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80 years ago today Wilma Rudolph was born. She wore a leg brace due to polio until she was 12. Her left leg & foot were atrophied. She has 21 siblings. Ed Temple discovered her when he reffed her h.s. basketball games. She avg'd 38 ppg.
Rudolph began training w/ Temple when she was in h.s. At 16 she competed in the '56 Olympics. She was the youngest U.S. athlete in Melbourne. In the 4 X 100 M relay, she ran the bend, & the US (the other three athletes were really Tenn. State's team) took bronze
In '58 she enrolled at Tenn A & I. She also had a baby girl. In '59 she took silver in the 100 @ the Pan Am Games. Other athletes there = Lou Brock, Cassius Clay, Oscar Robertson, Brooks Johnson. At the Pan Am's the US (really a Tenn A & I quartet) copped gold in the 4 X 100
In '59 Wilma won the 100M title in the AAU (the first of four consecutive times). In '60 she set a 200M mark which lasted eight yrs. She sprained an ankle before the Rome Games. There, Cassius Clay developed a crush on her. She briefly dated San Jose State sprinter Ray Norton
Despite the bad ankle, Wilma took gold in the 100, the first US woman in 24 yrs. She won the deuce. In the 4 X 1, Wilma & three college teammates won a close final (despite a poor final baton pass)- she as anchor. Euros labeled her "La Gazella Negra". Her hometown of Clarksville
...held a parade to celebrate her laurels- the city's first ethnically integrated public event. JFK invited her to the WH. Wilma married her h.s. sweetheart. She participated in goodwill tours on behalf of the U.S. State Department, spending a month in West Africa in '63
In spring of '63 she marched in protest of Jim Crow retail in her hometown. The mayor soon integrated the stores & parks. Wilma did some teaching & coaching, & worked f/ Job Corps in Boston. She did some tv commentary during the 1980's. At 54 she died of brain cancer
