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So Much History

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Track and Field

The Black Track and Field Athletes from the past have made enormous contributions to the sport. Those track and field athletes had to face immense challenges and pressure to compete. Many thanks to the trailblazers who triumphed over oppression, racism and sexism that change the sport for the better. Their talent, courage, and determination paved the way for Black representation in sport.

The track and field athletes today owe so much to the pioneers of yesterday. From the first African American to win an Olympic gold medal, John Baxter Taylor, and the first the Black woman to win an Olympic gold medal, Audrey Patterson – the Black male and female track and field athletes are milestone makers, major achievers, and record setters that have revolutionize the sport.

We all know the exploits of Jesse Owens, and Wilma Rudolph, on the track. However these men and women weren’t just athletes, but were civil right advocates. When Rudolph returned to her hometown of Clarksville, Tennessee after her Olympic success, she found out that a parade and banquet would be held in her honor. She refused to attend when she learned the events would be racially segregated. Because of her protest, the celebrations became the first integrated events in her town.

Another was sprinter Wyomia Tyus, who wore Black running shorts in the 1968 Olympics, instead of team-issued white ones, to support the Olympic Project for Human Rights – an organization formed to protest racial segregation and racism in sports. Lee Evans wore a Black beret during the same Olympics for the same support. And as for John Carlos and Tommie Smith, their protest is legendary.

What about the Tennessee State Tigerbelles coached by Ed Temple, or Louise Stokes and Tidye Pickett, the first two Black females to qualify for the Olympics? And there is Earlene Brown who would become the first American woman to earn an Olympic medal in the shot put. Their stories and athletic achievements should be recognized and is every bit as important as the most famous ones.
Wilma Rudolph
Ralph Metcalf
Evelyn Ashford
Ralph Boston
Alice Coachman
Rafer Johnson
Eddie Tolan
Audrey Patterson
Bob Beamon
Edwin Moses
Edith McGuire
George Coleman Poage
Lee Evans
Flo-Jo
John Baxter Taylor
William DeHart Hubbard
Wyomia Tyus
Tennessee State
Tigerbelles
Gwen Torrence
Louise Stokes
Tidye Pickett
Renaldo Nehemiah
Valerie Brisco-Hooks
Tommie Smith
John Carlos
Jim Hines
Earlene Brown
LeRoy Burrell
Mae Faggs-Starr
Jackie Joyner-Kersee
Carl Lewis
Chandra Cheeseborough
of
Jesse Owens Wilma Rudolph Ralph Metcalfe Evelyn Ashford Ralph Boston Alice Coachman Rafer Johnson Eddie Tolan Audrey Patterson Bob Beamon Edwin Moses Edith McGuire George Coleman Poage Lee Evans Flo Jo John Baxter Taylor William DeHart Hubbard Wyomia Tyus Tennessee State University Tigerbelles Gwen Torrence Louise Stokes and Tidye Pickett Renaldo Nehemiah Valerie Brisco-Hooks Tommie Smith and John Carlos Jim Hines Earlene Brown Leroy Burrell Mae Faggs-Starr Jackie Joyner-Kersee Carl Lewis Chandra Cheeseborough

Jesse Owens

He was the first American to win four track and field medals in one Olympics, doing it as a Black man in 1936, made it all the more sweeter. James Cleveland Owens was the youngest of ten children was born on a tenant farm in Oakville, Alabama, March September 12th 1913. Jesse migrated with his family to Cleveland, OH, for better opportunities, as part of the Great Migration in 1922. When his new teacher asked his name, he said “J.C.”, but because of his strong Southern accent, she thought he said “Jesse”. The name took, and he was known as Jesse Owens for the rest of his life.

Owens's athletic talent was first noted at Fairmount Junior High School by his track coach. Jesse set a new junior high school record when he ran the 100-yard dash in 11 seconds flat. While at Fairmount, he also set records in the high jump and the long jump. Wishing to aid his struggling family, the practical Owens enrolled at East Technical High School in 1930, believing that a vocational education would guarantee future employment. As a high school senior in 1933 Jesse Owens won the 100-yard dash, the 200-yard dash, and the broad jump in the National Interscholastic Championships.

While as a student of East Technical High School in Cleveland, Owens first came to national attention. He equaled the world record of 9.4 seconds in the 100-yard dash and long-jumped 24 feet 9 1⁄2 inches at the 1933 National High School Championship. Owens was such a complete athlete, a coach said he seemed to float over the ground when he ran. He won the state championship three consecutive years. Owens’ sensational high school track career resulted in him being recruited by dozens of colleges.

Owens’s greatest achievement came in a span of 45 minutes on May 25, 1935, during Big Ten Championships, when he tied one world record and set 3 world records on the same day. Jesse entered the Big Ten Championships in 1935 with a sore back after falling down a flight of stairs. He set set world records in the long jump, 220-yard dash and 220-yard hurdles (22.6 seconds, becoming the first to break 23 seconds). Jesse recorded an official time of 9.4 seconds in the 100-yard dash, again tying the world record.

His long-jump record of 26 feet, 8 1/4 inches stood for 25 years. It remains a feat that has never been equaled. Some have called this incredible showing “the greatest single day performance in athletic history.” His dominance at the Big Ten games was par for the course for Owens that year. That year saw him win four events at the NCAA Championships, two events at the Amateur Athletic Union (AAU) Championships, and three others at the Olympic Trials. In all, Owens competed in 42 events that year, winning them all earning him the title "The Buckeye Bullet".

Owens was a star track performer in college, but he also faced major challenges. His school did not offer scholarships for track and field, as the sport was not as well respected back then, so Owens had to work a series of jobs throughout college to pay for his tuition. In addition, the University did not allow Owens to live on campus because of his race. Owens, like many Black Americans during this time period, was subject to racist treatment and was often discriminated against.

