HBCU Track and Field: A Legacy of Excellence and Opportunity

Black History Month serves as an important reminder to honor the pioneers who broke barriers and reshaped possibilities for future generations. For many Black women in sports, the journey to greatness began at Historically Black Colleges and Universities (HBCUs). Before their talent was recognized on Olympic tracks or national stages, HBCUs recognized their potential, offering opportunities at a time when many institutions denied them to Black women. These institutions nurtured talent, built confidence, and shaped futures.

The Foundation: HBCUs and the Rise of Black Athletes

Historically Black colleges and universities (HBCUs) are institutions founded before the civil rights movements with the goal of offering higher education to Black Americans. The first HBCU, Cheyney University of Pennsylvania, was founded in 1837. Today there are a little more than 100 nationwide.

In the post-Civil War Reconstruction years (1863-1877), dozens of HBCUs were founded to meet the educational needs of free and newly freed African Americans. As HBCUs grew, so did their athletic departments. Many turned to sports as a means to recruit and develop talented young leaders. Long before Title IX sanctioned sports opportunities for women, many HBCUs accepted and nurtured the athletic and professional careers of countless African American women. Even though African Americans began to integrate northern colleges and universities in the early 1900s, HBCUs offered the best opportunities for African American scholar-athletes. African American athletes attending predominantly white colleges would regularly face intentional attempts to injure them, positional segregation, and racial discrimination.

HBCUs started adding sports programs in the late nineteenth and early twentieth century. At the time, the colleges offered the best opportunities for African American college athletes. In these schools, African Americans could compete without facing the challenges of going to a non HBCU.

Trailblazers: HBCU Athletes Who Made History

Several HBCU athletes have etched their names in history, overcoming adversity and achieving remarkable success.

Alice Coachman: Breaking Barriers in the High Jump

Alice Coachman was born in 1923 in the segregated South, where opportunities for Black girls in sports were extremely limited. Despite facing discouragement and limited resources, she trained on her own and developed her skills in track and field. Her talent eventually caught the attention of coaches connected to Tuskegee Institute, where she later enrolled.

Her greatest achievement came in 1948, when she became the first Black woman from any country to win an Olympic gold medal after setting a new Olympic record in the high jump. Even after her historic victory, she still faced segregation back home, showing that her fight for equality continued beyond the track. Coachman won 25 national titles, most of them in the high jump where she won 10 consecutive titles from 1939 to 1948.

Coachman Davis retired after the 1948 games, became a school teacher and established the Alice Coachman Track and Field Foundation to help young athletes with financial need. Albany State University continues to honor her legacy through the Alice Coachman Invitational track meet, which is held at the Robert Cross Track & Field Complex. Coachman Davis died on July 14, 2014 at the age of 90.

Wilma Rudolph: The World's Fastest Woman

One of the most decorated track athletes of all time, Wilma Rudolph, had a hard journey getting to the starting line. Rudolph was born prematurely in 1940 and contracted polio at the age of four, leaving her left leg paralyzed. By the age of 11, however, a miracle enabled her to begin running.

While in high school at the age of sixteen Wilma competed in the 1956 Melbourne Olympics and won a bronze medal on the 4x100 meter relay team. Wilma enrolled at the HBCU Tennessee State University (TSU), majoring in education. In the 1960 Rome Olympic games Wilma became the fastest woman in the world and won three medals in an Olympic game. TSU Tigerbelles captured 23 Olympic medals, including 13 gold medals, under his training. Rudolph established herself as the fastest woman in the world when she became the first African American woman to win three gold medals in a single Olympics.

Wilma wasn't just a track star, she was also an activist. She refused to attend her own celebration parade because it was going to be segregated. Because of Wilma's courage her parade and banquet were the first integrated events in Clarksville. TSU honored her by naming its indoor track and a dorm after her. Wilma Rudolph is an icon and the epitome of perseverance.

Althea Gibson: Excelling in Multiple Arenas

Most people follow one career path throughout their life. Althea Gibson had three. Born in 1927, she grew up in Harlem, New York where she boxed around her neighborhood. In the 1940s some of her neighbors paid for her to join the Cosmopolitan Tennis Club. Between 1944 and 1947, Gibson won 12 Championships in the American Tennis Association. In 1949, she became the first Black woman to play in the USTA's National Indoor Championships, where she reached the quarter-finals.

That same year, she went to Florida A&M University on a full athletic scholarship and was a member of the Alpha Kappa Alpha (AKA) Sorority. Gibson was two-time Wimbledon and two-time US Open tennis champion. She was the first African American to be ranked the No.1 female player in the world. Her journey was not easy. She faced discrimination while traveling and competing, yet she remained determined.

She was also a musician, with a voice that earned her a recording contract with Dot Records. She had a successful musical tour before deciding to pursue professional golf. Gibson became one of the first Black women to join the LPGA tour. Florida A&M honors her with the Althea Gibson Endowed Scholarship that supports students in education, recreation, and health. Whether in tennis, golf, or music, Gibson demonstrated excellence at every turn.

Yolanda Laney: A Basketball Pioneer

Yolanda Laney attended the oldest HBCU, Cheyney University, where she became one of the most dominant women’s basketball players in college history. At Cheyney, she led her team to the first NCAA Women’s Championship game in 1982. Known for her scoring ability and leadership, Laney averaged over 25 points per game during her college career. She later played professionally and internationally, continuing to represent excellence in women’s basketball.

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Beyond her playing career, she became a mentor and role model, especially to her daughter WNBA star Betnijah Laney-Hamilton. Laney’s importance to Black History Month lies in her role in advancing women’s basketball at HBCUs. She helped bring national attention to programs that often lacked funding and exposure. In 2024, Laney had a street named in her honor: “Yolanda Laney Basketball Way.”

