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Jim Hines
Jim Hines
Jim Hines
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James Ray Hines (September 10, 1946 – June 3, 2023) was an American track and field athlete and National Football League (NFL) player, who held the 100-meter world record for 15 years. In 1968, he became the first man to officially break the 10-second barrier in the 100 meters, and won individual and relay gold at the Mexico City Olympics.[2]

Key Information

Track career

[edit]

Born in Dumas, Arkansas, Hines was raised in Oakland, California, and graduated from McClymonds High School in 1964. He was a baseball player in his younger years[3] until he was spotted by track coach Jim Coleman as a running talent, and Hines became a sprinter. At the 1968 U.S. national championships in Sacramento, California, Hines became the first man to break the ten second barrier in the 100-metre race, setting 9.9 (manual timing), with an electronic time of 10.03 – two other athletes, Ronnie Ray Smith behind him (electronic time 10.13) and Charles Greene on the other semi-final (electronic time 10.09) having the same official clocking. That evening of June 20, 1968, at Hughes Stadium has been dubbed by track and field historians as the "Night of Speed".[4] Hines attended Texas Southern University in Houston, Texas. He was a member of the Texas Southern University Tigers track team.

A few months later, at the 1968 Summer Olympics, Hines – a black athlete – found himself in a tense situation, with racial riots going on in his home country and a threat of a boycott by the black athletes of the U.S. team, who were disturbed by the controversial idea of admitting apartheid South Africa to the Games and revelations linking the head of the International Olympic Committee, Avery Brundage, to a racist and antisemitic country club. Hines reached the 100 m final, and won it with the time 9.89 appearing on the screen, later corrected to 9.95. The 9.89 was taken from a light beam across the finish line, while the official photographic process used Polaroid film and took a couple of minutes to process and read. There was some controversy over how his (slower appearing) automatic time of 9.95 should compare to the hand timed 9.9 world record (Hines was again recorded at 9.9 in his 9.95 race). Automatic times start instantly with the sound of the gun, while hand times include human reaction time to start the watch. It took until 1977 before fully automatic timing was required of world records. As the fastest electronic time to that point, Hines' mark was recognized exclusively as a new world record.[5] The race was also significant for being the third all-black podium in Olympic history. Hines helped break another world record, when he and his teammates sprinted to the 4 × 100 m relay gold at the same Games.

Professional football career

[edit]

Hines was drafted by the Miami Dolphins of the NFL in the sixth round of the 1968 NFL/AFL draft.[6] Hines spent the 1968 season on the Dolphins' practice squad. He was given the nickname "Oops". He appeared in ten games with Miami in 1969, accumulating a total of 52 all-purpose yards.[7] Hines' final professional game was his first and only game with the Kansas City Chiefs in 1970.[7] Hines was ranked as the 10th-worst NFL player of all time by Deadspin writer Jeff Pearlman.[8]

Later years

[edit]

For years Hines worked with inner-city youth in Houston, as well as on oil rigs outside the city.[9]

Hines's world record remained unsurpassed until Calvin Smith ran a time of 9.93 in 1983.[3]

Hines competed in the 100 at a 1984 Masters Track and Field Competition at UCLA.[10]

Hines was inducted into the Texas Sports Hall of Fame, class of 1994.[11] Hines was also inducted into the Texas Track and Field coaches Hall of Fame, class of 2016.[12]

Hines died in Hayward, California, on June 3, 2023, at the age of 76.[13][14]

References

[edit]
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Jim Hines

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James Ray "Jim" Hines (1946–2023) was an American sprinter who achieved historic distinction as the first athlete to be officially timed below 10 seconds in the 100 meters, a milestone he reached at the 1968 Summer Olympics in Mexico City, where he won the gold medal with a fully automatic time of 9.95 seconds. This performance set a world record that endured for 15 years and marked the culmination of Hines's rapid rise in track and field, having equaled prior world records in the 100 yards and 100 meters in 1967 while competing for Texas Southern University. Hines also anchored the United States to gold in the 4 × 100 meters relay at the same Games, further solidifying his legacy as a pivotal figure in sprinting history. Following his Olympic triumphs, Hines pursued a brief professional football career as a wide receiver for the Miami Dolphins in the NFL, though injuries limited his impact there. His contributions to athletics earned him inductions into halls of fame, including the Texas Sports Hall of Fame and the Bay Area Sports Hall of Fame, recognizing his role in advancing the sport's standards.

