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| Dr. LeRoy T. Walker at North Carolina Central University's 2009 commencement. [NC Central photo.] |
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July 13, 1996
© Durham Herald-Sun
BY TIM PEELER
When Dr. LeRoy Walker leads the U.S. Olympic team into the Opening Ceremonies of the Atlanta Centennial Olympics Friday night, it will complete his own glorious Olympic ring.
From a humble beginning on Atlanta's Parson Street, near the campus of Morehouse College, through a career in athletics that has spanned nearly eight decades, Walker will reach the height of his lifetime of achievements as he leads into the stadium the biggest contingent at the largest sporting event in history.
His story is the stuff of dime novels and Sunday school lessons.
"If you tried to sell this story to Hollywood, they'd think you'd been smoking something,'' Walker said, laughing.
But every word–from coaching at Durham's tiny North Carolina Central College in turbulent racial times to his success with six different Olympic teams to his many labors for the United States Olympic Committee–is true.
It is an inspiring story: leaving Atlanta at the age of 9 following the death of his father to live and work for his brother Joe in Harlem during the Great Depression; missing out on his dream to become a surgeon but choosing to be a coach because ``it is the next best thing for working with people''; spending his professional life coaching and teaching young people to aspire to greater things.
Walker always has given credit for his remarkable list of achievements–he has more honors and decorations than the White House Christmas tree–to his strong family background, frequently recalling orders his mother gave him when he was a child.
"LeRoy, you do the task that is before you the very best you can," she told him. "You don't do it looking for reward and you don't do it thinking about what it will lead to. It is the task before you that you have to do the very best you can do."
She was not an educated woman, but Walker_three college degrees, 11 honorary degrees and 17 halls of fame later–still is obeying her words.
Humble beginnings
LeRoy Trasheau Walker was born in Atlanta on June 14–Flag Day–1918, the youngest of 13 children. He spent his first nine years under the watchful and didactic eye of his mother, Mary Ann Sally Jane Martha Elizabeth Thomas Walker.
``The Littlest Walker,'' as he has been called, had many sisters and sisters-in-law who were about the same age as most kids' parents. In fact, his brother Joe, 25 years his senior, had a son who was about Walker's age and they were inseparable. They spent so much time together, LeRoy began calling his sister-in-law Susie ``Mama'' and his own mother–as if she didn't already have enough names–"Big Mama."
The name fit, because Mrs. Walker was the enforcer in the family, especially after her husband, Willie, a railroad fireman, died in 1927.
"I used to admire how she could control the family," Walker said. "She could say more by just moving her eyes around than by speaking to me. I can still hear her now, clearing her throat to get my attention. There was no yelling or screaming. She would just give you one of those stares, and that was it."
She likely gave him one of those stares when he mentioned playing football at Benedict College in Columbia, South Carolina, where he also had earned a basketball scholarship after leading Atlanta's Booker T. Washington High School to the Georgia state championship. Fearful he would be injured, she didn't want her son to play football.
So he didn't tell her of his All-American career as Benedict's quarterback.
She never knew until the day he became the first member of his family to graduate from college, when his long list of athletic accomplishments (a total of 12 letters in three sports) was read during commencement. All she knew was that her baby boy had graduated in 3 1/2 years, a remarkable achievement considering his extensive involvement in sports.
For much of his childhood, Walker lived with Joe and Susie in Harlem, where Joe owned a window-cleaning service and three barbecue restaurants, which were frequented by boxer Sugar Ray Robinson. During the summers, LeRoy worked for Joe and even served as a valet to big band director Jimmy Lunsford.
LeRoy was driven hard by Joe, who taught him an incredible work ethic. Looking back, it was an upbringing Walker treasures.
"The more I think about what they all did for me and what I have learned, I appreciate it even more now," Walker said.
Ever since he won his first race–speed skating in New York's Central Park–Walker has been married to athletics. He lettered four times each in football, basketball and track at Benedict College and was an All-American his junior year.
Sports, he said, are a perfect developer of character. Often he quotes the words of Gen. Douglas MacArthur, one of his predecessors as USOC president, that are etched above the fieldhouse at West Point: "On the fields of friendly strife are sown the seeds that on other fields in other years will bear the fruits of victory."
Walker's seeds were sown and nurtured by a strong family, yet he was taught as a child by ``Big Mama'' not to be overly ambitious.
"The step above has never been in the plan," Walker said.
He has followed those words in every task he has undertaken since college.
"When I was living in New York, there were times I didn't think I would ever get below South Ferry," Walker said. "I never thought I would be on every continent of the world or visit how many hundreds of major cities or coach four or five Olympic teams."
Career born of impatience
Except for bad timing, LeRoy Walker likely would be a retired surgeon today. He wanted desperately to go to medical school, which was actually a disappointment to his mother, who wanted her youngest child to be a pianist.
However, only two colleges in the country accepted black students in medical school, and Walker's early departure from Benedict left him with a year-and-a-half wait to enter Howard University's Medical School.
So he decided to try his hand at coaching.
After one-year stints at Benedict and Bishop colleges during World War II, Walker went to Prairie View College in Texas in 1943 as a teacher, coach and officer in an Army Specialized Training Program.
He came to N.C. Central in 1945 for a one-year visit to coach football and basketball, but he ended up staying. He thought it was necessary to develop a track program as an off-season training regimen for his football and basketball players, even though Central did not, technically speaking, have a track.
As the oft-told story goes, Walker approached Duke coach Bob Chambers about having Central's athletes work out with Duke's.
