He had equaled the feat of Jesse Owens before Carl Lewis and Usain Bolt joined them in the firmament of Olympus. Bobby Joe Morrow, triple gold medalist at the Melbourne Olympic Games in 1956 in 100 m, 200 m and 4x100 m, died at the age of 84.
It's the San Benito, Texas school district, whose football stadium is named after the former sprinter, who announced his death with condolences on his Facebook page on Saturday. Morrow's legacy will be "forever present" in the city, it says. Before becoming a sprinter, Bobby Joe Morrow had played American football for the school in San Benito.
Abilene Christian University, where Morrow studied, also paid tribute to the former athlete on his Facebook page.
Sportsman of the Year 1956 for "Sports Illustrated"
In Melbourne in 1956, Morrow joined his compatriot Jesse Owens, the only man then to have won gold in 100m, 200m and 4x100m in a single edition of the Olympic Games. The feat was subsequently reissued by the American Carl Lewis (gold medalist also in long jump in 1984) and the Jamaican Usain Bolt.
In 1956, Morrow was named Sportsman of the Year by Sports Illustrated magazine , ahead of baseball player Mickey Mantle and boxer Floyd Patterson. Morrow retired from athletics in 1958, before making a short-lived return in 1960 to try in vain to qualify for the Olympic Games in Rome.
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