Ralph Boston

He was the first person to long jump more than twenty-seven feet. Track star and medalist in the 1960, 1964, and 1968 Olympic games, Ralph Boston was born in Laurel, Mississippi on May 9, 1939. Boston was born the youngest of ten children. As a Black child growing up in the Jim Crow South, Boston knew hard work at a young age. He rose early with his father to work in the fields before attending class at Oak Park Vocational School.

One of his earliest memories is of riding a mule-pulled wagon across the railroad tracks with his father, from his all-Black neighborhood of Queensburg and into the white community. It was then that he first noticed a stark contrast: the streets, the housing, the parks, and other facilities in White neighborhoods were far superior to those in Queensburg. When he was not working or studying, Boston enjoyed swimming in a creek outside Laurel, and after the city opened the Blacks-only Oak Park Pool, he became a lifeguard at the facility.

Ralph Boston was a track and field star in both his junior and senior high school years. He was virtually a one-man track team, winning or placing in hurdling, throwing, sprinting, and jumping events. His Oak Park team continued its run of high school track championships. He set a national high school record in the 180-yard hurdles and excelled as the school’s starting quarterback in football and their star forward in basketball. Boston was an elite quarterback and led the Oak Park Dragons to the Negro state football championship.

As a senior, he received scholarship offers to play football, but followed the advice of his mother, Eulalia, and his track coach, Joseph Frye, to pursue a career in track and field. In later interviews, he gave credit for his successes to the dedicated teachers at Oak Park, who also provided him with a solid academic foundation despite the lack of access to adequate educational resources and facilities. Upon graduating from Oak Park in 1957, Boston was offered a track scholarship at Tennessee State University in Nashville, Tennessee.

Boston enrolled at Tennessee State University, where he studied biochemistry. He started competing in high and low hurdles, high jump, and triple jump. His signature event, however, was the long jump. He won the 1960 Collegiate long jump title. In August, he burst onto the national scene at a conditioning meet in Los Angeles that served as a final tune up before the 1960 Rome Olympics. At the MT SAC Relays, an athletics event at San Antonio College in California, he jumped 26ft 11in, three inches longer than Jesse Owens had managed in 1935.

The U.S. track team broke four world records in that event, but it was Boston’s long jump — of 26 feet, 11 inches — that made the biggest headlines. That year he was selected as a World Athlete of the Year and as the North American Athlete of the Year. Later that year, in 1960, he travelled to Rome for the Olympics. Boston triumphed in Rome. Boston then broke the Olympic record (26 foot 7½ inches) to win the gold medal in Rome. Boston had just turned 21 and he had outleaped a legend.

Ralph Metcalfe

He competed in both the 1932 and 1936 Olympic Games, ending up with one gold medal, two silvers and a bronze. Ralph Metcalfe was born in Atlanta, Georgia and raised in Chicago, Illinois. His family moved north to Chicago when he was seven, during the early years of what became known as the Great Migration. Metcalfe excelled as a sprinter at Tilden Tech High School on the city’s south side, where his coach instilled in him a work ethic that encapsulated well the Black experience.

He earned a scholarship to Marquette University in Milwaukee in 1930 when he became the school's first Black student-athlete. During his sophomore year at Marquette, Metcalfe equaled the world of record of 10.3 seconds in the 100-meter dash, as well as the 200-meter world record of 20.6 seconds. He won the first of three NCAA championships from 1932 to 1934, in both the 100- and 200-meter dashes. He achieved the same double victories in the national AAU meet during those years and wound up with five straight national titles in the 200 and 220yd.

Overall, counting indoor competition, Metcalfe won 11 AAU sprint titles. In the early 1930s, Ralph Metcalfe was the prime U.S. sprinter, winning most of the national titles and tying the world records in the 100 and 200 meters. He equalled the world record in Budapest the following year, and again at competitions in the Japanese cities of Nishinomiya and Dairen in 1934. He continued to thrive on the track team and by the Spring of 1932, he had broken several world records.

On June 10, Metcalfe broke three world records and tied a fourth in the span of one hour during a track meet. He quickly gained the attention of several U.S. newspapers by qualifying for the 1932 U.S. Olympic team. The 1932 Summer Olympics were held in Los Angeles, California. Metcalfe was a favorite to win the sprint competitions along with fellow U.S. Olympians Eddie Tolan of the University of Michigan and George Simpson of Ohio State University. He won both the 100m and 200m runs at the Olympic Trials, but failed to maintain his dominance at the Los Angeles Olympics.

He raced to virtual tie with Eddie Tolan in the 100 meters. After an exhaustive review officials awarded the gold medal to Tolan and silver medal to Metcalfe. Their record setting time of 10.37-seconds remained unbroken for 32 years. In the 200m, he again was unlucky, since it appeared that he had been placed 3-4 feet behind his fellow finalists at the starting line. He was unable to make up the distance, finishing third to Tolan and fellow American George Simpson to take the bronze.

After the Olympics, Metcalfe turned more of his attention towards his education. He was elected class president and was inducted into the university’s honor society. Metcalfe was an outstanding student and campus leader. In 1933, he was inducted into Alpha Sigma Nu, which is the elite Jesuit academic honor society on campus. At the Amateur Athletic Union national championship at the former Marquette Stadium in 1934, Metcalfe bested Olympic great Jesse Owens in the 100-meter dash. Owens and Metcalfe would go on to be rivals and teammates.

Evelyn Ashford

She is recognized as one of track and field history's most accomplished sprinters. Evelyn Ashford is the first woman in U.S. track history to win four Olympic gold medals—one in the 100-meter sprint and three as part of 4 × 100-meter relay teams. Born in Shreveport, LA. in April 1957, Evelyn Ashford was part of a military family. Being part of a military family, she moved quite a few times growing up. She went to four different schools in four different cities before Evelyn's family settled in Sacramento, CA area in 1973. It was here that Evelyn attended Roseville High School.