Early life

Childhood and family

James Ray Hines was born on September 10, 1946, in , the ninth of twelve children born to Charlie Hines, a , and Minnie West Hines. In 1952, at the age of six, Hines's family relocated to , as part of a broader pattern of African American migration from the rural South to urban centers on the West Coast in pursuit of improved economic prospects and reduced racial . The Hines family settled into a modest working-class existence in Oakland, where Minnie Hines took employment in a cannery to support the household amid mid-20th-century industrial shifts. This urban environment exposed young Hines to diverse community influences, including an early affinity for that reflected the era's popular sports culture among youth in similar socioeconomic settings.

Introduction to athletics and high school career

James Hines, born in , but raised in , initially focused on during his early high school years at . His transition to occurred when high school coach Jim Coleman identified his exceptional running speed while observing him play , prompting Hines to specialize in sprinting instead. This shift took place around his or junior year, redirecting his athletic energies toward competitive dashes by the early . At McClymonds, Hines competed primarily in the 100-yard and 220-yard dashes, events measured in yards and often hand-timed during the era, which typically yielded faster recorded times than modern due to reaction and measurement variances. He remained undefeated across his high school career in both distances, posting times such as 9.7 seconds in the , which tied the national high school record for that event. These performances underscored his raw speed and acceleration, establishing him as a standout prep athlete despite the limitations of hand-timing, which lacked the precision of electronic systems introduced later. By his graduation in 1964, Hines was recognized as the top high school sprinter , capping a dominant tenure at McClymonds that highlighted his potential for elite-level competition. His high school success laid the groundwork for further development, though it was achieved under the yard-based, hand-timed standards prevalent in American scholastic track before widespread metric and automatic timing adoption.

Collegiate career at Texas Southern University

Jim Hines enrolled at , a historically Black college in , , in 1964 following high school graduation, where he joined the track team. There, he trained under coach , the 1956 Olympic champion in the 100-meter and 200-meter events, who emphasized technical refinement and sprint-specific drills that enhanced Hines's acceleration and form. This guidance, combined with the disciplined environment of the HBCU program, allowed Hines to build consistency in short sprints amid evolving collegiate standards that included metric conversions and improved starting blocks. Hines secured three NAIA national titles during his tenure: the 100 yards in 1966 with a wind-aided time of 9.5 seconds, followed by victories in the 100 yards and 220 yards in 1967. He also claimed the AAU 220-yard championship in 1966, demonstrating versatility in longer sprints. In relays, Hines anchored Southern's teams to a in the indoor mile relay and a tie of the existing mark in the 440-yard relay, showcasing his closing speed alongside teammates like Clyde Duncan. By 1967, Hines set a of 9.1 seconds in the 100 yards, equivalent to a hand-timed 10.0 seconds for 100 meters, marking his emergence as a top collegiate sprinter capable of metric-distance contention. These performances, achieved through rigorous and competitive meets within NAIA circuits, positioned him for national and international exposure while highlighting the program's role in nurturing raw speed into refined execution.

Track and field achievements

Pre-Olympic competitions and records

Prior to the 1968 Olympics, Jim Hines established himself as a leading American sprinter through standout performances in national competitions, particularly at the AAU Championships in , on June 20, 1968. In the 100 meters heats, he clocked a wind-assisted hand-timed 9.8 seconds, followed by a legal-wind 9.9 seconds in the semi-final, marking the first officially recognized sub-10-second performance under IAAF hand-timing rules, which allowed hundredths of a second for such feats when wind was under 2.0 m/s. This time tied the world record progression benchmark set earlier by sprinters like and , but Hines's run was verified as the pioneering legal sub-10 claim in a major U.S. meet. In the final of that same AAU event, Hines finished second to rival Charlie Greene, with both recording a windy hand-timed 10.0 seconds, underscoring the tight competition among emerging U.S. talents like Ronnie Ray Smith, who also hit 9.9 in semis. Greene, the reigning national champion and undefeated in the 100 meters for three prior years, represented Hines's primary domestic challenge, as Hines had begun overtaking him in head-to-head matchups by mid-1967. These races occurred on straight-line tracks typical of U.S. venues, where manual timing—reliant on operators aligned with the finish line—introduced potential variances of up to 0.1-0.2 seconds due to reaction delays and errors, compounded by wind readings that could vary by placement. Hines's pre-Olympic ascent reflected the sprint field's transition toward sub-10 potential, with international exposure against figures like Canada's , the 1964 Olympic bronze medalist and former 10.0 record holder, in earlier meets that honed his technique amid varying track surfaces and altitudes. However, the Sacramento results stood out for their record implications, as hand-timed marks were the era's standard for world records absent , which was not yet ratified for sprints until the Mexico City Games.

