Ralph Boston obit

Tennessee State and Olympic track great Ralph Boston, who set world long jump record, dies at 83

 

He was not on the list.

Tennessee State's Ralph Boston, an Olympic athlete who set the world record in the long jump, died Sunday morning after recently suffering a stroke. He was 83.

Boston, who had set a national high school record in the high hurdles and while at TSU won the NCAA long jump championship, set the long jump world record in August 1960 in an Olympic tune-up meet at Southern California. He jumped 26 feet,11 1/4 inches, which beat the record set 25 years earlier by Jesse Owens.

A month later the Laurel, Mississippi, native won the gold medal in the Olympics in Rome with a jump of 26-7 1/2. Boston later said that was the night that changed his life for the next 50 years.

Olympians Suleiman Nyambui, left, Carl Lewis and Ralph Boston pose for a photo during a reception at the Gordon Hotel in Eugene.

In 1961 Boston broke his own long jump record with a 27-foot mark and would go on to break it four more times.

From 1960-67, Boston ranked No. 1 in the world in the long jump. He won the Olympic silver medal in 1964 in Tokyo and the bronze in 1968 in Mexico City.

Boston also won four AAU national championships in the long jump (1961, 1962, 1963 and 1964). In 1963, he held the longest triple jump mark for an American.

Boston was selected World Athlete of the Year and the North American Athlete of the Year during his career.

During his time in the Olympics, Boston served as an assistant track coach at TSU.

"Ralph was a giant of a man," said TSU director of track and field Chandra Cheeseborough-Guice, who was asked to speak on behalf of the family. "He was humble and just a special individual."

Boston served as Cheeseborough-Guice's coach after she graduated from TSU. And when she became coach of the Tigerbelles, Boston would often return to help at meets.

In 1993 TSU named its annual spring individual track and field meet in honor of Boston. The TSU Wellness Center also bears his name.

Later in his life Boston joined ESPN as a sportscaster before becoming part owner of the Knoxville television station WKXT-TV.

 Boston is in the U.S. Olympic Hall of Fame, U.S. Track and Field Hall of Fame, National Black College Alumni Hall of Fame, Helms Hall of Fame in Los Angeles, Tennessee Sports Hall of Fame, Mississippi's Sports Hall of Fame and TSU Athletics Hall of Fame.

Final arrangements have not been set.