At the local high school, Ashford joined the boys’ track team because the school did not have one for girls. She won most of her races there. By the time she was 15 years old, Evelyn Ashford had to her credit 2 state and 1 national track record and had led her track team at Clements High School to back-to-back State Championships in 1971-72. She was the star of the Tigers track team and set numerous records during her high school years. Her talent caught the attention of the track coach at the University of California at Los Angeles (UCLA).

She earned a scholarship to UCLA one of the school's first women’s athletic scholarships. Former Olympian Pat Connolly coached Ashford at UCLA. At the 1976 Association of Intercollegiate Athletics for Women (AIAW) national championships, Ashford finished second in the 100 meters. She was so impressive that after her freshmen year she earned a spot on the United States Olympic team at just 19 years old. As a 19-year-old, she finished a surprise 5th at the 1976 Summer Games in Montreal in the 100 meters.

After the 1976 Olympics she returned to collegiate athletics, winning several individual and team relay events. Before long, Evelyn emerged as one of the world's greatest sprinters. She helped UCLA win the 1977 AIAW Outdoor competition earning All-American honors in 1977 and 1978. In the late 1970s she decided to drop out of college to concentrate on training. She had recently set a United States record of 21.83 seconds in the 200 meters and had beaten world-record holder Marlies Göhr of East Germany in the 100 meters at the World Cup.

Ater beating the World Record holders Marlies Gohr and Marita Koch in the 1979 World Cup, Evelyn Ashford became one of the potential gold medalists for the 1980 Summer Olympics. She was ranked No. 1 in the world by Track & Field News over 100 meters. She was the favorite to win both the 100 meters and 200 meters, but the U.S. boycott of the the 1980 Moscow Olympics kept her at home. Evelyn would have to wait four years before she would get the chance to attempt to capture an Olympic medal.

Ralph Boston

He was the first person to long jump more than twenty-seven feet. Track star and medalist in the 1960, 1964, and 1968 Olympic games, Ralph Boston was born in Laurel, Mississippi on May 9, 1939. Boston was born the youngest of ten children. As a Black child growing up in the Jim Crow South, Boston knew hard work at a young age. He rose early with his father to work in the fields before attending class at Oak Park Vocational School.

One of his earliest memories is of riding a mule-pulled wagon across the railroad tracks with his father, from his all-Black neighborhood of Queensburg and into the white community. It was then that he first noticed a stark contrast: the streets, the housing, the parks, and other facilities in White neighborhoods were far superior to those in Queensburg. When he was not working or studying, Boston enjoyed swimming in a creek outside Laurel, and after the city opened the Blacks-only Oak Park Pool, he became a lifeguard at the facility.

Ralph Boston was a track and field star in both his junior and senior high school years. He was virtually a one-man track team, winning or placing in hurdling, throwing, sprinting, and jumping events. His Oak Park team continued its run of high school track championships. He set a national high school record in the 180-yard hurdles and excelled as the school’s starting quarterback in football and their star forward in basketball. Boston was an elite quarterback and led the Oak Park Dragons to the Negro state football championship.

As a senior, he received scholarship offers to play football, but followed the advice of his mother, Eulalia, and his track coach, Joseph Frye, to pursue a career in track and field. In later interviews, he gave credit for his successes to the dedicated teachers at Oak Park, who also provided him with a solid academic foundation despite the lack of access to adequate educational resources and facilities. Upon graduating from Oak Park in 1957, Boston was offered a track scholarship at Tennessee State University in Nashville, Tennessee.

Boston enrolled at Tennessee State University, where he studied biochemistry. He started competing in high and low hurdles, high jump, and triple jump. His signature event, however, was the long jump. He won the 1960 Collegiate long jump title. In August, he burst onto the national scene at a conditioning meet in Los Angeles that served as a final tune up before the 1960 Rome Olympics. At the MT SAC Relays, an athletics event at San Antonio College in California, he jumped 26ft 11in, three inches longer than Jesse Owens had managed in 1935.

The U.S. track team broke four world records in that event, but it was Boston’s long jump — of 26 feet, 11 inches — that made the biggest headlines. That year he was selected as a World Athlete of the Year and as the North American Athlete of the Year. Later that year, in 1960, he travelled to Rome for the Olympics. Boston triumphed in Rome. Boston then broke the Olympic record (26 foot 7½ inches) to win the gold medal in Rome. Boston had just turned 21 and he had outleaped a legend.

Alice Coachman

The first Black woman from any country to win an Olympic gold medal was Alice Coachman. Alice Coachman was born on November 9, 1923 in Albany, Georgia, she was the fifth of ten children born. Growing up in the segregated South, she overcame discrimination and unequal access to inspire generations of other Black athletes to reach for their athletic goals. As a child, Alice was a tomboy, but her father, influenced by society's reluctance to accept female athletes. , But at that time it wasn’t socially acceptable for women to be athletes.

Fearing for her safety as an African American in a segregated society, he initially discouraged her from sports. The family worked hard, and a young Coachman helped. Her daily routine included going to school and supplementing the family income by picking cotton, supplying corn to local mills, or picking plums and pecans to sell. Beyond these tasks, the young Coachman was also very athletic. It was her fifth-grade teacher at Monroe Street Elementary School, Cora Bailey, and her aunt, Carrie Spry, who encouraged her to continue running.

By seventh grade, she was one of the best athletes in Albany, boy or girl. Barred from training with White children or using White athletic facilities, young Coachman trained on her own. She ran barefoot on dusty roads to improve her stamina and used sticks and rope to practice the high jump. She also figured out ways to rig up a high jump bar so she could practice the sports she observed others doing. Coachman entered Madison High School in Albany in 1938 and joined the track team, soon attracting a great deal of local attention.

