Otis Davis

For the baseball player, see Otis Davis (baseball).

Otis Davis

Davis in 1960
Personal information
Born	(1932-07-12)July 12, 1932 Tuscaloosa, Alabama, U.S.
Died	September 14, 2024(2024-09-14) (aged 92)
Height	6 ft 1 in (1.85 m)
Weight	163 lb (74 kg)
Sport
Country	United States
Sport	Track and field
Event(s)	400-meter dash 4×400 m relay
College team	University of Oregon
Club	Philadelphia Pioneer Club
Coached by	Bill Bowerman
Medal record Representing the United States Olympic Games 1960 Rome 400 m 1960 Rome 4×400 m relay

Otis Davis (July 12, 1932 – September 14, 2024) was an American athlete, winner of two gold medals for record-breaking performances in the 400 m and 4 × 400 m relay at the 1960 Summer Olympics. He set a new world record of 44.9 seconds in the 400 m and became the first person to break the 45-second barrier.

Early life

Otis Davis was born in Tuscaloosa, Alabama, on July 12, 1932. He was black and Native American. He served four years in the United States Air Force during the Korean War.

Career

College

Following the Air Force, Davis attended the University of Oregon on a basketball scholarship, hoping to one day becoming a professional. One day in 1958 while observing athletes running on the track with a friend, Davis, who had never run before, nor attended schools in his youth with sports programs other than basketball and football, decided that he could beat the athletes he saw on the track. He approached track coach Bill Bowerman, who would later become the founding father of the Nike, Inc., and asked to join the track team. Needing high jumpers instead, Bowerman had Davis try his hand.

Among Davis's first attempts, he jumped 6–0. He recalled: "I had no form. I had no style. I just jumped." He also hit 23–0 in the long jump with little effort, though he was flustered by the sprinting events, relating "I didn't even know how to get in the starting blocks". For his first competitive event, Bowerman entered Davis in the 220-yard dash and the 440-yard dash in the Pacific Coast Conference championships, both of which he won, missing the school record by two tenths of a second in the latter.

According to Davis, Bowerman made the first pair of Nike shoes for him, contradicting the claim that they were made for Phil Knight: "I told Tom Brokaw that I was the first. I don't care what all the billionaires say. Bill Bowerman made the first pair of shoes for me. People don't believe me. In fact, I didn't like the way they felt on my feet. There was no support and they were too tight. But I saw Bowerman make them from the waffle iron, and they were mine."

Olympic

Davis vs. Carl Kaufmann in the 4 × 400 m Olympic final in 1960

In 1960, Davis was competing on a national level for the Oregon Ducks, and was poised to become a national AAU champion in the 440-yard run. That year, at the age of 28, he made the U.S. Olympic team. He ran his fastest time to date one week before participating in the 1960 Summer Olympics in Rome as one of the oldest members of the track team, where he was nicknamed "Pops" by his teammates. He remembered: "I was still learning how to turn with the staggered starts and all. I was still learning the strategy involved. I was still learning how to run in the lanes."

Davis ran against the heavily favored German athlete Carl Kaufmann, who was the world record holder in the 400-meter dash. He won by a hair, setting a world record of 44.9 seconds and becoming the first man to break the heralded 45-second barrier. The photo of the finish, with (in full horizontal dive position) Kaufmann's nose ahead of Davis, but his torso behind, has been studied and discussed by track and field officials for years. Both athletes were awarded the world record time, recorded in the 10ths of a second in those days, but Davis was awarded the win. Two days later, they met again for the 4 × 400 m relay final. He held off the challenge, anchoring home the gold with another world record performance of 3:02.2. The photo of the finish of that race was also made famous in Life magazine.

Post-Olympic

Davis in 2012, at his desk at Union City High School in Union City, New Jersey, where he worked as a verification officer, coach and mentor

Following the Olympics, Davis competed in some sporadic track meets, such as the 1961 U.S. Nationals at Randall's Island, which he won aged 29, but his competitive running career was virtually over, as he never repeated his Olympic performance. He returned to Oregon, where he obtained his degree, a B.S. Health & Physical Education, in 1960. He later considered playing as wide receiver for the Los Angeles Rams. After retiring from competition, he became a high school teacher, working in Springfield, Oregon, for many years, and then traveled overseas to work as an athletic director at United States military bases, including McGuire Air Force Base in New Jersey, where he taught in 1989.

In 1991, Davis moved to Jersey City, New Jersey, in order to live closer to New York, eventually settling in Union City. In 1996 he was a torch-bearer for the Summer Olympics in Atlanta.

Around 2002 or 2003, Davis was hired by the Union City Board of Education, and began working at Emerson High School as a truancy officer, teacher, coach and mentor. When he was inducted into the National Track and Field Hall of Fame in 2003, he asked Emerson Principal Robert Fazio to accompany him to the ceremony in Los Angeles, and when the rest of the school's staff learned he was an Olympic medalist, they honored him with a banner posted in a hallway in the school honoring his achievements.

Davis refereeing the Family Fun Fest, an athletic event for special needs children

In 2012, Davis was working as a verification officer at Union City High School, mentoring students. He was also co-founder and, in 2012, president of the Tri-States Olympic Alumni Association, a member of the University of Oregon Hall of Fame and the New Jersey Sports Writers' Halls of Fame.

Davis ran athletic skills programs during the spring and summer in Union City, in order to reach students who did not normally participate in sporting events, and to complement the schools' physical education curricula. Among programs he directed were the Mayor's Cup, first held on June 6, 2011, in which students from the city's several elementary schools compete in events that include sprinting, spring relays and circle relays, and the Sports Challenge, which provides special needs children with the opportunity to be a part of sports activities.

Death

Davis died on September 14, 2024, at the age of 92.

External links

• Official website
• University of Oregon Duck Record Holders