As President of the American Olympic Committee , Brundage fought strongly for amateurism and against the commercialization of the Olympic Games , even as these stands increasingly came to be seen as incongruous with the realities of modern sports . The advent of the state-sponsored athlete of the Eastern Bloc countries further eroded the ideology of the pure amateur , as it put the self-financed amateurs of the Western countries at a disadvantage . The 1972 Summer Olympics at Munich , West Germany were his final Games as president of the IOC . The event was marred by tragedy and controversy when eleven Israeli team members were murdered by Palestinian terrorists . At the memorial service , Brundage decried the politicization of sports and refused to cancel the remainder of the Olympics , declaring " the Games must go on . " Although those in attendance applauded Brundage 's statement , his decision to continue the Games has since been harshly criticized , and his actions in 1936 and 1972 were seen as evidence of anti-Semitism . In retirement , Brundage married his second wife , a German princess . He died in 1975 at age 87
murdered
Munich massacre
Avery Brundage