Within a year she caught the eye of the boys’ track coach, Harry E. Lash. He began working with her to develop what he saw as a special, natural talent. While competing for her high school track team in Albany, her ability was noted by a representative from the athletic department of the Tuskegee Institute in Alabama. In the rural south during the time when Jim Crow laws still reigned, Alice Coachman was not guaranteed an opportunity for an education. The school offered her a scholarship to come there.

At age 16, she received a scholarship to the prestigious Tuskegee Preparatory School. In 1939 she won her first Amateur Athletic Union Championship in the high jump, breaking both the collegiate and national high jump records. As a member of the track-and-field team, she won four national championships for sprinting and high jumping. High jump was her event, and from 1939 to 1948, Coachman won 10 straight championships in the high jump, as well as 25 indoor and outdoor 50- and 100-meter championships.

She was one of the best track-and-field competitors in the country, winning national titles in the 50m, 100m, and 400m relay. She also played on the Tuskegee basketball team, and they won three national titles while she was there. She was the only African American on each of the five All-American teams to which she was named. People started pushing Coachman to try out for the Olympics. The Olympics were out of reach. During Coachman's prime athletic years, the 1940 and 1944 Olympic Games were cancelled because of World War II.

Rafer Johnson

At the 1960 Olympic Games he became the first African American athlete to carry the U.S. flag in the Olympic procession, and he captured the decathlon gold medal. Rafer Lewis Johnson was born on August 18, 1935, in Hillsboro, Texas. Rafer was one of six children. His brother, Jimmy Johnson, played defensive back for the San Francisco 49ers and is a member of the Pro Football Hall of Fame. In hopes of bettering their living conditions, the Johnson family moved to Kingsburg, in California's San Joaquin Valley, when Rafer was nine years old.

He attended Kingsburg High School where he was part of the football, basketball, baseball, and track teams. As a halfback, Rafer averaged more than nine yards every time he carried the football and led his team to three league championships. He was also an outstanding basketball player, averaging 17 points per game. Rafer was the center fielder in baseball, where he batted more than .400, including a .512 average in his junior year. He was also elected student body president.

The summer between his sophomore and junior years in high school, his coach drove Johnson 24 miles to Tulare and watched Bob Mathias compete in the 1952 U.S. Olympic decathlon trials. Johnson told his coach, "I could have beaten most of those guys." In the end track and field became his main sport. He won state championships in the 110-yard hurdles and the decathlon. Weeks later, Johnson competed in a high school invitational decathlon and won the event. He also won the 1953 and 1954 California state high school decathlon meets.

Rafer Johnson was offered a football scholarship but decided football was too risky for his track career. Fearing injury, he decided to quit playing football for good. Attending UCLA, Johnson was active in college pledging the Pi Lambda Phi fraternity, and being elected the class President in 1955. In 1954 as a freshman at the University of California, Los Angeles (UCLA), his progress in the event was impressive. Johnson completed in his first decathlon in 1954 as a sophomore at the University of California, Los Angeles (UCLA).

He went to the Pan Am Games in Mexico City and won the decathlon title in 1955, scoring a total of 6,994 points. He won the AAU decathlon in 1956, 1958, and 1960. At UCLA, Johnson also played basketball under legendary coach John Wooden and was a starter for the Bruins on their 1958–59 team. Johnson qualified for both the decathlon and the long jump events for the 1956 Summer Olympics. He was hampered by an injury and forfeited his place in the long jump. The old football injuries that he feared had caught up with him.

Despite this handicap, he managed to take second place to win a silver medal in the decathlon at the 1956 Summer Olympics in Melbourne, Australia behind compatriot Milt Campbell. It would turn out to be his last defeat in the event. Johnson missed the 1957 and 1959 track seasons because of injuries. Between the 1956 and 1960 Olympics, Johnson, Russian Vassily Kuznetsov, and Taiwan's C.K Yang rewrote the decathlon record book.

Eddie Tolan

Known as known as “The Midnight Express” he snagged two gold medals in the 100-meters and 200-meters events at the 1932 Summer Olympics in Los Angeles, setting world and Olympic records. Eddie Tolan was born September 29th 1909 in Denver Colorado. Born in 1908, he moved with his family from Salt Lake City to Detroit in 1924 for better employment opportunities. A phenomenal athlete, Tolan attended Cass Technical High School, and excelled as a quarterback on the football field and a sprinter on the track and field team.

In his sophomore year of high school, he finished second place in the 50-yard dash at the first indoor scholastic meet at the University of Michigan. He blossomed into a track phenom during the outdoor season, tying the city record in the 100-yard dash with a time of 10.2 seconds and setting a city mark in the 220-yard at 23.1 seconds. Tolan was part of a two-man team that went on to win the 1925 National Interscholastic Indoor meet in Chicago winning the sprint double (100-yard and 220-yard dashes).

At the Michigan High School Athletic Association (MHSAA) championship meet, he won both the 100- and 220- yard dashes. Tolan’s senior year witnessed continued success. He won the 50-yard run at the Third Annual Indoor Meet at U-M; the 100- and 220-yard dashes at U-M’s Outdoor Interscholastic Meet; and the 100- and 220-yard races at the MHSAA championship with times of 9.8 and 21.9 seconds, respectively. During his Cass Tech career, the up-and-coming star compiled a remarkable, 94% win record in city and state individual outdoor championships.

Despite his earlier injury, Tolan was recruited by several major universities for football, in addition to track. He went on to attend the University of Michigan and intended but did not play football, however he excelled on the track. As a sophomore in 1929, Tolan broke the Big Ten Conference record and tied the world’s record for the 100 yard dash at 9.5 seconds. At the Big Ten championship in May of the following year, Tolan— then a junior—came in second place in the 100-yard dash behind the Ohio State University’s George Simpson, earning him the nickname “Midnight Express.”

