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Glenn Ashby DavisAmerican track and field athlete
Date of Birth: 12.09.1934
Country:  USA |
Content:
Biography of Glenn Davis
Glenn Davis was an American track and field athlete, specializing in sprinting and hurdling, and a three-time gold medalist at the 1956 and 1960 Summer Olympics. Later, Davis became a professional football player with the Detroit Lions in the National Football League and then spent 33 years as a teacher and coach in Barberton, Ohio, where he moved in his youth after the death of his parents.
Davis was born on September 12, 1934, in Follansbee, West Virginia. When he was 15 years old, his parents died and Glenn and his brother moved to Barberton. He attended the local high school and single-handedly led his team to win the 1954 Ohio State High School Track and Field Championship, scoring all 20 points for the team. He won the 220-yard dash, long jump, and 180-yard hurdles, setting a state record at the championship, and also placed fourth in the 100-yard dash. His overall performance put his team at the top of the score table, beating Mansfield by 14 points.
After the championship, Davis was offered over 200 scholarships to attend college, and he chose Ohio State University. The next step was an invitation to join the US Olympic team. Davis won the Olympic title in the 400-meter hurdles both at the 1956 Melbourne Olympics and the 1960 Rome Olympics. In 1958, he was awarded the annual James E. Sullivan Award, given to the best amateur athlete in the United States since 1930.
Glenn Davis was likely one of the greatest athletes in the history of track and field. He broke or came close to world records in multiple disciplines, including the 100-meter dash, the most prestigious event in track and field (10.3 seconds); the 100-yard dash (9.6 seconds); the 200-meter dash (21.0 seconds); the 400-meter dash (45.2 seconds); and the 440-yard dash (45.7 seconds, world record). He also excelled in other events such as the 800 meters (1:52 seconds), the 120-yard high hurdles (14.0 seconds), the 200-meter low hurdles (22.5 seconds, world record), high jump (6 feet 8 inches), and long jump (24 yards 8 inches).
Davis and Edwin Moses are the only two hurdlers to win the Olympic 400-meter hurdles twice, but Davis is the only athlete to set a world record in both the quarter-mile distance with hurdles and without them. His coach Larry Snyder, who also worked with the renowned American track and field athlete Jesse Owens, a multiple Olympic gold medalist (including four gold medals at the 1936 Summer Olympics), said that Glenn Davis was possibly even more talented than Jesse Owens.
Davis was also an excellent sprinter and won his third gold medal as a member of the US 4x400-meter relay team in 1960. His name is immortalized in the US Olympic Hall of Fame. On June 27, 1960, a photograph of Glenn Davis appeared on the cover of the popular sports magazine "Sports Illustrated".
After retiring from track and field, Davis played as a wide receiver for the Detroit Lions in the NFL for two years from 1960 to 1961. He caught 10 passes for 132 yards during his second season in the NFL. From 1963 to 1967, Glenn Davis was a track and field coach at Cornell University and worked with the team that won the Ivy League championship in his final season.
He then returned to Barberton and spent 33 years working as a high school teacher, coach, and owner of the Jeep's Olympic Driving School, a sports school, and co-owner of the popular local pizzeria "Jeep and Joe's Pizza". Davis had a fun hobby - he loved playing the harmonica. Glenn Davis was occasionally mistaken for football player and Heisman Trophy winner Glenn Davis Woodward (1924-2005). These two athletes never met but occasionally received each other's mail.
