company in Cedar Rapids, Iowa.
Career
During World War II, the trampoline was used to train
Nissen continued to have an influence on gymnastics and trampolining. In 1971, with Larry Griswold, he founded the
Later years
Nissen remained involved in a trampoline manufacturing business making trampolines for exercise and for space ball, a game similar to volleyball but played on a trampoline surface.
Nissen had always wanted to have trampolining included in the Olympic Games. This finally happened in the 2000 Summer Olympics in Sydney. At 86 years old, Nissen attended the 2000 Olympics accompanied by his daughter Dian Nissen. Nissen was also able to travel to Beijing, China for the 2008 Summer Olympics with Dian and his grandson. He was given the honor of testing out the Olympic trampoline before the event.
He died in San Diego, California on April 7, 2010, at the age of 96 from complications from pneumonia.[4]
References
- ^ U.S., Social Security Death Index, 1935-2014
- ^ Nelson, Valerie J. (2010-04-10). "George Nissen dies at 96; inventor of the modern trampoline". Los Angeles Times. Retrieved 2010-04-18.
- ^ McDonell, Terry, ed. (April 26, 2010). "For the Record: Died". Sports Illustrated. 112 (18). Time: 18.
- ^ Death of George Nissen
- Biography of George Nissen
- "Inventor of the Week Archive - George Nissen". Massachusetts Institute of Technology, MIT School of Engineering. March 2004. Archived from the original on 2004-05-02. Retrieved 2007-04-13.
See also
- "George Nissen jumping on trampoline with kangaroo (photograph)". ABC News (Australian Broadcasting Corporation).