Although Tolan experienced success as a sprinter in 1929 and 1930, it was the 1931 season—in which he dominated the Big Ten—that solidified his new nickname. He won the outdoor 100-yard dash in 9.6 seconds and 220-yard dash in 20.9 seconds at the championships. By the time he graduated from U-M, Tolan had competed in 100 races, losing only nine times. He was elected AAU All-College and All-American in the 220-yard dash. In addition to his involvement in collegiate athletics, Tolan became a member of the Black fraternity Alpha Phi Alpha.

After graduating from U-M, Tolan enrolled in graduate school at West Virginia State College. The program aimed to prepare students for teaching and coaching in America’s segregated education system. Tolan coached track at the school, which enabled him to stay in shape for the upcoming Olympics. At the Olympic trials at Stanford University, he finished second to Ralph Metcalfe in the 100- and 200-meter dashes. Their first and second-place finishes at the trials also meant that the top two American Olympic sprinters were, for the first time, African American.

Audrey Patterson

Audrey Patterson is the first Black woman from the U.S. to win an Olympic medal. She won bronze in the 200-meter dash at the 1948 Olympics, the first Games to include the race for women. Audrey Patterson was born on September 27, 1926 in New Orleans, Louisiana, in the heart of the Jim Crow south. She developed a love of running during elementary school. Audrey Patterson said she felt that “love” when 1936 Olympic gold medal winner, Jesse Owens, was speaking to school in 1944 when he told a group at Gilbert Academy, “There is a boy or a girl in this audience who will go to the Olympics.”

In 1947, Patterson enrolled at Wiley College in Marshall, Texas, where she became a track star, winning the Tuskegee Relays in the 100- and 220-yard dashes and the Amateur Athletic Union National Indoor Title in the 220-yard event. She received a scholarship to Tennessee State University and competed under Tom Harris. He was brought in after coach Jessie Abbott resigned and also recruited Ed Temple. Temple eventually took over the team. Patterson transferred from Wiley College in Texas, where she dominated the 100 meter and 200 meter races at the Tuskegee Relays, to start her short career as a Tigerbelle in the spring in 1948.

Patterson went to Providence, Rhode Island, for trials in the 1948 Olympics and earned a position on the U.S. Women’s All-American Track & Field Team for the London Olympics. Audrey Patterson was one of the nine Black women in total who competed for Team USA in 1948, including fellow Tigerbelles Emma Reed (long jump) and Mae Faggs (200 meter). This was the start of a Tennessee State legacy of Olympic success that would continue throughout the next decades. The 1948 U.S. Olympic Trials were successful, but also unlucky for Audrey.

She burned her leg with an iron before the 200m qualifying races. She won her heat, returned to the dressing room, and accidentally got locked in. Her coach heard her crying and found her just in time for the next race. Audrey also qualified in the 100m, coming in second for the first time since high school. ⁣ Audrey Patterson, also known as Mickey, was a 22-year running beauty, who got cheers whenever the crowd caught a glimpse of her. And Mickey did not disappoint her international fans. Audrey Patterson became was the first African-American woman to win an Olympic medal, taking the bronze in the 200 meters in the 1948 London Olympics.

She won her Olympic medal, covering the 200 meters in 25.2 seconds, the same time as Shirley Strickland of Australia. It took officials 45 minutes to decide that Miss Patterson would get the third place bronze medal. This was the first Olympic Games that offered women the 200-meter race for competition. Fanny Blankers-Koen of the Netherlands won the race, her third gold medal. The following day, her teammate Alice Coachman won the high jump and became the first Black woman to win an Olympic gold medal. No other American woman left London with a track and field medal.

Patterson and Alice Coachman were the only women of Team USA track & field to medal during the 1948 Games. Audrey’s return home to the South from the 1948 London Games was similar to teammate Alice Coachman’s experience. Audrey was celebrated by the local Black community, and largely snubbed by the Whites. Her hometown newspaper, The Times-Picayune, did not mention her victory. The mayor did not attend her celebration ceremony, sending a certificate in his stead. However, President Harry Truman invited Patterson to the White House for a congratulatory visit after her history-making Olympic performance. Paterson eventually transferred to Southern University in Baton Rouge to finish her degree.

Bob Beamon

Olympic gold medalist and record-breaking track and field star Bob Beamon was born on August 29, 1946, in Queens, New York. He was orphaned before he was eight months old. Beamon’s stepfather was by all accounts an abusive drunk who terrorized his wife and children until it landed him in prison, forcing young Bob to live with his grandmother. The violent chaos of Beamon’s world ushered him into one of the many gangs that roamed the streets of Queens. During a fight at school, Beamon struck a teacher and slapped with an assault and battery charge.

In lieu of jail time, however, he was sent to a school for juvenile delinquents – where, among other things, he learned how to read when he wasn’t borrowing shoes to compete in athletics meets. When he was allowed to return, he used sports as a means to focus his attention and energy toward positive goals. He regularly broke track records at the local and state levels. When Beamon was attending Jamaica High School, Larry Ellis, a renowned track coach, discovered him. He didn’t seem a serious prospect, initially. “I wanted to be a Globetrotter,” says Beamon.

In 1965, Beamon set a national high school triple jump record and was second in the long jump. He further distinguished himself at the Penn Relays as the outstanding competitor in the high school division. Beamon later became part of the All-American track and field team. Beamon began his college career at North Carolina Agricultural and Technical State University (North Carolina A&T). He then transferred to the University of Texas at El Paso (UTEP), where he received a track and field scholarship.

