Samuel Louis Graddy III (born February 10, 1964) is an American former

athlete An athlete (also sportsman or sportswoman) is a person who competes in one or more sports that involve physical strength, speed, or endurance. Athletes may be professionals or amateurs. Most professional athletes have particularly well-dev ...

and

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 wit ...

player, winner of gold medal in 4 × 100 m

relay A relay Electromechanical relay schematic showing a control coil, four pairs of normally open and one pair of normally closed contacts An automotive-style miniature relay with the dust cover taken off A relay is an electrically operated swit ...

at the 1984 Summer Olympics.

Early years

Born in

Gaffney, South Carolina Gaffney is a city in and the county seat, seat of Cherokee County, South Carolina, United States, in the upstate South Carolina, Upstate region of South Carolina. Gaffney is known as the "Peach Capital of South Carolina". The population was 12,539 ...

, Sam Graddy was second in the 100 m and was a member of gold medal winning American 4 × 100 m relay team at the

1983 Pan American Games The 1983 Pan American Games were held in Caracas, Venezuela from August 14 to August 29, 1983. The games were the first major international competition to include relatively accurate steroid testing.Taylor, William N., ''Anabolic Steroids and the ...

Track and field

Graddy was also a standout track athlete. In 1984, he won the gold medal at the

1984 USA Outdoor Track and Field Championships The 1984 USA Outdoor Track and Field Championships took place between June 8–9 at Jaguar Stadium on the campus of San Jose City College in San Jose, California. The meet was organized by USATF, The Athletics Congress. This meet was separate from ...

in the

100 meters The 100 metres, or 100-meter dash, is a sprint race in track and field competitions. The shortest common outdoor running distance, the dash is one of the most popular and prestigious events in the sport of athletics. It has been contest ...

with a time of 10.28 seconds, and as a

University of Tennessee at Knoxville The University of Tennessee (officially The University of Tennessee, Knoxville; or UT Knoxville; UTK; or UT) is a public land-grant research university in Knoxville, Tennessee. Founded in 1794, two years before Tennessee became the 16th state ...

student, he also won the 100 meters title at the

1984 NCAA Division I Outdoor Track and Field Championships The 1984 NCAA Division I Outdoor Track and Field Championships were contested May 28−June 2, 1984 at Hayward Field at the University of Oregon in Eugene, Oregon in order to determine the individual and team national champions of men's and women' ...

. At the

Los Angeles Los Angeles ( ; es, Los Ángeles, link=no , ), often referred to by its initials L.A., is the largest city in the state of California and the second most populous city in the United States after New York City, as well as one of the wor ...

Olympics The modern Olympic Games or Olympics (french: link=no, Jeux olympiques) are the leading international sporting events featuring summer and winter sports competitions in which thousands of athletes from around the world participate in a var ...

, Graddy was second behind

Carl Lewis Frederick Carlton Lewis (born July 1, 1961) is an American former track and field athlete who won nine Olympic gold medals, one Olympic silver medal, and 10 World Championships medals, including eight gold. His career spanned from 1979 to 19 ...

in 100 m and ran the first leg in the American

4 × 100 metres relay The 4 × 100 metres relay or sprint relay is an athletics track event run in lanes over one lap of the track with four runners completing 100 metres each. The first runners must begin in the same stagger as for the individ ...

team, which won the gold medal with a new

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 organizati ...

of 37.83 seconds.

Personal bests

Professional career

After graduating from university of Tennessee, Graddy was signed by the

Denver Broncos The Denver Broncos are a professional American football franchise based in Denver. The Broncos compete in the National Football League (NFL) as a member club of the league's American Football Conference (AFC) West division. The team is headquar ...

in 1987. He played in Denver during the 1987 and 1988 seasons catching one pass for 30 yards. After being out of football for the 1989 season, he signed with the Los Angeles Raiders where he played from 1990 to 1992. During his Raider career Graddy was plagued with dropped passes therefore moved down the depth chart and mainly limited to kick return duty. His career highlight was in 1991 when he caught an 80-yard touchdown pass against the

Houston Oilers The Houston Oilers were a professional American football team that played in Houston from its founding in 1960 to 1996 before relocating to Memphis, and later Nashville, Tennessee becoming the Tennessee Titans. The Oilers began play in 1960 a ...

. Graddy ended his career with 18 catches, 477 yards, 26.5 average per reception and 3 touchdowns. He also returned 27 kicks for 458 yards.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Graddy, Sam 1964 births Living people People from Gaffney, South Carolina American male sprinters Athletes (track and field) at the 1983 Pan American Games Pan American Games gold medalists for the United States Pan American Games silver medalists for the United States Athletes (track and field) at the 1984 Summer Olympics Olympic gold medalists for the United States in track and field Olympic silver medalists for the United States in track and field World Athletics Indoor Championships medalists Medalists at the 1984 Summer Olympics American football wide receivers Los Angeles Raiders players Denver Broncos players Players of American football from South Carolina Pan American Games medalists in athletics (track and field) Tennessee Volunteers men's track and field athletes Track and field athletes from South Carolina University of Tennessee alumni Universiade medalists in athletics (track and field) Track and field athletes in the National Football League Universiade gold medalists for the United States USA Outdoor Track and Field Championships winners Medalists at the 1983 Summer Universiade Medalists at the 1983 Pan American Games