Dr. John Baxter Taylor Jr.

Though the great Jesse Owens has been credited as America’s first great black track and field athlete to win a gold medal for the U.S., many have forgotten the name and triumph of John Baxter Taylor Jr. Taylor was the first African-American to win a gold medal in the 1908 Olympics in London and the first to win with a U.S. Olympic team. A native of Washington, D.C., Taylor was born in 1882. He took his place as captain of his track team in high school, then set a record in the one-mile interscholastic relay championship while at prep school. By 1903, Taylor held the world quarter-mile record for interscholastic athletics. Between 1904 and 1908, Taylor’s run times were the fastest recorded in the world. His stride, the longest of any runner at the time, was eight feet, six inches. While achieving the best at sports, Taylor managed to obtain a doctorate in veterinary medicine at the University of Pennsylvania. He also became the most prominent non-irish member of the Irish American Athletic Club, a link made through his Olympic ties. That same year, 1908, Taylor would run with the U.S. Olympic Team in the London Games, winning the gold medal for the 4 x 400-meter relay. Unfortunately, the games were held in England's notoriously damp, cold weather, which induced a sickness from which Taylor would never recover. Only five months after he made history at the London Olympics, Taylor died of Typhoid pneumonia at age 26. His obituary in The New York Times stated that he was "the world's greatest Negro runner."For more information on Dr. John Baxter Taylor Jr., please check out the novel, "The Olympian: An American Triumph," by Craig T. Williams, which was published in October 2010.