UTEP had just made history by beating uber-White Kentucky in the 1967 NCAA basketball championship. That same year, Beamon won the AAU indoor high jump title. He earned the silver medal in long jump at the 1967 Pan American Games. It looked as if he’d cruise into Mexico City. But then, Beamon along with eleven other Black athletes were dropped from the (UTEP) track and field team the week following the assassination of Martin Luther King Jr. for participating in a boycott of competition with Brigham Young University.

They had banded together ahead of a meet against the Latter-day Saints school to protest against what they characterised as the Book of Mormon’s racist teachings. “It was a very sad and dark time,” says Beamon, recalling how he was radicalised during this period of national tumult. “I became aware of the Ku Klux Klan and other racial outbursts. Black people were becoming more aware, especially of who we were as individuals. We started wearing afros, talking about Black power, Black pride, Black is beautiful.”

Beamon’s stand cost him his scholarship, and momentum. Despite losing his athletic scholarship, Beamon returned to UTEP to continue his studies after the Mexico City Olympics. "He lost the concept of the long jump,” 200 meter Bronze medal John Carlos says. So my thing was to work with him on his speed, and then when I felt he was strong enough, I told him to get with [US coach and fellow jumper] Ralph Boston to get his steps down. Fellow Olympian Ralph Boston became his unofficial coach.

Edwin Moses

Edwin Moses, dominated the 400-meter hurdles event for a decade, winning gold medals in the race at the 1976 and 1984 Olympic Games. Edwin Corely Moses was born on August 31, 1955, in Dayton, Ohio, the second of three sons to parents who were both educators. When his high school basketball coach cut him from the team and the football coach kicked him out for fighting, Moses turned to track and gymnastics. At a young age, Moses was a lot smaller than the other runners.

In high school, he was 5-feet-7 tall and weighed 117 pounds and frequently found himself at the back of the pack during races. But as he grew physically, he got faster and progessively found himself leading races, rather than trailing. He was a serious student, even foregoing potential athletic scholarships to college in favor of attending Morehouse College in Atlanta. When Moses attended Morehouse from 1973 to 1978, there was not even a track. The track team had to run in the streets or go to Washington High School or Lakewood Stadium to practice.

When Moses entered Morehouse, he said he was not “recruit able” as an athlete because he was a “late bloomer” and was still growing into his body. So, he focused on academics, earning a degree in physics. Moses and his classmates had to improvise his practice by having him jumping over fences or jumping over chairs and garbage cans in their dorm’s hallways. A physics and engineer major – used math to calculate that he needed to take exactly 13 steps between hurdles to maximize efficiency in the 400-meter hurdles.

As a 20-year-old, unknown scholar-athlete from a renowned Black college, he burst upon the international track and field scene. In March of 1976, Moses competed in the Florida Relays in the 110-meter hurdles, the 400-meter hurdles and the 400-meters flat. He qualified for the Olympic trials in all three events. In 1976, as a 20-year-old, unknown scholar-athlete from a renowned Black college, he burst upon the international scene at the Montreal Olympics. Not only did Edwin Moses win the Olympic trials in the 400 meter hurdles, he also set an American record of 48.30 seconds.

At his first Olympics, the 1976 Montreal Games, Moses won the 400 meter hurdles in an Olympic and World Record time of 47.63 breaking John Akii-Bua's mark of 47.82. His eight-meter victory over Mike Shine was the largest winning margin in the event in the Olympics. Despite being the only American male track athlete to win an individual gold medal, Moses was not received with warmth by the public. Perhaps it was because of his serious expression, modified Afro, dark glasses and rawhide thong necklace.

At Morehouse, where he basically coached himself, Edwin Moses was known as "Bionic Man" due to his improbable, fierce workouts. He took a scientific approach to analyzing his performance and developing his training methods. The method paid off in his breaking his own world record with a 47.45 at the Pepsi Invitational, an AAU meet, in 1977. On Aug. 26, 1977 in Berlin, Edwin Moses lost to Harald Schmid, his fourth defeat in the 400 hurdles, his last loss for almost a decade. Moses then won 122 straight races between August 1977 and May 1987.

Edith McGuire

The youngest of four children, Edith McGuire was born in Atlanta, Georgia on June 3rd 1944. Athletic from an early age, Duvall’s first experience with track and field started during an elementary school’s May Day celebration. McGuire started taking track more seriously during high school at Archer High School in Atlanta. McGuire excelled at academics and sports and was consistently on the honor roll. McGuire was coached by Mrs. Marian Armstrong-Perkins. Coach Armstrong-Perkins had a prestigious reputation for training Olympic athletes, and since 1952, she had at least one former student competing on the U.S. Olympic team.

At the age of 15, she defeated the top prep-school sprinter in Atlanta. As a result of her outstanding performance, in 1960 Coach Armstrong-Perkins recommended Duvall attend Coach Edward Temple’s summer track and field training camp at Tennessee State University in Nashville. McGuire would earn herself a scholarship to Tennessee State in 1961. As a high school senior, McGuire won AAU championships in both the 50-yard and 100-meter dashes. She began in the fall of that year and majored in elementary education.

Edith McGuire became one of the top sprinters of the 1960s, winning six Amateur Athletic Union (AAU) championships. Tennessee State had a very successful women’s sprinting team in the 1960s, known as The Tigerbelles, which included Olympic champions Wilma Rudolph, Wyomia Tyus, and McGuire. She made her international entrance in 1963 at the Pan-American Games in São Paulo, Brazil. McGuire took first place in the 100-meter dash and 400-meter relay. These successes led her to the 1964 Olympic Games held in Tokyo, Japan.

She ran against fellow TSU Tigerbelle and close friend, Wyomia Tyus, considered one of the fastest sprinters in the world, in the 100 meter. She was also going against Irena Kirszenstein and Ewa Klobukowska from Poland, who had recently beaten Tyus’s and Wilma Rudolph’s 100-meter time. McGuire came in second to Tyus for a close upset and a silver medal. However, Edith McGuire achieved her fame at the 1964 Tokyo Games, with her gold medal in the 200 meter, in which she set an Olympic record of 23.05, capping an undefeated season in that event.

