Dillard Hurdles To NCAA, World Glory

Jesse Owens gave Harrison Dillard a pair of track spikes.

Owens also gave Dillard some advice: Try the hurdles.

Dillard would end up being the best hurdler in the world – and a legend in the sport, just like Owens, who matriculated through Cleveland’s East Technical High School 10 years earlier.

Due to service in World War II, in which he served in the all-black 92nd Infantry Division known as the Buffalo Soldiers, Dillard did not enter college until 1945. He certainly made up for lost time, though, as a member of the Baldwin Wallace track & field team.

Dillard swept the 1946 and 1947 NCAA 120-yard and 220-yard hurdles – the last athlete with such a double-double – and his four titles remain the only ones in this meet won by an athlete from Baldwin Wallace, which now competes at the NCAA Division III level. When Dillard won the 220H title in 1947, he set a world record, American record and meet record of 22.3.

He was on track for more NCAA glory in 1948 when his focus shifted to the upcoming London Olympics, where he won gold – not in the high hurdles, but the 100. The change in events came most unexpectedly as he missed making the U.S. team in the 110H, ending an 82-race winning streak that included various sprints and hurdles (Only Edwin Moses would later record a longer streak, albeit in one event).

Affectionately known as “Bones” because of his slight weight, Dillard won gold in the London 100 and four years later captured the Olympic title in the 110 hurdles at Helsinki. He remains the only man to win Olympic golds in a sprint and hurdles event.

Dillard was born on this day in 1923. He passed away last November at age 96.