Former Olympian And Track Star Otis Davis Dead At 92
You may not recognize the name but he is a history maker both in the Olympics and at the University of Oregon. But sadly the former Olympian and track star was found dead this week at 92 years old. While he was a student athlete at Oregon he won two Olympic gold medals at the 1960 Rome Olympics. Davis was the first Olympic gold medalist to come out of Oregon’s track and field program. 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.
At the 1960 Rome Olympics Davis competed in the 400m and the 4x400m relay. He famously beat out German Carl Kaufmann in a photo finish of the 400m. Both men went under the world record, Davis’ auto-time was 45.07 to Kaufmann’s 45.08. Davis was never in doubt that he had won the race. “I knew I had won,” Davis said of the finish, according to the University of Oregon. “They were the only ones that didn’t know … those up there in the booth.” Two days after the individual gold, Davis anchored the U.S. men’s 4x400m to gold in world record time. He along with Glenn Davis, Jack Yerman and Earl Young posted a winning time of 3:02.2.
It was not an easy time for black athletes when Davis was competing. He was born on July 12, 1932. And 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. Hence why he had to go all the way to Oregon to attend a university. But that was after serving four years in the U.S. Air Force and fighting in the Korean war.
Former Olympian And Track Star Otis Davis Dead At 92
Davis commented on what it was like to compete during that time.
“Psychologically, I’m telling you, I thought I was running away from all of that negative stuff,” Davis said in 2020. “People saying that you weren’t as good as they were because they didn’t even know you, because you might look different from them, which is totally absurd, and that’s what the problems we’re having now.
“I was working against all of that bitterness and the hatred and the second-class citizenship.”
Things did improve for Davis as he went on to be a torch bearer for the 1996 Atlanta Olympics. And in 2003, Davis was inducted into the National Track and Field Hall of Fame in 2003. Further, he is a member of the University of Oregon Hall of Fame and received the Distinguished Alumni Award from the university in 2015. Rest in peace, sir.
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