Irving Mondschein, a national champion in the decathlon and high jump in the 1940s, a college and Olympic coach and the patriarch of three generations of track and field stars, died on Friday in Hershey, Pa. He was 91.
His family announced his death.
Moon Mondschein, as he was known — his surname means moonlight in German — excelled in track and field’s supreme test, the 10 events of the decathlon. He won the National Amateur Athletic Union decathlon championship in 1944, ’46 and ’47 and was runner-up at the 1948 and ’49 nationals to Bob Mathias, a two-time Olympic decathlon champion.