To understand the founding of the Olympic Club we must first become acquainted with an organization that was called The American Turners and with Charles and Arthur Nahl, two German brothers who themselves were Turners. In German, the common word for Gymnasium was Die Turnhalle and a gymnast was Ein Turner.
After the disastrous battle of Jena, on October 14, 1806, Germany was a mere province of France. Napoleon had so reduced the once proud Princes of Germany that they were reduced to squabbling and fighting amongst themselves. It was apparent that these “nobles” were mere servants of Napoleon trying by his favor to retain their separate fiefdoms as a reward for their treachery.
In this environment Friedrich Ludwig Jahn organized a group of young men dedicated to gymnastic exercise whose larger purpose was the promotion of German Nationalism and the end of alien domination by France. Jahn and his followers were instrumental in achieving German Unification in 1848. This movement grew in Germany and organizations, called Turnvereine, (Gymnastic Unions) were often established among immigrants coming to the United States, and several such groups were active in California at the time of the Gold Rush. The groups were well organized and nationally supported Abraham Lincoln during his 1860 campaign. It is even recorded that members of the organization served as his bodyguards at both his inauguration on March 4, 1861 and at his funeral.
Charles and Arthur Nahl certainly inherited healthy bodies and a love of athletic exercise from their German ancestors; we can only wonder what their political leanings might have been. From their boyhood days they had been accustomed to performing difficult feats in the gymnasium and soon interested other neighborhood boys in attempting similar accomplishments. As the Nahl brothers grew older, they accumulated gymnastic equipment in their backyard, and as early as 1855, their backyard and barn became a place where young men passed their leisure hours in developing their bodies. The two brothers and their coterie of accomplished athletes invited more young men to join in the afternoon exercises and the group grew rapidly. A few years later a young energetic lawyer named Reuben H. Lloyd suggested that those who were availing themselves of the Nahls’ hospitality should organize an athletic club.
On Sunday May 6, 1860 a small item appeared in the local newspaper: “Twenty-three young San Franciscans, not a ‘cheapjohn’ or vagabond among them, convened at the Lafayette Hook & Ladder Company Fire House on Broadway, and founded The Olympic Club.” Evidence that the Club’s programs were healthful is shown in Club records that indicate that 33 years later, in 1893, sixteen of those Founders were still alive and active in Club affairs!
