12B
SPORTS/The Charlotte Post
Thursday, February 22, 1995
JACQUELINE JOYNER-
KERSEE
Bom March 3, 1962, in East
St. Louis, Ill.
1984 silver medal; hep
tathlon (6,385 points)
1988 gold medal: heptathlon
(7,291 points/Olympic
record/world record)
1988 gold medal: long jump
(24 feet, 3 inches Olympic
record)
1992 gold medal: heptathlon
(7,044 points)
1992 bronze medal: long
jump (23 feet, 2 inches)
Jackie Joyner-Kersee gradu
ated from Lincoln High School
in East St. Louis and from
UCLA, where she played bas
ketball under the sponsorship
of the World Athletic Club.
In 1984 Joyner-Kersee set an
American record of 6,520
points when she won the hep
tathlon at the U.S. Olympic
trials. In the 1988 trials she
scored 7,215 points in the hep
tathlon for her third world
record since 1986. She won the
Olympic heptathlon with
Dillard went 82-0 in his races
HARRISON W. DILLARD
Bom July 8, 1923, in
Cleveland, Ohio
1948 gold medal: 100 meters
(10.3 seconds/Olympic record)
1948 Gold Medal: 4x100
relay (40. 6)
1952 gold medal: 4x100 relay
(40.26)
1952 gold medal: 110 hur
dles (13.91/Olympic record)
Harrison Dillard graduated
from Baldwin-Wallace College
in Berea, Ohio, in 1949. While
still in college, he became a
specialist high hurdler, and
between May 1947 and June
1948 he ran 82 sprint and hur
dle races without defeat. There
was no doubt that he was the
best high hurdler in the imme
diate postwar years.
Track enthusiasts called him
the best combination sprint
er/hurdler who ever lived. (His
record of 82 straight victories
was only recently passed by
Edwin Moses.)
Dillard was inspired by Jesse
Owens as a child. At an all-day
military track meet, where he
won four gold medals in one
day. General Patton said, “He’s
the best...athlete I’ve ever
seen” (Los Angeles Times). At
Baldwin-Wallace College, he
was unbeaten. During his
career “Bones” Dillard won 14
AAU titles and six NCAA
Championships and set the
world record in both the high
and low hurdles.
Recalling his Olympic victo
ries, he says, “When your
Owens was star of ‘36 Games
JAMES CLEVELAND
(JESSE) OWENS
Bom September 12, 1913, in
Dallville, Ala.
1936 gold medal: 100 meters
(10.3/tied Olympic record)
1936 Gold Medal: 200 meters
(20.7/Olympic record)
1936 gold medal: long jump
(26ft. 5.5 inches/Olympic
record)
1936 gold medal: 4x100 relay
(39.8/Olympic record/world
record)
James Cleveland “Jesse”
Owens attended East
Technical High School in
Cleveland, Ohio, and Ohio
State University. His universi
ty coach was Larry Snyder,
who once said that Owens had
a “high-tension nervous sys
tem.” He worked up such great
tension before competing, that
he had great strength under
pressure. He was, at the same
time, graceful, and he always
appeared relaxed. Jesse
Owens is remembered for
record breaking, and especial
ly for his feat on May 25, 1935,
at Ann Arbor, Mich., when he
beat or equalled six world
records within 45 minutes. His
single long jump of 8.13
meters (26 feet, 81h inches)
was to last for 25 years. Owens
scored 9.4 in 100 meters in
1933, a record that was not
broken until 1967. His 220
straightaway mark, 20.7, did
n’t fall until 1953. His national
prep long jump mark, 24 feet,
11 1/4 inches, lasted until
George Brown jumped 25 feet,
2.5 inches in 1949. Owens, a
courageous and humble man,
was one of the greatest of all
track and field athletes. At the
peak of his career he won nine
world records in seven events.
