Otis "Jet" Johnson was an American athlete who competed mainly in sprint events. Running under coach Edward P. Hurt he was a key component of the Morgan State relay teams. From 1953 to 1955, he was the national outdoor champion and a three-time winner of the Penn Relays. Johnson later served in the U.S. Army. He was a member of The Flying Four American collegiate 4 × 400 metres relay team.
Charles Lamont "Charlie" Jenkins is a former American athlete, winner of two gold medals at the 1956 Summer Olympics.
LeRoy Braxton Cochran was an American sprinter and hurdler, winner of two gold medals at the 1948 Summer Olympics.
Walter Thane Baker is an American former sprinter and winner of the gold medal in the 4x100 m relay at the 1956 Summer Olympics in Melbourne, Australia, with a new world record of 39.5 seconds. At those Olympics Baker also won a silver medal in the 100-meter and a bronze in the 200-meter. At the 1952 Summer Olympics in Helsinki, he won a silver medal in the 200-meter.
Ollan Conn Cassell is an American sprinter in the 1950s and 1960s, winning a gold medal in the men's 4 × 400 m relay at the 1964 Summer Olympics. In his early 30s, Cassell later became the executive director of the Amateur Athletic Union (AAU). Right now he serves as an adjunct professor for Olympic Sports history at the University of Indianapolis and is the president of the Indiana Olympian Association.
Wayland Baptist University (WBU) is a private Baptist university based in Plainview, Texas. It is affiliated with the Baptist General Convention of Texas. Wayland Baptist has 11 campuses in five Texas cities, six states, American Samoa, and Kenya. Chartered in 1908, it had about 4,000 students in 2021, including about 900 students on its main campus.
Joshua Culbreath was an American athlete who competed mainly in the 400 meter hurdles—the national outdoor champion from 1953 to 1955; three-time winner of the event in the Penn Relays in the same years, and Olympic bronze medal winner in 1956, while he was serving in the U.S. Marine Corps; and world record holder in 1957. Culbreath was inducted into the United States Marine Corps Sports Hall of Fame in 2008.
George L. Young was an American track athlete and college coach. He won a bronze medal at the 1968 Summer Olympics in the 3000 meter steeplechase and held several American records in events ranging from the two mile to the 5000 meter race. He broke two world records, in the indoor two and three mile events.
David Wesley Santee was an American middle distance runner and athlete who competed mainly in the 1,500 meters and mile events.
Gregory Curtis Bell is a former track and field athlete who won the gold medal in the Long Jump at the 1956 Summer Olympics in Melbourne, Australia. He was born in Terre Haute, Indiana.
The Morgan State Bears football team competes in American football on behalf of Morgan State University. The Bears compete in the NCAA Division I Football Championship Subdivision, currently as a member of the Mid-Eastern Athletic Conference (MEAC). The Bears play their home games at Hughes Stadium, a 10,000-seat facility in Baltimore, Maryland.
Edward Paulette Hurt was an American football, basketball, and track coach. He served the head football coach at Virginia Theological Seminary and College—now known as Virginia University of Lynchburg—in Lynchburg, Virginia from 1925 to 1928 and Morgan State College—now known as Morgan State University—in Baltimore, from 1929 to 1959. Hurt also had long tenures at the head basketball and head track coach at Morgan State. Across those three sports, his teams at Morgan State won 36 Central Intercollegiate Athletic Association (CIAA) championships and produced two Pro Football Hall of Famers and an Olympic gold medal winner. Hurt's Morgan State Bears football teams won six 6 black college football national championships and 14 CIAA titles. Hurt also served as the school's athletic director from 1958 to 1970. He played college football at Lincoln University in Pennsylvania and Howard University in Washington, D.C.
John Kenneth Doherty was an American decathlon champion, college track and field coach, author and longtime director of the Penn Relays. While a student at the University of Michigan, Doherty won the American decathlon championship in 1928 and 1929 and won the bronze medal in the event at the 1928 Summer Olympics in Amsterdam. He later served as a track coach at Princeton University (1929–1930), the University of Michigan (1930–1948), and the University of Pennsylvania (1948–1957). He was also the meet director for the Penn Relays from 1956 to 1969 and of the first dual track meet between the United States and the Soviet Union in 1959. He was also a published author of works on track coaching, and his Track & Field Omnibook was regarded as "the track coach's bible" from the 1970s through the 1990s. Doherty has been inducted into at least six athletic halls of fame, including the National Track and Field Hall of Fame and athletic halls of fame at the University of Pennsylvania, University of Michigan, and Wayne State University.
Arthur "Art" George Bragg was an American sprinter who competed in the 1952 Summer Olympics.
The Morgan State Bears are the twelve varsity sports teams representing Morgan State University in Baltimore, Maryland in intercollegiate athletics, including men and women's basketball, cross country, tennis and track and field; women's-only bowling, softball, and volleyball; and men's-only football. The Bears compete in the NCAA Division I FCS and are members of the Mid-Eastern Athletic Conference.
James Jerome Carnes was an American track and field athlete, coach and administrator. A successful coach at the high school, college and international levels, Carnes compiled a 161–11 career dual meet record, highlighted by four college conference championships and six state high school championships. He was the head coach of the U.S. Olympic track & field team and the Florida Gators track and field team, the founder of the Florida Track Club, and a member of the U.S. Track & Field Hall of Fame.
Gordon Edmund McKenzie was an American athlete who competed in the 10,000 meters at the 1956 Summer Olympics in Melbourne, Australia and the marathon at the 1960 Summer Olympics in Rome, Italy. McKenzie, running 2:28:18, finished second to Paavo Kotila in the 1960 Boston Marathon, an Olympic trials race. In 1961, he finished fourth at Boston, in 2:25:46.
Ajeé Wilson is an American middle-distance runner who specializes in the 800 meters. She is the 2022 World indoor champion at the 800 meter distance, after earning silver medals in 2016 and 2018. Wilson won bronze medals at both the 2017 and 2019 World Athletics Championships. She is the second-fastest American of all time in the event with a time of 1m 55.61s, and she holds North American indoor record.
Joseph Gregory Rice was an American long-distance runner. He was five times American champion in the 5000 m, set world indoor best times at two miles and three miles, and in 1940 received the Sullivan Award as the outstanding American amateur athlete. Like most athletes of his generation his athletics career was curtailed by the outbreak of World War II.
Nell Jackson was an Olympic sprinter and track coach. In 1956, she was the first African-American be named head coach of the U.S. Olympic Women's Track and Field Team. She also served as the head coach in the 1972 Olympic Games.
United States