Oldest living U.S. medalist reflects on the many levels of his life’s journey
‘As the years went on, I accepted that third place like it was first place’
Herb Douglas’ first trek on a boat took him to a world he could havescarcely imagined.
As he and his teammates neared the end of their trans-Atlantic trek from New York to London for the 1948 Olympics, he was mystified by the vibrant, lush greenery of the Irish landscape he could see in the distance from the ship. Once they arrived in London, he was greeted by the rubble and ruin of a city still scarredfrom World War II.
They’re images that are still firmly etched in Douglas’ memory more than 70 years later, and for good reason. With that backdrop, his life would never be the same.
Douglas, a Hazelwood native and Pitt graduate, left London with a bronze medal in the long jump (then the broad jump). At 99 years old, he is the third-oldest living American Olympian and the oldest living American medalist. His story and experiences have always been valuable, but given his age and with the 2020 games set to begin in Tokyo later this month, they resonate that much more, particularly as athletes competing at a delayed Olympics try to vie for a deferred dream the same way Douglas oncedid in the 1940s.
“I imagined that it was just another trip,” Douglas said Thursday from his home in Philadelphia. “But as the years kept building, it became a more significant part of my life.”
It was the realization of a goal that had been fomenting from a young age, back to when he was 14 years old and met Jesse Owens, who months earlier had won four gold medals at the 1936 Olympics under the hateful pall of Nazi Germany. With encouragement from Owens, and with a stellar athletic resume already taking form, Douglas believed he could one day reachthe same heights.
Doing so wouldn’t be easy, with life presenting him with hurdles taller than anything he could ever encounter on a track.
When Douglas was 5, and on the day his younger sister was born, his father, Herb Douglas Sr., suffered a stroke that left him permanently blind. As the first Black basketball player at Allderdice, his teammates wouldn’t so much as pass Douglas the ball. And despite being a state championin three events, his college options were limited by the searing and widespread racism of the era, and he eventually ended up at Xavier University of Louisiana, a historically Black collegein New Orleans.
It wasn’t until his Xavier team won a relay event at the Penn Relays that a Pitt track coach approached Douglas, telling him he belonged with the Panthers only for Douglas to inform the coach he was never offered a scholarship. War-induced labor shortages at his father’s garage in Shadyside ultimately forced Douglas to leave Xavier and work for his dad, but it brought him closer to Pitt, where he enrolled in 1945 and joined the school’s footballand track teams.
Through all those changes in his life, the Olympics remained an omnipresent goal. Douglas trained some for the 1944 games, but with World War II raging, he knew it was a fruitless endeavor and that the event would eventually be canceled, as it had been in 1940.
His own experience allowed him to empathize with athletes impacted by the postponement of last year’s Olympics due to the COVID19 pandemic. More than that, though, the Olympics’ 12year absence put a level of pressure on Douglas as he headed to London. He had already been denied one opportunity at competing on the world stage. At 26 years old and with two children to raise, Douglas didn’t know if there would be another Olympicsfor him.
“It was the last chance for me,”Douglas said.
“He had responsibilities. Sportwas ending,” said Anne Madarasz, the director of the Western Pennsylvania Sports Museum at the Heinz History Center and the author of “Launched: The Life ofOlympian Herb Douglas.”
“There was no professional career or endorsements to come back to. Personally, I think the achievements changed his life course. He thought he would be a phys-ed teacher and a coach when he first went to Xavier. Even when he graduated from Pitt, he did his master’s in education. That was kind of his life goal.”
Douglas had every reason to be confident. In his time at Pitt, he became one of the most decorated athletes in school history, winning four NCAA championships in the long jump and one in the 100yard dash. He had the third -best qualifying jump for the Olympics, but his place on the last spot on the medal stand was uncomfortably tenuous, as not even two inches separated him from the fourth-place qualifier, Australia’sTheo Bruce.
The Olympic stage, large and overbearing as it was, wasn’t too big for Douglas. He finished third in the long jump, flying 24 feet and nine inches and ending up just a half-inch short of the silver, which was captured by Bruce. He had gone to London and gotten what he needed.
“As the years went on, I accepted that third place like it was first place,” Douglas said.
The stakes present at the 1948 Olympics were, for Douglas, more than just quenching his competitive thirst and fulfilling an athletic dream. Winning a medal was an important, perhaps even necessary, step on a path to a better life.
In a country in which codified segregation was still entrenched in certain areas, professional opportunities
for Black Olympians were scarce. Even Owens, an international star following his success in Berlin, struggled finding consistentwork.
With a college degree and the shine of an Olympic medal, Douglas was able to gain what far too many of his athletic predecessors were denied. He was hired by the Pabst Brewing Company in 1950 and rose up the corporation’ s ladder while opening the beer to a Black consumer base in the Jim Crow South. He later worked for Schieffelin & Co. (now Moet Hennessy USA), where he became the third Black person in the United States to assumethe duty of vice president of a national company.
“Because of his national reputation in the sporting world— and this is true for other athletes of the time, the Jackie Robinsons and Hank Aarons and Joe Louises — it gave them opportunities,” Madarasz said. “They had a national platform. It gave them opportunities to move into business, some of them just as spokespeople for brands, some of them for Herb on the ground level building business. ... The Olympics opened the door for him that he took full advantage of and gave him a platform to succeed in business and demonstrate he was more thanjust an athlete.”
With success came a sense of responsibility and an obligation to help others in the same way he oncewas helped.
Owens had become both a friend and mentor to Douglas, helping the younger Olympian reach places even the decorated sprinter couldn’t. Douglas strove to do the same, passing along Owens’ guidance aboutthe importance of education to help young Black athletes excel beyond the track. Among those whom Douglas took under his wing were American gold medalists Edwin Moses and Roger Kingdom — and the former became a surrogate son.
“I’ve been in that mold most of my life,” Douglas said. “I try to help AfricanAmericans when they’re worthy. I don’t want them passed over because I could have been passed over after winning three state championships .”
“He was always more of a mentor, trying to get people to understand that where you came from doesn’t necessarily dictate where you’re going to end up,” said Pitt track and field coach Alonzo Webb, a close friend of Douglas’. “He has always been a person who has been willing to share his accomplishments and say, ‘This is whatyou can do.’”
With a single jump in 1948— to say nothing of the years of toil and sacrifice that preceded it — Douglas forgeda life that eventually acquainted him with the likes of Martin Luther King Jr., Nelson Mandela, Medgar Evers, Barack Obama, George H.W. Bush and Nat King Cole. He’s a trustee at the university that once wouldn’t offer him a scholarship. He has a mural on a building in Hazelwoodand has his Pitt jersey, Olympic jacket and spikeshe wore for that fateful jump on display at the HeinzHistory Center.
His 100th birthday awaits in March 2022, an occasion for which Douglas said festivities are planned in New York and backhome in Hazelwood.
“If I can handle myself, I’llbe there,” Douglas said.
If his illustrious life has indicated anything, there’s no reason to doubt he will be.