Southern’s Milburn Clears All Hurdles In His Way

Rodney Milburn of Southern capped a legendary collegiate career 47 years ago when he won the 120-yard high hurdles title at the 1973 NCAA Outdoor Track & Field Championships in a meet-record time of 13.1.

Dominant doesn’t begin to describe Milburn’s athletic prowess from 1971 to 1973.

Over that three-year stretch, Milburn went undefeated in outdoor competition and won two NCAA outdoor titles. That’s only counting what he did at the collegiate level.

On a global level, Milburn set a world record to win the gold medal at the 1972 Munich Olympic Games, one of six ratified world records in his career. The year before, Milburn was rated by Track & Field News as the World Men’s Athlete of the Year and was the only hurdler to earn that honor in the 1970s.

The hurdles on the track weren’t the only obstacles in his life, though. Milburn grew up in segregation, bursting onto the scene at a black-only high school in Opelousas, Louisiana, before attending predominantly-black Southern. The Jaguars competed nationally in the NAIA as well as the NCAA’s college division, and Milburn ended up with 12 national collegiate high hurdle titles, combining all levels indoors and out.

The 1973 NCAA meet was held for the first time in Baton Rouge at LSU, just across town from Southern. It was Milburn’s first visit to the flagship campus.

“I’m especially glad to have run so well here,” he told the press afterwards. “This is my last college race and most of the people here have seen me only on television.”