1968 Mexico City Olympics

At the in , held at an elevation of approximately 2,240 meters where lower air density facilitated faster sprint times, Jim Hines competed in the men's 100 meters event. On October 14, 1968, Hines won the gold medal in the final, recording a hand-timed 9.9 seconds that was electronically measured at 9.95 seconds, marking the first officially ratified sub-10-second performance under automatic timing standards. This achievement set , which stood until 1983, and was verified in an era before widespread performance-enhancing drug scandals, with the implementing its first drug testing protocols at these Games, though testing was limited and retrospective analyses have not implicated Hines. Hines finished ahead of silver medalist Lennox Miller of (10.0 seconds hand-timed) and bronze medalist Charles Greene of the (10.0 seconds hand-timed). The electronic timing of Hines' run addressed longstanding debates over hand-timing accuracy, and subsequent International Association of Athletics Federations (IAAF, now ) rules from 1977 formalized automatic times as the standard for records, retroactively affirming Hines' 9.95 as the inaugural sub-10 benchmark in that category. Six days later, on October 20, 1968, Hines anchored the 4×100 meters team, consisting of Charles Greene, Melvin Pender, Ronnie Ray Smith, and himself, to a victory. The team clocked an electronic time of 38.24 seconds, shattering the previous and demonstrating exceptional baton exchanges amid the high-altitude conditions that similarly boosted speeds. This performance, achieved without reported disqualifications or controversies in exchange execution, underscored Hines' role in elevating the U.S. team's precision and speed in the event.

Post-Olympic track pursuits and world records

Hines's 9.95-second performance in the Olympic 100 meters final established the first fully automatic-timed under 10 seconds, which remained intact for 15 years until ran 9.93 seconds at the 1983 U.S. Olympic Festival in Colorado Springs on July 3. This duration represented the longest any men's 100m has endured since the advent of electronic timing in , outlasting subsequent marks set amid incremental technological and methodological advancements. Post-Olympics, Hines retired from competitive without defending the record in major international meets, as the sport's adherence to amateurism regulations barred direct earnings from competitions, constraining sustained professional viability. These rules, enforced to preserve the Olympic ideal, effectively funneled elite sprinters toward alternative careers offering financial stability, such as professional , where Hines had been selected by the in the sixth round of the 1968 NFL Draft (109th overall). Limited exhibition or pro-am opportunities existed in track at the time, with no robust professional circuit until the International Track Association's formation in 1972—after Hines's pivot. The record's persistence aligned with the 1968 era's technological constraints, including basic crouch-start blocks without modern adjustable pedals, pyramid-pattern metal spikes lacking the energy-return properties of later designs, and track surfaces like Mexico City's novel synthetic, which, while innovative, fell short of the optimized Mondo or Mondo Plus variants that emerged in the 1970s and beyond to enhance traction and energy restitution. These factors, combined with less refined biomechanical training and wind-legal timing protocols, delayed sub-9.95 performances until equipment and surface evolutions facilitated faster times by the early 1980s.