At one time he held 11 world
records. His name remained in
the record book for over 40
years. One of his world marks,
the indoor 60-meter dash (6.6),
was set in 1935 and wasn’t
broken until 1975. He equalled
or broke 12 Olympic records on
his way to gold medals. His
200 meters in 20.7 seconds at
the 1936 Olympics was the
fastest ever at that time
around a full turn. The nine
black Americans on the U.S.
track and field team collected
a total of eight gold, three sil
ver, and two bronze medals.
(Black Americans won every
track event from 100 to 800
meters in 1936.)
It was claimed that Adolf
Hitler snubbed Jesse Owens
by refusing to acknowledge the
medals he had won at the 1936
Berlin Olympics. Hitler had
been profuse in his praise of
German and Nordic winners
before blacks began to take
medals in track and field
events.
Owens turned professional
at age 23, shortly after the
Berlin Olympics, and he expe
rienced many years of finan
cial hardship and racial dis
crimination. But, always a
fighter, he eventually became
a successful businessman,
inspirational speaker and
youth worker. He was named a
member of the United States
Olympic Committee and in
1976 was awarded the
Presidential Medal of
Freedom.
Source: Black Olympic
Medalists, 1992
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7,291 points, a world record
that beat the old record - her
own - by 76 points. Her perfor
mance in the individual events
were: 100-meter hurdles
(12.69); high jump (6-11); shot
put (51-10); 200 meters (21.56,
world record); 100 meters
(10.54, Olympic record); 800
.meters (2 minutes, 8.51 sec
onds, career best); and the
long jump (24 feet, 3.5 inches,
Olympic record - the old
Olympic record was her own,
23-10). Joyner-Kersee was the
first U.S. woman to win the
Olympic long jump and the
first athlete in 64 years to win
both a multi-event competition
and an individual event in one
Olympics.
Joyner-Kersee was called the
greatest athlete in high school
history. In volleyball she was
captain of her team and an All-
Metro selection. In track she
was the state champion in the
400 meters and long jump. She
set a long jump record of 22-4.
In basketball, she averaged 21
points and 14 rebounds per
game. She was a three-time
all-state selection and a two-
time high school All-American.
In college she was TAG and
NCAA heptathlon champion in
1982. prior to the 1984
Olympics she had a second-
best ever pint total by an
American. Jackie’s sprint
coach. Bob Kersee (whom she
married in January 1986),
calls her “the best woman ath
lete I’ve ever been associated
with” (Los Angeles Times).
Joyner-Kersee scores consis
tently well in all the running
and jumping events. Winning
four individual events, she
contributed 53.5 points as the
UCLA Bruins claimed the
NCAA title in 1985, scoring
55.87 seconds in the 400-meter
hurdles, she became the sev
enth fastest American ever.
She competed at the NCAA in
the 100-meter hurdles (13.31
seconds), the long jump (21
feet 11 inches), the triple jump
(42 feet 6.75 inches), and a
1,600-meter relay leg (44.75).
Joyner-Kersee is considered by
Ebony Magazine to be the best
female athlete in the world. In
1986 Joyner-Kersee was
awarded the Broderick Cup as
America’s top female collegiate
athlete. In 1987 she won the
Sullivan Award as the nation’s
outstanding amateur athlete
and was named the U.S.
Olympic Committee’s
Sportswoman of the Year by
the Women’s Sports
Foundation (for the hep
tathlon and long jump at
Seoul, the World
Championships, and the Pan
Am Games).
During a February 1989
awards luncheon in New York
City, Jackie received The
Sporting News’ Waterford
Trophy, a custom-designed
piece of Irish crystal valued at
$15,000. “We reserve our
award for that special person
in sports, the one who makes
the biggest impact and the
most important contribution
during the year,” said TSN edi
tor Tom Bamidge. She is the
first woman to earn this pres
tigious annual honor.
Source: Black
Medalists, 1992
Olympic
name is inscribed outside on
the wall of the stadium in
which the Olympics took place,
your name is there for posteri
ty...You’re the best in the
World at the moment you do
it...You have achieved excel
lence” (black Olympians).
