Feb. 24, 2010
DID YOU KNOW? For two decades, from 1956 to 1976, an Eagle student-athlete represented North Carolina Central University in every Summer Olympic Games.
During the 1956 Olympic Games in Melbourne, Australia, Lee Calhoun won a gold medal for the United States in the 110-meter hurdles with a time of 13.5 seconds. Four years later in Rome, Italy, Calhoun became the first to capture consecutive Olympic gold medals in the 110m hurdles (13.98).
In the 1964 Olympic Games in Tokyo, Japan, Edwin Roberts earned two bronze medals in the 200m dash (20.63) and the 4x400m relay (3:01.7) for his native country Trinidad and Tobago. Roberts ran the same events for Trinidad and Tobago during the 1968 Olympic Games in Mexico City, placing fourth in the 200m dash and sixth in the 4x400m relay. NCCU's Norman Tate also competed in the Mexico City Olympic Games in the triple jump.
During the 1972 Olympic Games in Munich, Germany, Roberts ran in his third straight Olympic Games for Trinidad and Tobago in the 200m dash and 4x400m relay (eighth place). Three of Roberts' NCCU teammates also competed in Munich. Larry Black won a gold medal as the lead leg of the 4x100m relay (38.19) and captured a silver medal in the 200m dash (20.19). Julius Sang and Robert Ouko, representing their home country of Kenya, earned gold medals as part of the 4x400m relay squad (2:59.83), while Sang added a bronze medal in the 400m dash (44.92).
In the 1976 Olympic Games in Montreal, Canada, Charles Foster finished three-one-hundredths of a second away from an Olympic medal by placing fourth in the 110m hurdles (13.41).
All of the aforementioned Olympians competed under the direction of their NCCU head coach Dr. LeRoy T. Walker, who served as head coach for the U.S. men's track & field team in 1976 and went on to become the first African-American President of the United States Olympic Committee.
As part of North Carolina Central University's Centennial celebration, the NCCU Department of Athletics will post sports history facts from the institution's first 100 years to its official web site, www.NCCUEaglePride.com, every week during the year-long observance.
