Word: gourdin
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Whatever marks the Class of '21 left on Harvard, perhaps none has stood the test of time as well as the University broad jump record of 25' 3" set 50 years ago this July by the late Ned Gourdin '21. Harvard's second-oldest track record is only 13 years...
...Gourdin made his famous leap on July 23 at Harvard Stadium in the Harvard-Yale -Oxford-Cambridge meet, which the Americans won easily. The jump also broke the existing world record of 24' 11 3/4" set in 1901, and Gourdin went on to finish second in the 1924 Olympics...
...Gourdin also distinguished himself in other activities. After serving as a special justice on the Judicial Council and as an assistant U. S. Attorney, he became in 1958 one of the first blacks named to Massachusetts's Superior Court bench. He died in Quincy in 1966, two days before the 45th anniversary of his world-record performance...
...greatest fame came from his athletic accomplishments. Besides starring in the broad jump, Gourdin was the national champion in the 100-yard dash in 1920, and during the next two years was national pentathlon champion...
Even though Gourdin lost the Olympic title in the broad jump to Michigan's DeHart Hubbard, Gourdin leaped to an incredible 25' 8" the next day in a noncompetitive demonstration, topping Hubbard's Olympic jump...