McGuire would also win a silver medal as part of the 400-meter relay team with Tyus and two other Tigerbelles. After her wins in Tokyo, Edith became the second African American woman to win three medals in the same Olympic Games. In recognition of her Olympic achievements, McGuire was a top ten finalist for the Sullivan Award. Established by the AAU in 1930, the Sullivan Award is presented annually to the amateur athlete chosen as doing the most “to advance the cause of sportsmanship.

She also came in fourth in the national ballot for Sportswoman of the Year. When McGuire graduated from TSU in 1966, she also retired from competitive track and field as a six time AAU-All-American. She was honored by inductions into the Tennessee Sports Hall of Fame (1975), the Track and Field Hall of Fame (1979), and the Georgia Sports Hall of Fame (1980). McGuire received the 1991 National Collegiate Athletic Association’s Anniversary Silver Award in Nashville.

George Coleman Poage

Born in Hannibal, Missouri on November 6, 1880, George Coleman Poage move to La Crosse, Wisconsin when he was 4-years old. In 1884, his family moved from Hannibal, Missouri to La Crosse, Wisconsin. Young George Poage was a good student and a good athlete. As a teen, he attended La Crosse High School where his love for athletics grew. Poage received his high school diploma in 1899 and decided to continue his education at the University of Wisconsin. He later joined the University of Wisconsin. Poage also was the first African American to run and graduate from the school.

In 1900, his first track race was against the freshman track squad at the university. He then made the varsity team his sophomore year. He consistently won points for the Badgers in his specialized events, short sprints and hurdles, quickly gaining the respect of his team mates. After graduating in 1903 with a degree in history, Poage returned to UW to take graduate classes and continue running track. The athletic department helped support Poage’s extra year on campus by hiring him to be a trainer for the football team. He continued to break barriers and set records as an athlete.

In 1903, he became the first African American Big Ten track champion (individually) by placing first in the 440-yard dash and the 220-yard hurdles. In 1904, the third Olympic Games were being held in St. Louis in conjunction with the World’s Fair. The 1904 Olympic games were far smaller than they would become. Only 496 athletes from 11 countries competed, and just 20,000 spectators attended track and field events. Poage was running for the Milwaukee Athletic Club; he was its first non-White competitor when he won bronze medals for finishing third in the 200-meter and 400-meter hurdles.

Before the games began many prominent African-American leaders called for a boycott of the events in St. Louis. The organizers of both the Olympics and the World’s Fair had constructed Jim Crow facilities for their spectators. They would not allow an integrated audience to view the spectacle. During times of nationwide segregation and an intense struggle for racial equality, Poage managed to qualifiy for the 1904 Summer Olympics with the sponsorship of The Milwaukee Athletic Club. Despite calls for Black athletes to avoid the games, Poage decided to compete.

Poage made history when he became the first African American to win a medal at the Olympics. He would not only become the first Black Olympic competitor, he would also become the first Black medalist. He took home the bronze medal in the 200-yard and 440-yard hurdles. That same day, the second Black Olympian, American Joseph Stadler, won a silver medal for the high jump. However, after the glow of his Olympic achievements faded, and despite his education and skills as a world-class athlete, Poage couldn’t find a job, thanks to Jim Crow.

Poage returned to St. Louis to teach at segregated Sumner High School, where he was the head of the English department and helped coach the school’s sports teams. At the height of the Jim Crow era, however, there were few job opportunities in Chicago open to an African-American, even a college-educated former world-class athlete. The best employer available to many Black Chicagoans was the United States Post Office. Poage secured a job as a postal clerk in 1924 and stayed on the job for nearly thirty years until his retirement in the 1950s.

Lee Evans

He became the first man to crack 44 seconds in the 400 meters, winning the gold medal at the Mexico City Games. Lee Edward Evans was born on February 25, 1947, in Madera, California. At the age of four, his family moved to Fresno. He attended Madison Elementary School and in his last year there trained for his first race by racing his friends at school. The Evans family moved to San Jose, California, during Lee's sophomore year in high school. While running for Overfelt High School, Lee Evans went undefeated during his high school track career.

Lee improved his 440-yard time from 48.2 in 1964 to 46.9 in 1965. Evans ran for the San Jose State University track team where he was coached by Hall of Famer Bud Winter. In 1966 as a freshman, he won his first AAU championship in 440 yd. He won the AAU title four years in a row (1966–1969) and again in 1972 and added the NCAA 400 m title in 1968. His only defeat during that streak came at the hands of San Jose State teammate Tommie Smith. The two were so competitive, Winter could not let them practice together.

Evans achieved his first world record in 1966, as a member of the USA national team which broke the 4 × 400 meter relay record at Los Angeles. They were the first team to better 3 minutes (2:59.6) in the event. The next year he helped break the 4 x 220 yd (201.17 m) relay world record at Fresno in a time of 1:22.1. In 1967, Evans won the 400 meters at the Pan American Games, in a time of 44.95. This was the first time anyone has broken the 45 seconds barrier. Lee Evans was ready for the Olympics.

Evans won the 1968 Olympic trials at Echo Summit, California, with a world record 44.06. Evans wanted the world to understand the way he felt about the Mexico City Olympic Games but did not want to take away from the winners and the sports themselves. But it was at the Mexico City 1968 Olympic Games that Evans, stepped onto the world stage. The previous year he had become the first person to break the 45-second mark in the 400-meter race.

He became the first person to break 44 seconds in the 400 meter, when he set a new world record of 43.86 seconds in the Mexico City Games final. That mark stood for 20 years. The winning performances were in the shadow of controversy. Evans had considered withdrawing from Olympic competition following San José State and USA teammates Tommie Smith and John Carlos were expelled from the Olympic Village. Two days earlier, Americans Tommie Smith and John Carlos finished first and second in the 200-meter race.

