Tedford H. Cann - Early Life

Early Life

Cann was born in Bridgeport, Connecticut, into a family of accomplished sportsmen. His father, Frank Cann, was the director of physical education at New York University (NYU), which both Tedford and his older brother Howard Cann attended. Howard was an Olympic shot putter, a college basketball and football player, and the NYU men's basketball coach for 35 years.

Cann's swimming career began while he was still a teenager. He attended the High School of Commerce in New York City where he was Captain of the Basketball and Swimming Teams and competed in the New York Championships. Like his older brother he became a member of the Epsilon Chapter of the Omega Gamma Delta Fraternity. At age 17 he defeated Hawaiian swimmer Duke Kahanamoku, an event which he later declared was a greater thrill than being awarded the Medal of Honor. While a student at New York University, Cann also excelled in track and field, basketball, and football, where he played halfback as well as becoming a member of the Fraternity of Phi Gamma Delta.

Read more about this topic:  Tedford H. Cann

Famous quotes containing the words early and/or life:

    Pray be always in motion. Early in the morning go and see things; and the rest of the day go and see people. If you stay but a week at a place, and that an insignificant one, see, however, all that is to be seen there; know as many people, and get into as many houses as ever you can.
    Philip Dormer Stanhope, 4th Earl Chesterfield (1694–1773)

    In short, no association or alliance can be happy or stable without me. People can’t long tolerate a ruler, nor can a master his servant, a maid her mistress, a teacher his pupil, a friend his friend nor a wife her husband, a landlord his tenant, a soldier his comrade nor a party-goer his companion, unless they sometimes have illusions about each other, make use of flattery, and have the sense to turn a blind eye and sweeten life for themselves with the honey of folly.
    Desiderius Erasmus (c. 1466–1536)