Professional football career

Draft and Miami Dolphins tenure

Hines was selected by the Miami Dolphins in the sixth round (146th overall) of the 1968 NFL/AFL Draft out of Texas Southern University, despite lacking college football experience beyond his high school play in Oakland, California. The Dolphins, then in their third season of existence under head coach George Wilson, viewed his Olympic-level sprinting prowess—highlighted by his recent world-record 100-meter performance—as a potential asset for wide receiver speed, though he had no prior organized football beyond the prep level. Following the 1968 Mexico City Olympics, Hines signed with the Dolphins on October 28, 1968, transitioning directly from track dominance to professional football without intermediate seasoning. He spent his rookie year on the practice squad, acclimating to the physical demands of the sport, including blocking assignments and precise route-running, which contrasted sharply with the linear sprints of track events. This period underscored the challenges of adapting elite burst speed to football's multifaceted requirements, as Hines lacked the technical football foundation typical of drafted receivers. In the 1969 season, Hines appeared in 10 games as a , recording two receptions for 23 yards, one rushing attempt for seven yards, and 22 kickoff return yards. His limited statistical output reflected ongoing adjustment difficulties, with the Dolphins prioritizing established players in their passing game amid a 3-10-1 record. Despite modest contributions, his track-honed acceleration informed gadget plays and special teams roles, though opportunities remained constrained by his inexperience and the team's offensive scheme under Wilson. Hines was released during the 1970 preseason on August 31, concluding his Dolphins tenure after two seasons of peripheral involvement.

Kansas City Chiefs stint

Hines was traded from the to the prior to the . He appeared in one game for the Chiefs, wearing number 81 as a , where he recorded two receptions for 23 yards, one rushing attempt for seven yards, and one kickoff return for 22 yards, with no touchdowns. These minimal contributions reflected the difficulties of adapting elite sprint speed to professional football without a foundational background in the sport, as Hines had prioritized track and field throughout his athletic development. The biomechanical stresses of sub-10-second 100-meter sprints—emphasizing explosive, high-force lower-body actions—likely compounded joint wear, contrasting with football's demands for sustained contact resilience and route-running precision honed over years of gridiron play, ultimately curtailing his viability in the league. Hines retired from the NFL at age 24 following his release by the Chiefs, ending a professional football career that yielded just 16 all-purpose yards from scrimmage across two seasons.

Later career and contributions

Community and youth work

After retiring from professional athletics and football, Hines dedicated significant time to working with inner-city youth in , providing mentorship and support to individuals from disadvantaged urban environments over a period of years. Following the dissolution of his marriage, Hines returned to the Oakland area, where he pursued a career as a social worker and established a focused on aiding disadvantaged young people and others in need. He founded the Jim Hines Foundation, which offered assistance to battered women, abused children, and the homeless in Oakland, emphasizing direct support for vulnerable populations during the challenges of the late .

Employment and personal endeavors

Following his retirement from professional football in 1976, Hines took up physically demanding labor on in the area, where he performed shifts that required sustained endurance in harsh outdoor conditions. In later years, Hines relocated to , maintaining a low-profile personal life focused on personal stability amid the typical post-fame adjustments faced by former athletes. Details on his family remain limited in , reflecting a deliberate emphasis on privacy rather than public persona. Hines sustained himself through such varied manual employment without documented instances of the financial distress or mismanagement that has affected some retired athletes, demonstrating practical adaptation to life beyond sports.

Legacy

Honors and inductions

Hines was inducted into the Hall of Fame in 1979 for his pioneering sprint records, including the first officially timed sub-10-second 100-meter dash. In 1986, he entered the Hall of Fame, honoring his collegiate contributions to the institution's track program where he set multiple relay records. The Texas Sports Hall of Fame inducted Hines in 1994, recognizing his Olympic golds and world records as benchmarks of sprinting excellence that endured for 15 years until surpassed. Further accolades followed with his 1999 induction into the Hall of Fame for track and field achievements. Hines received posthumous recognition through his 2014 entry into the Bay Area Sports Hall of Fame, highlighting his origins in Oakland and status as the first to break the in Olympic competition. In 2016, the Texas Track & Field Coaches Hall of Fame inducted him, citing his influence on coaching standards derived from his record-setting techniques.