Chandra Cheeseborough: From Olympic Medalist to Coach

Chandra Cheeseborough didn't just become an Olympic track star for herself-she became a star for the next generation. Cheeseborough was born in 1959 and played multiple sports growing up, but track and field was her specialty. At age 16, Chandra won two gold medals at the 1975 Pan American Games in Mexico City. Olympic Trials, earning a spot on the 1976 Olympic team, where she finished sixth in the 100 meter dash in Montreal.

Cheeseborough attended Tennessee State University, where she was a part of the track and field team. She became a national champion and won the indoor 200-yard dash in 1979, 1981, 1982, and 1983. In 1984, she had her best Olympic performance in Los Angeles, winning gold in two relays and silver in the 400-meter dash. In 1994, Cheeseborough returned to TSU to serve as head coach of the women’s track and field program. Chandra was inducted into the TSU Hall of Fame in 2000. In June 2011, she was promoted to director of men’s and women’s track and field.

The Tennessee State Tigerbelles: A Dynasty of Track and Field

From 1950 to 1993, members of the TSU Tigerbelles made history, winning 34 national titles under legendary coach Edward “Ed” Temple. Temple also nurtured the Olympic aspirations of more than 40 scholar-athletes. TSU athlete Wilma Rudolph was a member of the 1960 United States Olympic team. Tigerbelles Jones (Slater), Martha Hudson (Pennyman), and Lucinda Williams (Adams) joined her in winning the 4×100 meter relay gold in record time.

Other Notable HBCU Athletes and Programs

HBCUs have had many of the best teams and athletes in sports history. Grambling State University in Louisiana had one of the most successful college football programs in history. Under the coaching of Eddie Robinson, the Tigers won 408 games with only 165 losses, setting a world record at the time for the most games won by a college football coach. During his 56 year run, Coach Robinson won nine HBCU championships and 17 championship tournaments in the Southwestern Athletic Conference championships (SWAC).

Texas Southern University arguably has the current best HBCU college basketball program today. Since the start of the 1990s, they have made 11 NCAA Division 1 tournaments, also known as March Madness. This number exceeds any other historically Black college.

Challenges and the Continued Importance of HBCUs

Despite their rich history, HBCU sports programs face many challenges, including lack of funding compared to other predominantly white colleges.

Today, HBCUs are more important than ever. In a world vastly different from that of the Reconstruction era but still teeming with racial inequity and social injustice, these schools offer inclusive environments that honor and celebrate African American history and culture. They nurture and cultivate tomorrow’s Black leaders, including the scholar-athletes and coaches who are valued for more than just their prowess in competition.

HBCU Influence on the Olympics

Athletes from Historically Black Colleges and Universities (HBCUs) have been at every Olympic Games since 1948. In fact, the Southern Intercollegiate Athletic Conference (SIAC) in particular had athletic participation at every Olympics from after World War II through the turn of the century. Tennessee State alone under legendary coach Edward S. Temple from 1952 to 1988 posted 16 Olympic track and field gold medals, eight silvers and five bronzes.

In the 1952 Helsinki Finland Games, Catherine Hardy (Lavender) of Fort Valley State, Tennessee State’s Mae Faggs (Starr) and Barbara Jones (Slater) won gold medals as members of the 4×400 meter relay team. In the 1956 Melbourne Australia Olympics, Mildred McDaniel (Singleton) of Tuskegee won the gold medal and broke the world record in the high jump, jumping 5-feet, 9 ¼ inches. North Carolina College’s (now N. C. Central) Lee Calhoun not only took the gold in the 110 meter hurdles but repeated the feat in Rome in 1960. Morgan State’s Josh Culbreath, who later had an outstanding career as track coach and administrator at Central State University, won a bronze medal in Melbourne. Tennessee State long jumper Willye White took home a silver medal in Melbourne and later became the first woman to represent the U. S. in five Olympiads.

HBCUs: A Continuing Legacy

Historically black colleges and universities (HBCUs) began to spread throughout the South and East after the Civil War. These new sporting spaces contributed to the creation of distinctive African American cultural traditions, such as step shows and dazzling marching band formations.

At the collegiate level, African American sporting traditions strengthened at Historically Black Colleges and Universities (HBCUs). Although football was the first of the major team sports to re-integrate, it has lagged far behind other sports in promoting African Americans into coaching and management positions. In 1892 Livingston College and Biddle University played in the first game between Historically Black Colleges and Universities (HBCUs). Because of segregation, HBCU football programs were major producers of elite football talent through the 1970s. Football rivalries created opportunities for alumni and fans to experience HBCU football traditions. They also helped demonstrate the schools’ academic and cultural appeal to potential students. The halftime performance at HBCU football games has become an important extension of the athletic contests. Beginning in the 1940s, HBCU bands began to break from the traditions of military-inspired marching bands by incorporating dancing and upbeat music into the halftime show.

Eddie Robinson transformed Grambling State University into an HBCU powerhouse in football. Between 1965 and 1975, Grambling State sent 58 players to the NFL, more than any other colleges except Notre Dame and the University of Southern California. Although Robinson is the most famous, other legendary coaches, such as Willie Jeffries, Jake Gaither, and John Merritt have built programs that embody the best traditions of student-athletes at HBCUs.

HBCU track and field athletes Quanera Hayes of Livingstone and Randolph Ross Jr., and Trevor Stewart from North Carolina A&T are on the U. S. Olympic team while several other HBCU products will be competing for other countries as the 2020 Summer Olympic Games kick off this Thursday, July 23, 2021 in Tokyo.

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