Dillard was 61 in 1983 and
business director for the
Cleveland School Board,
responsible for more than
3,000 employees and a budget
of $80 million. He later became
chief of the Business
Department for Cleveland
Schools (where he had been for
more than 20 years).
For 10 years before that he
was with Bill Veeck and the
Cleveland Indians Baseball
Club.
Source: Black Olympic
Medalists, 1992
DeFrantz scaled Olympic heights
ANITA LUCEETE
DEFRANTZ
Born Oct. 4, 1952 in
Philadelphia.
1976 bronze medal: rowing,
eights (3:38. 68)
Anita DeFrantz is a graduate
of Shortridge High School,
Indianapolis (1970),
Connecticut College for
Women and Men (1974), and
the University of
Pennsylvania Law School
(1977). She also worked
toward a Ph.D. in peace sci
ence at the University of
Pennsylvania. She participat
ed in rowing and basketball in
college and was affiliated with
the Vesper Boat Club in
Philadelphia.
DeFrantz became and out
spoken critic of the 1980
Olympic boycott, and because
of her law background she was
an eloquent spokesperson for
the athletes. By supporting
that Olympic movement, she
became only the second
American athlete to receive
the Bronze Medal of the
Olympic Order of the
International Olympic
Committee. This occurred in
1981 at the IOC Congress at
Baden Baden, West Germany.
The honor was awarded “for
her actions which symbolized
the fight to safeguard the inde
pendence of all sports competi
tors from political power.”
While studying law, DeFrantz
made the Olympic eights to
become the first African
American to compete for the
U.S. in Oljmipic rowing.
She distinguished herself by
winning six different national
titles and sharing a silver
medal in the Coxed Fours at
the 1978 World
Championships. She was a
member of the 1980 U.S.
Olympic team and coached the
Princeton novice crew in 1980-
81.
DeFrantz has been a mem
ber of the President’s Council
on Physical Fitness, a trustee
of Connecticut College, a mem
ber of the Executive Board of
the U.S. Olympic Committee,
and vice chair for the
Athletes’s Advisory Council of
the USOC. She later worked
as an assistant vice president
for the Los Angeles Olympic
Organizing Committee and
was vice president in charge of
the Olympic Village. Currently
she is president of the
Amateur Athletic Foundation
of Los Angeles, which is
responsible for distributing
the $90 million southern
California share of the 1984
Olympic surplus.
In 1986 DeFrantz became
the first black woman to
become a member of the
International Olympic
Committee, replacing the late
Julian Roosevelt as one of the
two U.S. representatives on
the committee. On May 16,
1988 she was named winner of
the Koribos Award, which is
given every four years to an
Olympian who best exempli
fies the Olympic spirit.
Source: Black
Medalists, 1992
Olympic
Gift for West Charlotte baseball
PHOTO/CALVIN FERGUSON
The West Charlotte High School National Alumni Association recently donated $2000 to the
school’s baseball team. The baseball Lions spent six weeks tutoring at the Anita Stroud
Youth Development Center as a community service project, which attracted the attention
of the alumni association. On hand for the presentation were Carolyn A. Evans, chair of the
alumni association’s Special Projects Committee; Geraldine T. Powe, the a.ssociation’s
president; West Charlotte baseball coach Michael Schildt, principal William Crawford and
parent Bob Hopkins.
Plaza has youth baseball sign-ups
Plaza Youth Athletic
Association will hold
baseball sign-ups every
Saturday from 10 a.m.-2
p.m. at Briarwood
Elementary School.
Sponsored co-ed teams
include: T-ball, coach
pitch and player pitch.
Volunteers are also need
ed. For more informa
tion, call 527-7788 or
come by Briarwood on
Saturdays.
• The Charlotte Pro-Am is taking nomination
forms for its Charlotte All-Star basketball clas
sic.
The games, which showcases the ■ top senior
boys and girls players in the area, are scheduled
for April 13 at Queens. Proceeds support the
Pro-Am’s high school programs.
Nominations are due by Wednesday. For more
information, call 567-9511.