Payton Jordan

Payton Jordan at the USATF National Masters Track & Field Championships in San José , 1997

Payton Jordan (born March 19, 1917 in Whittier , California , † February 5, 2009 in Laguna Hills , California) was a successful American athlete and athletics coach.

Life

Jordan was an excellent sprinter in high school who could also play ball (rugby and American football). He starred at Pasadena High School in Pasadena , California, attended Santa Monica City College, and then graduated from the University of Southern California (USC) with a bachelor's degree in physical exercise. He was part of the USC team, which in 1938 and 1939 (as captain) American college champions ( NCAA ) and played victoriously in the Rose Bowl . He was part of the USC sprint relay (4 × 110 y), which ran a world record of 40.5 seconds . In 1941 he was open American champion ( AAU ) over 100 m. During the World War (volunteer in the Navy) he lost his chance to take part in the Olympic Games in 1940 and possibly in 1944. After the war, he first became a track and field coach at the private Occidental College , with which he was twice the American Masters of Small Colleges ( NAIA ) and won the league ten times. From 1957 to 1979 he was the head coach of Stanford University . Of its athletes, seven took part in the Olympics and six set world records. He was the head coach of the American track and field athletes at the 1968 Olympics . As a coach who had only gained experience in white elite universities, he was unable to stem the demonstrations by Tommie Smith and John Carlos in advance. As early as 1966 he had suspended the English sprinter Patrick Morrison, who had refused to trim his long hair to the length prescribed by the coach, from the team and later withdrew his scholarship at Stanford, which did not make him deal with black self-confident students necessarily qualified.

Age group athletes

From 1967 on he began to train again and became one of the most successful age class sprinters, who was successful at American championships and set world records:

World record 100 m Masters:

• 70+ 12.91
• 75+ 13.72
• 80+, 14.65 (1997, Modesto Relays, Modesto, California)

World record 200 m Masters:

• 70+, 26.8
• 75+, 28.14
• 80+, 30.89 (1997, San Jose City College)

American record 100 m Masters:

• 60+, 11.8
• 65+, 12.6
• 70+, 12.91
• 75+, 13.72
• 80+, 14.65

American record 200 m Masters:

• 70+, 26.8
• 75+, 28.14
• 80+, 30.89

literature

• John B. Scott and James S. Ward: Champions for Life . 2004 ISBN 0-9760447-3-0
• Payton Jordan: Champions in the making. Quality training for track and field . Englewood Cliffs, NJ: Prentice-Hall, 1968.

Honors

• 1982 Induction into the USA National Track and Field Hall of Fame
• 1996 inducted into the USATF Masters Hall of Fame
• Since 2004 annually: Payton Jordan US Track & Field Open (in Stanford)
• Also inducted into the US Track & Field and Cross Country Coaches Association , USC Hall of Fame , Occidental College Hall of Fame , Stanford University Hall of Fames , NAIA Hall of Fame , Mt.SAC Relays Hall of Fame and the National Senior Games Association Hall of fame.

Individual evidence

1. ^ Obituary: Payton Jordan. http://www.legacy.com/obituaries/ladailynews/obituary.aspx?page=lifestory&pid=123792418
2. ↑ Othello Harris: The rise of the black athlete in the USA. James Riordan , Arnd Krüger (Ed.): The International Politics of Sport in the Twentieth Century . London: Routledge 1999, pp. 150-176. ISBN 0-419-21160-8 ; Archived copy ( memento of the original from March 4, 2016 in the Internet Archive ) Info: The archive link was inserted automatically and has not yet been checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice. 
3. ↑ http://stanforddailyarchive.com/cgi-bin/stanford?a=d&d=stanford19660511-01.1.5&e=-------en-20--1--txt-txIN-------
4. ↑ http://www.sfgate.com/sports/article/Coached-Stanford-and-68-Olympics-3252106.php