Influence on sprinting and athletics

Hines's officially recognized sub-10-second 100m performance initiated the era of routinely achievable sub-10 times in elite sprinting, with his 9.95-second from the Olympics enduring until Calvin Smith's 9.93 seconds on July 3, 1983. This benchmark shifted training paradigms toward enhanced explosive power and reaction times, as evidenced by the subsequent proliferation of sub-10 performances following widespread adoption of strength and plyometric regimens in the and 1980s. The altitude of 2,248 meters facilitated faster times by reducing aerodynamic drag in thinner air, a factor that aided multiple records at those Games despite challenges for some athletes acclimating to hypoxia. However, Hines's hand-timed 9.9 seconds at the sea-level U.S. Championships in Sacramento validated his intrinsic velocity independent of altitude effects, underscoring over environmental aids in assessing true capability. Hines's post-Olympic pivot to a NFL contract with the illustrated the financial imperatives compelling track athletes to pursue revenue-generating sports under the era's strict Olympic amateurism mandates, which barred direct athletics compensation until reforms in the . This trajectory highlighted causal drivers of athlete diversification, prioritizing economic realism amid track's limited monetization pre-professional era.

References

  1. https://www.espn.com/olympics/story/_/id/37801497/olympian-jim-hines-1st-run-sub-10-second-100m-dies-76
  2. https://www.olympics.com/en/athletes/james-ray-hines
  3. https://usatf.org/news/2023/usatf-mourns-passing-of-1968-100m-gold-medalist-hi
  4. https://www.theguardian.com/sport/2023/jun/13/jim-hines-obituary
  5. https://worldathletics.org/athletes/united-states/jim-hines-14351439
  6. https://www.tshof.org/store/p143/Jim_Hines.html
  7. https://bashof.org/inductee/jim-hines/
  8. https://encyclopediaofarkansas.net/entries/james-ray-4545/
  9. https://www.wikitree.com/wiki/Hines-6137
  10. https://www.thetimes.com/uk/obituaries/article/jim-hines-obituary-kgvtt7csh
  11. https://www.olympics.com/en/news/olympic-champion-jim-hines-first-official-sub-10-100m-man-dies-aged-76
  12. https://www.telegraph.co.uk/obituaries/2023/06/10/jim-hines-first-100m-under-10-seconds-died-obituary/
  13. https://worldathletics.org/news/news/jim-hines-obituary
  14. https://aaregistry.org/story/jim-hines-track-athlete-born/
  15. https://geoffreyslive.com/sports/jim-hines-a-mcclymondsoakland-original/
  16. https://usatf.org/athlete-bios/jim-hines
  17. https://tsusports.com/honors/texas-southern-hall-of-fame/jim-hines/25
  18. https://www.olympedia.org/athletes/78559
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  20. https://issuu.com/playnaia/docs/m_outdoor_championship_records
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  24. https://www.olympics.com/en/olympic-games/mexico-city-1968/results/athletics/100m-men
  25. https://www.guinnessworldrecords.com/world-records/first-person-to-run-100-m-in-less-than-10-seconds-%28automatic-timing%29
  26. https://worldathletics.org/heritage/news/100-years-of-the-100-metres-world-record-ia
  27. https://www.olympics.com/en/olympic-games/mexico-city-1968/results/athletics/4x100m-relay-men
  28. https://www.sportsperformancebulletin.com/training/base-endurance-training/record-breaking-predictions
  29. https://www.pro-football-reference.com/players/H/HineJi00.htm
  30. https://media.miamidolphins.com/wp-content/uploads/2016/09/1968_MEDIA_GUIDE.pdf
  31. https://www.profootballarchives.com/players/h/hine00600.html
  32. https://americanfootballdatabase.fandom.com/wiki/Jim_Hines
  33. https://localwiki.org/oakland/Jim_Hines
  34. https://www.msn.com/en-us/sports/motorsports/jim-hines-from-olympic-gold-to-nfl-bust-in-just-two-years/vi-AA1KiIRh
  35. https://www.nytimes.com/2023/06/05/sports/olympics/jim-hines-dead.html
  36. https://www.cbc.ca/sports/olympics/summer/trackandfield/jim-hines-olympic-champion-nfl-obit-1.6866651
  37. https://www.ebony.com/olympic-gold-medalist-jim-hines-obituary/
  38. https://sports.yahoo.com/jim-hines-olympic-gold-medalist-183433595.html
  39. https://swac.org/hof.aspx?hof=226
  40. https://www.olympics.com/en/news/record-breaker-hines-goes-sub-10-to-take-100m-gold
  41. https://worldathletics.org/download/downloadnsa?filename=f411d6b2-f0be-456f-b969-28abad2159ce.pdf&urlslug=the-sprints
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