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About Ralph Metcalfe

The Seeding Year
        “1932 was the seeding year and 1936 the break-out year for black athletes. Ralph became a special kind of idol after the 1932 Olympics. Though an internationally acclaimed athlete, he wasn’t too proud to become the waterboy for the Marquette football team.” - “American sprint athletes in 1932” by Herman L. Masin, Coach and Athletic Director Magazine, October 1966, v. 66 n. 3, p. 10.

Neglected Athletic Hero
        “In the faraway corners of the world, where a welterweight title prize fight would be without significance and go uncelebrated, the deeds of Ralph Metcalfe have been broadcast to the credit of his city. But upon returning from his grand and inspiring triumphs, the mayor, the governor and the citizens have never seen fit to welcome him.”
- “A Neglected Athletic Hero” by Eugene George Key, Chicago Tribune, June 9, 1934, p. 10.

The Greatest
        “When I write that Ralph Metcalfe was the greatest sprinter of his day, I’m sure most of you will draw a blank. But he was – the best. Me included.” - Jesse Owens with Paul Neimark, I Have Changed, pp.78-83.

Unbeatable
        “Metcalfe never had adequate coaching in his formative years or he would have been unbeatable. I saw him gain five or six feet on every great sprinter of his time, including Owens. Potentially he was greatest – not much doubt about it – so after all this sitting on the pot, I’d take Metcalfe.” - Dink Templeton quoted in Bud Spencer, High Above The Olympians, Los Altos, California, Tafnews Press, 1966, pp. 219, 221.

Comparisons are odious at best, but…
    “Nowadays, experts think back to Owens and Metcalfe and wonder which of the two was better on closer inspection. Owens won the AAU 100-meter title only once; Metcalfe won it three times. Owens failed to win the AAU 200-meter title; Metcalfe won it five times in a row. Owens won the Intercollegiate 100-yard dash twice; Metcalfe three times. And again in the Intercollegiate 220-yard dash, Owens won it twice to three times for Metcalfe. What does all this prove? Maybe nothing but the results are surprising when compared with the relative publicity they received.” - Arthur R. Ashe, Jr., A Hard Road To Glory: Track and Field (New York: Amistad Press, Inc., 1998), p. 26.

Legacy of Leadership
        “When we got to Germany, there was this . . . political aroma. As we sat around the cottages at night, he counseled us. He was the guy who set us straight.
        He told us the deeds we were supposed to do. He said we were not there to get involved in the political situation. He said we were there for one purpose – to represent our country.
        That led to our success. He calmed our fears. He was the guy who did it for us.” - Jesse Owens, quoted in “Jesse Owens recalls a beloved teammate” by Dorothy Collin, Chicago Tribune, October 11, 1978, p. 1.

        “Of the ten blacks on that 1936 United States track and field team, nine won medals, outscoring every other national team, including their fifty-six white teammates. Black Americans won eight gold medals, three silver and two bronze, and won every flat race between 100 meters and 800 meters.” - Lonnie G. Bunch III and Louie Robinson, The Black Olympians: 1904-1984, p. 27.

Remembered
“a leader uncompromising in the pursuit of excellence. . . . He stood always for equity. His political energy was invested always on behalf of his constituents, and his unexpected passing deprives his community, his colleagues, and the nation of a staunch and honest leader. . . . a strong, independent voice for the people of Chicago and – most recently – as a visionary leader in the Panama Canal treaty ratification, he was uncompromising in the pursuit of excellence.” - President James Earl Carter in “Carter pays tribute to Metcalfe,” Chicago Tribune, October 11, 1978, p. 14.


Eulogies in Congress



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