So Cal HJ Olympic Legacy…

Cornelius Johnson…’36 Olympic Champion

Los Angeles HS (’32 USA Olympian) / Compton CC

 8-USA titles, *world, USA records

Charles Dumas… ’56 Olympic Champion

Centennial HS, Compton, Ca. / Compton College / USC

First 7-ft. jumper; five USA titles

Joe Faust…’60 Olympian

Culver City HS / Occidental College / Mt. SAC / UCLA

First jumper under 18 to clear 7-0 *world jr. record

John Rambo…’64 Olympic-bronze medal 

Long Beach Poly HS / Utah St. / LBCC / Long Beach State

6-9¾ win led LBCC to ’63 state title; NCAA title

’67: equaled American indoor record 7-3

Ed Caruthers…’68 Olympic-silver medal

Santa Ana Valley HS / Santa Ana College / Arizona

*National JC record, two So Cal titles

Rick Sloan…’68 Olympic decathlon-7^th

Anaheim HS / Fullerton JC / UCLA

Fourth American to score 8000 

FJC: 6-9¾ PR

Doug Nordquist...’84Olympian-5^th

Sonora HS / Fullerton CC / Washington State

’84 Olympian, two-time USA Champ

7-8¾PR …“highest jumping white guy in history”

Brian Stanton…’88 Olympian-11^th tie

Long Beach CC / Houston

’81 SoCal *MR 7-4; ’85-USA ranked #2

’83 NCAA Indoor title; ’88 Trials-3^rd 7-7¼

Willye White…a special woman

    A share cropper’s daughter in the Mississippi Delta cotton country she was abandoned by her parents and raised by her illiterate grandparents.

Willye White is the only American woman to ever appear in five consecutive (1956-72) Olympics (Gail Devers would become the second at Athens). In 1976 White received her degree from Chicago State University, 17 years after taking her first course at Tennessee State.

    “Athletics was my flight from freedom. Freedom from prejudice. Freedom from illiteracy. Freedom from bias. It was my acceptance in the world. Winning a race was something no one could take away from me. It’s not subject to other people’s decisions.

     “I went into the Olympics at 16, not having a coach in the long jump but having a lot of desire. I ended up winning the silver medal. And I found that if I trained and stayed in shape, I could see the world, and I would never have to pick cotton again in Mississippi during the summers. Before my first Olympics, I thought the whole world consisted of cross burnings and lynchings. I am who I am because of my participation in sports.”  

     White was a member of more than 30 international track and field teams and won a dozen AAU long jump titiles. In 1981 she was inducted into the USATF Hall of Fame.

      Many former Olympians came from across the country to pay their respects at her funeral in 2007.

–“Ahead of their Time” by Lyn Votava, Runner’s World, June, 1993;