New Delhi, 17 September
Otis Davis, who won two gold medals in the 1960 Olympics in Rome while he was a student athlete at the University of Oregon, has died at the age of 92, the Oregon track and field program announced Monday.
Davis was the Oregon track and field program’s first Olympic gold medalist. It took more than 50 years for another Oregon Duck to match Davis as a two-time Olympic champion. Ashton Eaton did so when he won his second Olympic decathlon gold medal in 2016.
Davis’ journey to get to the Olympic podium was about sacrifice and perseverance.
Davis was born on July 12, 1932. He grew up in segregated Alabama just a few miles from the University of Alabama campus. He couldn’t attend the school because it didn’t allow Black students until 1963.
After serving four years in the U.S. Air Force during the Korean War, the 26-year-old freshman decided to run track at the University of Oregon. He actually first arrived at Oregon on a basketball scholarship. But he joined the track and field program after he saw a workout from his dorm window and thought he could compete.
Two years later, he won gold at the 1960 Olympics in Rome in the 400-meter final with a time of 44.9 seconds, setting a new world record and becoming the first person to run it in under 45 seconds.
He took home another gold and helped set another world record in Rome, when he anchored the 4-by-400 meter relay, posting a winning time of 3:02.2 alongside Glenn Davis, Jack Yerman and Earl Young.
Davis returned to Oregon and earned his bachelor’s degree in health and physical education in 1960. He was a high school teacher in Springfield for many years and later worked as an athletic director at U.S. military bases. He moved to New Jersey in 1991, where he served as a guidance counselor, truant officer and mentor to young students and aspiring athletes. In 1996, he was a torch bearer for the Atlanta Olympics.
In 2003, Davis was inducted into the National Track and Field Hall of Fame in 2003. A member of the University of Oregon Hall of Fame who received the Distinguished Alumni Award from the university in 2015, he’s one of five icons from Oregon’s track and field program depicted on a 10-story tower outside Hayward Field on the University of Oregon campus, joining legendary coach Bill Bowerman and athletes Eaton, Steve Prefontaine and Raevyn Rogers.
