November 25th is William DeHart Hubbard Day!!! "A University of Michigan graduate, he competed in both the 1924 and 1928 Olympic Games. His long-jump victory in the 1924 Paris Olympics made him the first Black athlete to win an Olympic gold medal in an individual event. His winning long jump of 24 ft. 5 in. was somewhat overshadowed by the performance of U.S. teammate John Legendre the day before. Legendre, who had failed to make the squad as a long jumper, set a world record with a 25 ft. 5.75 in. leap while competing in the pentathlon. Hubbard closed out his University of Michigan career in 1925 with a series of spectacular performances." Thank you Mr. Hubbard for all of your contributions and inspiration! Please click the link below and learn more about William DeHart Hubbard. :-)
http://www.aaregistry.org/historic_events/view/william-hubbard-olympic-first
"It wasn't very fashionable for blacks to attend college," explained DeHart. "Very few of my boyhood playmates and high school chums went past high school. I was the only black on the Michigan track team those four years, and rarely competed against others, even in national meets. In the Big Ten, Iowa and Michigan State had a few in either football or track. Only four of us made the 1924 Olympic team. My, how times have changed. Today you have to be a world champion to get attention, but when I competed that wasn't true. If you were black and on a college team you got a lot of publicity."
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