Henry Carr (November 27, 1941 – May 29, 2015) was an

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athlete who won two gold medals at the

1964 Summer Olympics The , officially the and commonly known as Tokyo 1964 ( ja, 東京1964), were an international multi-sport event held from 10 to 24 October 1964 in Tokyo, Japan. Tokyo had been awarded the organization of the 1940 Summer Olympics, but this h ...

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.Henry Carr
. Sports Reference

Early life

Born in Montgomery, Alabama, in 1941, Carr moved with his family to

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, Michigan when he was young. Prior to bringing his athletic talents to

Arizona State University Arizona State University (Arizona State or ASU) is a public research university in the Phoenix metropolitan area. Founded in 1885 by the 13th Arizona Territorial Legislature, ASU is one of the largest public universities by enrollment in the ...

(ASU), Carr was a state champion sprinter for Northwestern High School in Detroit having posted a 100-yard time of 9.3 seconds. While competing for the ASU Sun Devils, he won three national titles; along the way setting

world record A world record is usually the best global and most important performance that is ever recorded and officially verified in a specific skill, sport, or other kind of activity. The book ''Guinness World Records'' and other world records organization ...

s at 220

yard The yard (symbol: yd) is an English unit of length in both the British imperial and US customary systems of measurement equalling 3 feet or 36 inches. Since 1959 it has been by international agreement standardized as exactly ...

s and as a member of the Sun Devil 4 x 440 yard

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team. Henry Carr won the 1963

NCAA The National Collegiate Athletic Association (NCAA) is a nonprofit organization that regulates student athletics among about 1,100 schools in the United States, Canada, and Puerto Rico. It also organizes the athletic programs of colleges ...

title at 200 meters in 20.5; the same year he ran 20.69 to tie Paul Drayton for the USA title. Twice that season Carr ran world records; a non-ratified 20.4 for 220 yards and, three days later in a college triangular meet, a 20.3 for 220 yards. Henry Carr ran even faster in 1964; setting a world record of 20.2 for 220 yards. He also defeated Drayton into second place to win the national title.

Olympics

It was at the 1964 Olympics where Carr would achieve his greatest fame; Carr won the 200 meters (in an Olympic Record time) and anchored the winning 4 x 400 meter relay team to a world record 3:00.7 (with Ollan Cassell, Mike Larrabee and Ulis Williams). Carr had a fright in his qualification for the Olympics. He had won the semi-final trials held in New York in July and only had to prove his fitness at the final trials in September in Los Angeles. However, he was well beaten into fourth place in the final there and with only 3 to qualify he could have been eliminated. His earlier win was enough though to convince the selectors that he should go to the Olympics.

Professional football career

Following the Olympics, Carr played

American football American football (referred to simply as football in the United States and Canada), also known as gridiron, is a team sport played by two teams of eleven players on a rectangular field with goalposts at each end. The offense, the team wi ...

in the

National Football League The National Football League (NFL) is a professional American football league that consists of 32 teams, divided equally between the American Football Conference (AFC) and the National Football Conference (NFC). The NFL is one of the majo ...

. He was drafted in the fourth round of the 1965 NFL Draft by the

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and played three seasons as a safety and cornerback with the Giants. In his last year with them he was hampered by a knee injury. In 1969, he had a try-out with the

Detroit Lions The Detroit Lions are a professional American football team based in Detroit. The Lions compete in the National Football League (NFL) as a member of the National Football Conference (NFC) North Division. The team play their home games at For ...

but quit their training camp.

Personal life

After he left the NFL he found difficulty in adjusting and finding work. He found new purpose in 1973 when he became a

Jehovah's Witness Jehovah's Witnesses is a millenarian restorationist Christian denomination with nontrinitarian beliefs distinct from mainstream Christianity. The group reports a worldwide membership of approximately 8.7 million adherents involved in ...

. In the mid-1970s he was described as living a simple life with his family outside

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Georgia Georgia most commonly refers to: * Georgia (country), a country in the Caucasus region of Eurasia * Georgia (U.S. state), a state in the Southeast United States Georgia may also refer to: Places Historical states and entities * Related to the ...

. In later life, Carr became a Jehovah's Witness elder, and was reported to have done contracting work and owned a restaurant. He died of cancer on May 29, 2015 in Griffin, Georgia.

Accolades and awards

Carr was a 1975 Charter inductee in the Arizona State Sun Devils Athletics Hall of Fame. In 1997, he was inducted into the USA Track and Field Hall of Fame.

World records

Carr set the following world records during his track career: * 220 y of 20.3 s at Tempe, Arizona on March 23, 1963 in a tri Meet ASU-Utah-USC; * 4×440 y of 3:04.5 at

Walnut A walnut is the edible seed of a drupe of any tree of the genus ''Juglans'' (family Juglandaceae), particularly the Persian or English walnut, '' Juglans regia''. Although culinarily considered a "nut" and used as such, it is not a true ...

, California on April 27, 1963 at the

Mt. SAC Relays The Mt. SAC Relays are an annual track and field festival held primarily at Hilmer Lodge Stadium on the Mt. San Antonio College campus in Walnut, California. The Relays are held in mid-April each year since the first edition held on April 24-25, ...

for the ASU; * 220 y of 20.2 s at Tempe, Arizona on April 4, 1964 in a dual meet ASU-SC Striders; * 4 × 400 m of 3:00.7 at

on October 21, 1964 in the Olympic final. Note: he also ran a 20.4 s for 220 y on March 19, 1963 that was never ratified as a world record.

World rankings

Carr was ranked among the best in the US and the world in the 100, 200 and 400 m sprint events in the period 1962-64, according to the votes of the experts of ''

Track and Field News ''Track & Field News'' is an American monthly sports magazine founded in 1948 by brothers Bert Nelson and Cordner Nelson, focused on the world of track and field. The magazine provides coverage of athletics in the United States from the high ...

''.

References

External links

Henry Carr: Detroit Northwestern High School 1961, Michtrack
* {{DEFAULTSORT:Carr, Henry 1942 births 2015 deaths African-American male track and field athletes African-American players of American football American football safeties American male sprinters Arizona State Sun Devils men's track and field athletes Athletes (track and field) at the 1964 Summer Olympics World record setters in athletics (track and field) Medalists at the 1964 Summer Olympics New York Giants players Olympic gold medalists for the United States in track and field Players of American football from Detroit Northwestern High School (Michigan) alumni Track and field athletes from Michigan Track and field athletes in the National Football League 20th-century African-American sportspeople 21st-century African-American people