He was AAUdecathlon champion in 1944, and in 1946 and 1947.[1][10] He won the 1944 Olympic Trials and would have been the top American representative had the Olympic Games been held that year.[11] He was NCAAhigh jump champion in both 1947 and 1948, competing for New York University.[1][4][10] As of 2015, he still held NYU's record in the outdoor high jump—6 feet, 7¾ inches.[9] He also played football as an end for NYU in 1946, earning All-East honors.[7][10][12] He competed in the 1948 Olympics for the United States in decathlon, coming in eighth, as teammate Bob Mathias won the gold medal.[1] In his career, he was ranked third in the world in outdoor high jump and tenth in the decathlon in 1947; sixth in the indoor high jump and eighth in the decathlon in 1948; and third in the outdoor high jump and sixth in the decathlon in 1949.[13]
Coaching career
He later coached track, basketball, and football at Lincoln University in Oxford, Pennsylvania, starting in 1949.[1][14] He coached the US track and field team at the 1950 Maccabiah Games, which included Olympian Henry Laskau (national champion and world record holder) who won a gold medal in racewalking, and was also an advisor to the Israeli Ministry of Education, helping for two years to prepare the country's athletes for the 1952 Olympics.[15][1][7] Irv was also athletic coach (Track) at Lawrence High School, Cedarhurst, NY ( Nassau County) from 1956-65. He was then a coach at the University of Pennsylvania; first the assistant track coach (1965–79) and then the head coach (1979–87).[7] He was also an assistant coach on the 1988 U.S. Olympic team.[12] He was previously an assistant coach at Kutztown University,[7] and also volunteered as an assistant coach at Haverford College. He also served as an assistant coach at La Salle University in Philadelphia.[16]