Ralph Boston was a long jumper who won Olympic gold in 1960 and broke Jesse Owens’ longstanding record.
- Died: April 30, 2023 (Who else died on April 30?)
- Details of death: Died at his home in Peachtree City, Georgia of complications from a stroke at the age of 83.
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Ralph Boston’s legacy
Boston was an award-winning track and field athlete as a student at Tennessee State University. In August 1960, he broke the long jump record set by Jesse Owens (1913–1980) in 1935, jumping 26 feet, 11 inches – a full three inches more than Owens’ record. Less than a month later, Boston was off to Rome for the 1960 Summer Olympics, where he won gold and broke the Olympic long jump record.
Boston medaled again at two other Olympics, capturing silver at the 1964 Tokyo Olympics and bronze in 1968 in Mexico City. The 1968 gold medal-winner was Bob Beamon, whom Boston coached. Those games are remembered for the Black Power salute given by Boston’s teammates, sprinters Tommie Smith and John Carlos. But Boston also offered his own political statement after theirs, ascending the podium to receive his medal barefoot, raising his fist to protest poverty in the Black community.
Retiring from competition after the 1968 Olympics, Boston later worked for the University of Tennessee as coordinator of minority affairs and assistant dean of students. Later, he was a sports broadcaster, reporting on track and field for CBS Sports and ESPN. He became president and CEO of ServiceMaster Services. In 1985, Boston was inducted into the U.S. Olympic Hall of Fame.
Boston on his first Olympics
“The morning round I remember going into the stadium and you looked at the stadium and it was empty. There was nobody there! I thought this looks like the high school competitions I was in when I grew up. You qualify and you come back in the afternoon and you walk through the tunnel and as you come out of the tunnel, there are 80,000 people! I had never seen that many people in my life – not in one place.” —from a 2021 interview for Sky Sports
Tributes to Ralph Boston
Full obituary: The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
