For Immediate Release: Contact:
Monday, April 19, 2010 Chas Dorman, assoc. director of athletic communications 215-573-4125 or dorman@upenn.edu
Ralph Metcalfe Centennial Honored at Relays
Celebration will take place Saturday at 1:25 p.m., during the 4x100 Relay Championship of America
PHILADELPHIA – This year marks the 100th anniversary of the birth of sprint great Ralph Metcalfe. Following his athletic career in the 1930’s, Metcalfe became the track coach at Xavier College in New Orleans. While there, Metcalfe led Xavier to the first Penn Relays Championship of America won by an Historically Black College or University. The 1942 Xavier foursome of Herb Douglas, Billy Morton, Clarence Doak and Howard Mitchell won the 440-yard relay.
Metcalfe, an Olympic gold medalist in the 1936 4x100-meter relay who also won a pair of silver medals in the 100-meter dash in 1932 and 1936, was later a United States four-term congressman from Illinois.
The Metcalfe Centennial is led by Ralph Metcalfe, Jr. He will be joined in the celebration at the Penn Relays by Xavier President Dr. Norman C. Francis, and Herb Douglas, the sole survivor of the relay team and a member of the Board of the Friends of the Penn Relays.
The Metcalfe Centennial will be celebrated on Relays Saturday, at 1:25pm during the running of the 4x100-meter Relay Championship of America. This stop on the Metcalfe Centennial is sponsored by Joe Cosgrove and Pentec Health, Inc.
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