Isabelle Daniels obit

Isabelle Daniels Holston, 80: Olympian, coach gave life a good run

 

She was not on the list.

Daniels attended Tennessee State University, where she was part of their AAU champion relay team for 5 years. She took the silver in the 60 meters at the 1955 Pan American Games and was on the winning relay team. She competed for the United States in the 1956 Summer Olympics held in Melbourne, Australia, where she won the bronze medal in the 4×100 metres with her teammates Mae Faggs, Margaret Matthews and Wilma Rudolph, in a race where all three teams beat the existing world record. She was initially placed third in the 100 meters, but was moved to fourth after photos of the finish were examined.

In 1958 she participated in a goodwill tour over the Soviet Union and Eastern Europe. She worked for many years as a physical education teacher and coach in Georgia, where she received numerous awards, including 1990 National Coach of the Year by the National High School Athletic Coaches Association. In 1987 she was inducted into the Georgia Sports Hall of Fame. In 1992 she was honored as the All-State Role Model; a documentary on her life was produced and broadcast in the halftime of the Georgia high school all-stars basketball game. She was also listed on a 1992 "Coaches Care Honor Roll" sponsored by Gatorade. In March 2006 she was inducted into the Hall of Fame of the Bob Hayes Invitational Track Meet in Jacksonville, Florida. Daniels died on September 8, 2017, at the age of 80. She was married to Rev. Sidney R. Holston; the couple had four children.

In past generations, it was not always easy for African American athletes of obvious talent to be noticed and receive their due recognition. Many competed in all-black schools and in all-black athletic associations that did not receive the same notoriety as mostly white leagues. Many a potentially future professional or Olympian went unnoticed, their performances and records considered invalid although the competition they faced was as stiff as their white counterparts.

But if the cream truly does rise to the top, the best of the best will indeed be noticed. It happened right here in Early County. Isabelle Daniels, daughter of Fred and Vera Daniels of Jakin, attended all-black Carver High School during the segregated 1950s. In 1954, her senior season, she won state championships in the 50-yard dash and the 100-yard dash. Later that spring she competed in the prestigious Penn Relays, a track meet reserved for elite athletes.

Daniels’ accomplishments brought with it notoriety. She was offered and accepted a scholarship, of sorts, to become a member of the most celebrated college women’s track team in the country – the Tennessee A & I University Tigerbelles. The program at A & I, later known as Tennessee State, was based on the blueprint created by Tuskegee Institute whose most successful athlete had been Alice Coachman of Albany, Ga., the first black woman to win an Olympic Gold Medal (in the high jump).

There were no true athletic scholarships in those days for Tigerbelle athletes. Instead, they received work study opportunities. They were also not exempt from the racial prejudice of that era, riding all night in a station wagon to track meets without stopping for rest because of low funds and the inability to find lodging due to their race.

Daniels found success quickly. A year out of high school, she qualified for the U. S. A. National team that competed in the Pan American Games in Mexico City where she won the silver medal in the 60-yard dash and the gold medal in the 4×100-meter relay.

The pinnacle of her success came in 1956. On July 4th of that year, in our nation’s capital, Isabelle Daniels of the all-black Carver High School in tiny Jakin, Georgia, competed with the greatest athletes in this country at the United States Olympic Track and Field Trials. The girl from Jakin, whose childhood nickname of “Tweety” followed her throughout her career, ran and won the 100-meter dash. Among the runners she defeated was future Olympic superstar Wilma Rudolph. “Tweety” was unofficially crowned the fastest woman in America.

Competing in the 100-meter dash, Daniels finished in third place, but post-race photos moved her to fourth, barely missing an Olympic medal. Later in the Games, she anchored her 4×100-meter relay team to a third-place finish, winning the bronze medal. Isabel and her relay teammates comprised the first all African American women’s sports team to ever compete in the Olympic Games.

Daniels continued to compete after the 1956 Olympics, earning All-American honors each of her four years of college. In 1957 she set a world record in the 50-yard dash. The following year she participated in a goodwill tour of the Soviet Union and Eastern Europe, and the year after that Daniels won two golds and a silver in the Pan American Games at Soldier Field in Chicago.

After her competitive days had ended, Daniels began a career as a physical education teacher and track coach, first at Carver High in Columbus and later at Gordon and McNair High Schools in DeKalb County, winning four state championships. While in Columbus, she met and married the Rev. Sidney R. Holston. In DeKalb County she was named 1990 National Coach of the Year by the National High School Athletic Coaches Association.

In 1996, Isabelle Daniels Holston and her college teammates carried the torch prior to the Centennial Olympic Games in Atlanta. Approaching her eighties, Holston continued competing in the Senior Olympics but not in her signature events. Holston captured medals in the shot put, discus and high jump.

On July 16, 2016, sixty years to the day after she qualified for the Olympic Games, Isabelle was diagnosed with a blood clot. She died September 8, 2017, and was buried at Georgia National Cemetery in Canton, Ga.

Upon her return from the 1956 Olympic Games, Isabelle Daniels was given a welcome home parade in Blakely and presented the key to the city. In 1995, during her hometown’s Centennial, she was presented the key to the city of Jakin.

She has been inducted into the Georgia Sports Hall of Fame, the Tennessee State University Hall of Fame, the State of Tennessee Sports Hall of Fame and the Bob Hayes Track Meet Hall of Fame. Most recently, Holston was inducted into the Georgia Track and Field Coaches Hall of Fame in January.

Since 2020, steps have been made to name the track surrounding Standifer Field, the “Isabelle Daniels Holston Track.”

A display of Olympic memorabilia belonging to Isabelle Daniels Holston is available for viewing at the Early County Museum.