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Otis Davis
Otis Crandall 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.
Otis Crandall Davis was born in Tuscaloosa, Alabama, on July 12, 1932. He was black and Native American. His father, Johnie Davis, worked as a bellhop, and his mother, Mary Alice Davis, taught science and worked as a movie theater cashier. He grew up in a segregated Alabama, and was raised by his maternal grandmother, Carrie Eaton.
He served four years in the United States Air Force during the Korean War.
Following the Air Force, Davis attended enrolled at Los Angeles City College, where he played basketball. In 1957, he transferred to the University of Oregon on a basketball scholarship. 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."
In 1959, Davis finished seventh in the 440-yard dash in the NCAA Division I Men's Outdoor Track and Field Championships.
In 1960, he graduated from the University of Oregon with a B.S. degree in Health & Physical Education. The university honored him in 2020, as one of eight gold medalists who attended the school. In addition, Davis, along with Bill Bowerman, Ashton Eaton, Steve Prefontaine and Raevyn Rogers, are depicted on a nine-foot tower adjacent to Hayward Field.
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Otis Davis
Otis Crandall 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.
Otis Crandall Davis was born in Tuscaloosa, Alabama, on July 12, 1932. He was black and Native American. His father, Johnie Davis, worked as a bellhop, and his mother, Mary Alice Davis, taught science and worked as a movie theater cashier. He grew up in a segregated Alabama, and was raised by his maternal grandmother, Carrie Eaton.
He served four years in the United States Air Force during the Korean War.
Following the Air Force, Davis attended enrolled at Los Angeles City College, where he played basketball. In 1957, he transferred to the University of Oregon on a basketball scholarship. 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."
In 1959, Davis finished seventh in the 440-yard dash in the NCAA Division I Men's Outdoor Track and Field Championships.
In 1960, he graduated from the University of Oregon with a B.S. degree in Health & Physical Education. The university honored him in 2020, as one of eight gold medalists who attended the school. In addition, Davis, along with Bill Bowerman, Ashton Eaton, Steve Prefontaine and Raevyn Rogers, are depicted on a nine-foot tower adjacent to Hayward Field.