Florence Delorez Griffith Joyner

Widely recognized as the fastest woman of all time, Florence Delorez Griffith Joyner or “Flo Jo” is a household name. Florence Delorez Griffith was born on December 21, 1959 in Los Angeles, California, the seventh of 11 children. She was athletic from a young age and began running at track meets as a child. Joyner developed an early interest in track and field. She chased jackrabbits to increase her speed. When Griffith was in elementary school, she joined the Sugar Ray Robinson Organization, running in track meets on weekends.

She went on to win the Jesse Owens National Youth Games two years in a row, at the ages of 14 and 15. At Jordan High School, Griffith competed in track and field, setting school records in the long jump and sprinting events. As a high school senior in 1978, she finished sixth at the CIF California State Meet behind future teammates Alice Brown and Pam Marshall. After graduation, she attended California State University, Northridge (CSUN) and continued to compete in track and field. There she met Coach Bob Kersee, who would become instrumental to her career in professional athletics.

This team, which included Brown and Jeanette Bolden, won the national championship during Griffith's first year of college. Although Griffith was a part of the 1978 championship team, she had to drop out the following year to support her family. In 1980, Griffith returned to college with the help of Kersee. He assisted her in getting the financial aid she needed to attend the University of California, Los Angeles (UCLA), where he had started working as a coach.

Brown, Bolden, and Griffith qualified for the 100-meter final at the trials for the 1980 Summer Olympics. Griffith also ran the 200 meters, narrowly finishing fourth, a foot out of a qualifying position. However, the U.S. Government had already decided to boycott those Olympic Games, due to the invasion of Afghanistan by the Soviet Union. Griffith finished fourth in the 200-meter sprint at the first World Championship in Athletics in 1983. Also, during that year, Griffith graduated from UCLA with her bachelor's degree in psychology.

The following year, she qualified for the Olympics in the 200-meter distance with the second fastest time at the United States Olympic Trials. When her U.S. teammate Evelyn Ashford had to withdraw from the 200-meter heats due to an injury, Griffith’s chances to earn a medal increased. Griffith’s second-place finish in the race earned her a 1984 Olympic silver medal. Disappointed with her performance after the 1984 Olympic Games, she spent less time running. Griffith continued to run part-time, winning the 100-meter IAAF Grand Prix Final with the time of 11.00 seconds.

She did not compete at the 1985 U.S. National Championship. During that year, she married Al Joyner, the 1984 Olympic triple jump champion, brother of track and field star Jackie Joyner-Kersee and brother-in-law to her coach Bob Kersee. She changed her name to Florence Griffith Joyner following their marriage, which developed into the nickname “Flo-Jo.” Griffith Joyner maintained that her significantly improved times were due to her new weight training and distance running regimen. She had started a new training routine with Al Joyner after their marriage.

John Baxter Taylor

The first Black person to win an Olympic gold medal was John Baxter Taylor. John Taylor born on Nov. 3, 1882, in Washington, D.C. After his family moved to Philadelphia, Taylor attended Central High School, where he was captain of the track team. During his senior year, Taylor served as the anchor runner for Central High School’s one mile-relay team at the Penn Relays. Although Central High School finished fifth in the championship race, Taylor was considered the best quarter-mile runner in Philadelphia. John graduated from Central High School in 1902.

He was first noticed at the Brown Prep School of Philadelphia. During his year at the Brown Preparatory School in Philadelphia, John began winning races and soon established himself as the fastest quarter-miler in the country. while at Brown Preparatory School, young Taylor was a member of a team celebrated for not losing a race. During that year, Taylor won the Princeton Interscholastics as well as the Yale Interscholastics and anchored the school’s track team at the Penn Relays. Taylor entered the University of Pennsylvania in the fall of 1903.

In spring 1904, he joined the varsity track team. By the time Taylor entered his sophomore year at Penn, he had become highly-respected not only within the track and field community, but also in the Black community. By the summer of 1904, Taylor was competing in meets in Europe as well, entering competitons in both France and England. Taylor also competed in the AAU Indoor Championships in Norfolk, VA that year, setting an indoor record of 48.35 seconds for the quarter-mile.

In 1905, Taylor withdrew from school, but returned in the fall returned to track in 1906 under trainer Michael Murphy. Taylor won the 440-yard run at the Intercollegiate Association of Amateur Athletes of America (IC4A) championship and broke the intercollegiate record with a time of 49 1/5 seconds. The win landed him a spot in the 1908 Summer Olympics in London. John Taylor was the first African American to represent the United States. John Taylor had two chances for the gold. His first opportunity came when he participated in the 400-meter race.

Taylor was a favorite in the 400m, but ran a poor race. He was able to equal his time in the men’s 400 meters but that wasn’t good enough, finishing in fourth place. Ultimately, because of despite and disqualifications, for the first time in Olympic history a gold medal was won in a “walkover.” He did compete in the 4 x 400 medley relay. The 1908 Olympiad, was held in London, and was the first time athletes competed in this race that required different runners in the relay to run different lengths.

Taylor ran the third, or 400-meter, leg. As the middle link in the relay his job was to maintain whatever advantage the previous runners had and possibly extend it. In both the semi-finals and the finals, the team was victorious, increasing their time to 3:29.4. His team would walk away with the victory and a gold medal. This made John Taylor the first Black person in history to win a gold medal. Two African Americans had earned medals at the 1904 Olympic games in St. Louis — Joe Stadler had won a silver medal in the standing high jump and George Poage had won two bronze medals for the 200-meter and 400-meter hurdles. But Taylor, in 1908, became the first Black person to win Olympic gold.