Bluford Archives: The Road to the Gold – A History of Aggies in the Olympics.
On August 7, 2021, Trevor Stewart and Randolph Ross Jr. made history as the first Olympic Gold and Bronze medalists from North Carolina Agricultural and Technical State University when they led the United States in the men’s 4×400-meter relay.
Their victory is not only a tremendous source of Aggie Pride but is also reminiscent of the great heritage of African-American track and fielders in the Olympics. From George Coleman Poage (1904) to John Baxter Taylor Jr., the first African American to win Olympic Gold (1908 London), Jesse Owens who won four gold medals in Hitler’s Germany (1936), Wilma Rudolph, the first woman to win three medals in track and field games (1956, 1960), Florence “Flo-Jo” Joyner-Griffith (1984, 1988) and many others.
Stewart, Ross, Akeem Sirleaf and Daniel Stubbs, the 4x400m team from North Carolina A&T also embody and fulfill a long history of Aggies training and competing for a chance in the Olympic games. One of the earliest known examples was when Arthur “Art” Statum ‘53, Don Quarles and William Stewart attended a 1952 qualifying meet in Madison, Wisconsin for boxing. One of A&T’s greatest athletes, Statum became the first N.C. A&T Sports Hall of Fame (HOF) Inductee for boxing and football. Melvin Fair ’75 (HOF ’92) an Aggie wrestling team captain before his graduation, and three then-current A&T team members, Waller Bennett, Lester Epps and John Ford went to a Chapel Hill tryout in 1976. Elvin Bethea’ 68 (HOF ’80) was a top discus and shot-put player in the National Association of Intercollegiate Athletics (NAIA). Before joining the Houston Oilers NFL football team, Bethea had considered competing for the 1968 Olympics.
Aggies have also had close races with champions from other universities. At the 1954 C.I.A.A. Track and Field Championship, A&T’s Don Fairley ’55 came in second place to Morgan State University’s Joshua Culbreath in the 120-yard-high hurdles. Both players clocked in at the same exact second, but Culbreath ran into the finish line tape first. Culbreath would go on to win an Olympic Bronze medal in the 1956 Melbourne Australia games.
A&T came close to having its first Olympian in the 1960s with Bob Beamon. After attending A&T in the 1966-67 academic year he transferred to the University of Texas at El Paso. Beamon’s record-breaking 29 ft. long jump at the 1968 Mexico City Olympics has only been matched by one other athlete in over 50 years.
A history of Aggies on the track and the Olympics would be incomplete without Thomas “Tommy” Bynum ‘57 and Roy “Space” Thompson ‘68. Thompson, also known as “Spaceman,” a champion at the long jump would become an outstanding MEAC championship track and field coach and director at A&T for over 20 years. Aggie athletes with Olympic aspirations could also look up to Tommy “Mr. B.” Bynum an athletic trainer at A&T from 1968 – 2000.
Bynum was an athletic trainer for the 1971 Summer games, one of 24 athletic trainers selected to the 1984 Olympics then to the Olympic Training Advisory Board, and as a trainer at the 1996 Olympic games in Atlanta. Two of the athletes under Thompson’s and Bynum’s direction and training were Ruth Morris ‘90 (HOF ’06) and Troy Douglas, the first Aggies to compete in the Olympics. Morris represented A&T and her native St. Thomas, Virgin Islands at the 1988 Seoul, South Korea Olympics in the 200 and 400-meter sprinting events. She placed third in a pre-Olympic Dead Meet race and 5th in the Olympic preliminaries. For her participation in the Dead Meet, she received a complimentary bronze medal.
Morris wasn’t pleased with her performance, which was affected by a pulled hamstring. She was determined to return to the 1992 Barcelona, Spain Summer Games. That year, she was a quarter-finalist in the 200 and 400 meters races. In 1994, she became head coach of A&T’s women’s track team. Douglas participated in the semi-finals at the 1988, 1992, and 1996 Summer Olympics in the 200-meter events for Bermuda.
It would be another 29 years before an A&T student would compete at the Olympics. Signs of this future glory came under the direction of A&T Coach Duane Ross. Ross whose tenure as head coach began in 2012, is a gold, silver, and bronze champion of several national and international track and field competitions, and competed at the Athens 2004 Summer Olympics. Coach Ross led A&T to its first MEAC men’s and women’s outdoor and indoor track championships. Aggie athletes Kayla White, Desmond Lawrence, and Ross’s son Randolph Ross Jr., broke records and won multiple titles. It was becoming more believable that an Aggie would be in the next Olympic games.
On June 21, 2021, Trevor Stewart, Randolph Ross, Akeem Sirleaf, and Daniel Stubbs, the full 4X400m national championship team from North Carolina A&T qualified for the Tokyo Games, representing 3 nations. Throughout the Tokyo Games Aggies knew what was possible, and very soon the entire world would see what AGGIES DO!
The F. D. Bluford Library Archives and Special Collections keeps vertical files on many notable Aggie Athletes, a Sports Hall of Fame Research Collections, MEAC and CIAA collections, and boxes on nearly every competitive sports, including Track and Field. For more information about the history of sports at A&T, any topic in A&T History, or if we have overlooked an Aggie who competed in the Olympics, please contact the F. D. Bluford Library at libraryarchives@ncat.edu.
