Rayfield Dupree (born April 2, 1953) is an American former

track and field Track and field is a sport that includes athletic contests based on running, jumping, and throwing skills. The name is derived from where the sport takes place, a running track and a grass field for the throwing and some of the jumping events ...

athlete, who competed in the men's triple jump at the

1976 Summer Olympics Events January * January 3 – The International Covenant on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights enters into force. * January 5 – The Pol Pot regime proclaims a new constitution for Democratic Kampuchea. * January 11 – The 1976 Phi ...

Competition

Dupree was a junior at

California State University, Long Beach California State University, Long Beach (CSULB) is a public research university in Long Beach, California. The 322-acre campus is the second largest of the 23-school California State University system (CSU) and one of the largest universities i ...

when he came fourth in the 1973 NCAA Championships. He represented the

U.S. Army The United States Army (USA) is the land service branch of the United States Armed Forces. It is one of the eight U.S. uniformed services, and is designated as the Army of the United States in the U.S. Constitution.Article II, section 2, cla ...

in the 1976 Olympic trials. The following season he was at

Middle Tennessee State University Middle Tennessee State University (MTSU or MT) is a public university in Murfreesboro, Tennessee. Founded in 1911 as a normal school, the university consists of eight undergraduate colleges as well as a college of graduate studies, together off ...

and became

Ohio Valley Conference The Ohio Valley Conference (OVC) is a collegiate List of NCAA conferences, athletic conference which operates in the Midwestern United States, Midwestern and Southeastern United States, Southeastern United States. It participates in NCAA Divisi ...

indoor champion. He qualified for the 1980 Olympic trials but withdrew. In June 1981 Dupree was working as a

mail carrier A mail carrier, mailman, mailwoman, postal carrier, postman, postwoman, or letter carrier (in American English), sometimes colloquially known as a postie (in Australia, Canada, New Zealand, and the United Kingdom), is an employee of a post ...

in Los Angeles when an irate customer attacked him with

lye A lye is a metal hydroxide traditionally obtained by leaching wood ashes, or a strong alkali which is highly soluble in water producing caustic basic solutions. "Lye" most commonly refers to sodium hydroxide (NaOH), but historically has been us ...

. He was hospitalised for three weeks and off work for three months. He recovered to compete in the 1982 U.S. Outdoor Championships, driving from Los Angeles to

Knoxville, Tennessee Knoxville is a city in and the county seat of Knox County, Tennessee, Knox County in the U.S. state of Tennessee. As of the 2020 United States census, Knoxville's population was 190,740, making it the largest city in the East Tennessee Grand Di ...

Post competition

In 1993 Dupree founded the Team World Track club near his home in

Moreno Valley, California Moreno Valley is a city in Riverside County, California, United States, and is part of the Riverside–San Bernardino–Ontario metropolitan area. It is the second-largest city in Riverside County by population and one of the Inland Empire's p ...

. In 2005 he pleaded guilty to lewd and lascivious conduct in connection with two 13-year-old girls he was coaching there.

Family

In 1982 Dupree was married with three children. His daughter Gaylian is the mother of football player

De'Anthony Thomas De'Anthony Marquies Thomas (born January 5, 1993) is an American football wide receiver and return specialist for the BC Lions of the Canadian Football League (CFL). He was drafted by the Kansas City Chiefs in the fourth round of the 2014 NFL Dr ...

, for whom Rayfield was a childhood sprint coach.

Sources

References

External links

* 1953 births Living people Athletes (track and field) at the 1976 Summer Olympics American male triple jumpers Olympic track and field athletes for the United States Track and field athletes from Los Angeles 20th-century American sportsmen American mail carriers Middle Tennessee Blue Raiders men's track and field athletes American military sports players Long Beach State Beach men's track and field athletes American people convicted of child sexual abuse Sportspeople from Moreno Valley, California American sportspeople convicted of crimes {{US-triplejump-athletics-bio-stub