"If I ask," Chambers said, "they'll just say no. But if we just go ahead and do it, someday they will be proud of it."
Ten years later, having given up his positions as football and basketball coach to concentrate on track, Walker went with Central's Lee Calhoun and Duke's Joel Shankle and David Sime to his first Olympic Games in Melbourne, Australia. Calhoun, the only back-to-back gold medalist in the 110 hurdles, was the first of a long line of Walker's Olympians. N.C. Central athletes were on every Olympic team from 1956-80.
Walker never has regretted his decision to coach. Looking back on it, he's kind of glad he never made it to medical school, even though he did find a long career in the ``City of Medicine.''
"There were about four of us who were going to have to wait to get into medical school," said Walker, the only one of the group too impatient for medicine. "I still get together with them, and they are all wealthy and have homes in Florida. I just don't think I would have ever enjoyed it as much.
"That's what they tell me. They all have servants and money coming out of their ears, but when we get together all they want to do is sit down and hear all about what I do. I don't think I have changed my attitude about wanting to serve people, but it is hard to imagine that I would have had as much enjoyment, and I would have been to as many places and met the great diversity of people if I had been a physician."
He succeeded in the profession as few others have, coaching 83 All-Americans, 40 national champions and 12 U.S. Olympians. His athletes set eight national and world records.
Yet his impact was much greater the the value of all the medals, all the trophies his athletes ever won.
"What made him special as a coach," said sprinter Edwin Roberts, an N.C. Central star who competed for Trinidad & Tobago in the 1964, '68 and '72 Olympics, "is that he would take the initiative with his athletes to work with them not only as a coach but to guide them to be good citizens of the community and of their country. His emphasis was education. It was also that if you wanted to succeed in life, you had to put out 100 percent.
"To me, he was like a father–and a brother and a sister, all put together. Today, all my achievements are through him."
Roberts, who began his post-college work in marketing with the United Nations, now is a teacher and track coach in Philadelphia.
In 1959, Walker spent a summer as a educational specialist in the U.S. Department of State's Cultural Exchange Program, going to Ethiopia, Israel, Syria and Lebanon. While working in Ethiopia, the small, African country that still was developing its Olympic involvement, officials noticed on his visa that Walker also was a track coach, and they asked him to work with some of their athletes. When he went to Israel, the same thing happened.
By the next summer, both countries asked that Walker return for another stint, though it was not generally permitted by the State Department. He returned and was named head track coach for both countries, though that task may not be as daunting as it sounds. Ethiopia sent a total of nine people to the Rome Olympics, Israel 23.
Out of that small contingent, Walker coached his first gold medalist. Barefooted marathoner Abebe Bikila, still considered one of the greatest distance runners in Olympic history, won the gold in both 1960 and '64. Ironically, Walker made his name as a track coach by using applied physics to help increase speed for his sprinters, hurdlers and relay teams.
In 1964 Walker was asked to consult the Trinidad & Tobago Olympic team, mainly because of his relationship with Roberts. From there, Walker's help on the international level grew. He was a consultant for the Jamaica team in 1968 in Mexico City and the Kenya team in 1972 in Munich.
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| Walker and Edwin Moses. |
"Finally, after about five countries, America felt I had done enough internships," Walker said.
The 1976 Games were somewhat disappointing because the United States failed to medal in the 100 meters for the first time since 1928, and injury-plagued N.C. Central star Charles Foster finished fourth in the 110 hurdles, losing to gold medalist Guy Drut of France for the first time in 10 races.
Following those Games, Walker shifted from coaching to administration. After nearly three decades as chairman of Central's department of physical education and recreation, he had become vice chancellor of university relations in 1974. By 1983, when the university needed a new chancellor, he was elevated to that position.
His career has been rewarding on many levels, and he's had many opportunities to reflect on those accomplishments in the last year.
He remembers a time several years ago, while at the Penn Relays, when someone asked him about his greatest rewards in his career. It so happened Walker was in the middle of an annual reunion with many of his former athletes.
"They all introduced themselves, and they were lawyers and they were doctors and they were politicians and they were good citizens in the community. I told the guy, `You just heard the answer.'"
Durham reaps rewards
Walker has brought several major track meets to Durham, beginning in 1971 with the Pan Africa-USA Meet. He followed that with the Martin Luther King Games in Durham in 1973, and the USSR-USA meet in 1974.
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| LeRoy Walker and Duke's Al Buehler. |
In the last 25 years, Walker and Buehler have been associated with nearly a dozen major track meets at Wallace Wade Stadium, including the 1987 U.S. Olympic Festival and the 1990 NCAA Track and Field Championships. Twice Walker led the effort to bring the U.S. track and field trials to Durham, losing out to Eugene, Ore., in 1980 and to New Orleans in 1992.
He was the chairman of the '87 U.S. Olympic Festival, a three-week event for the nation's top athletes held in the Triangle.
In 1992, when he gave up his job with the Atlanta Committee for the Olympic Games to become USOC president, it was assumed he would move to Colorado Springs, Colorado, the USOC's home. He was, after all, retired and mobile.
But he refused, setting up his own office, with its own staff, here in Durham at the Meridian Business Campus. From there, he's conducted much of the business of organizing the USOC's efforts -- from world-wide video conferences to responding to the hundreds of calls he gets at the office every month.
"This is home," Walker said. "I wanted to stay here."
And he wanted to share his Olympic experiences with Durham, from the torch run -- which came to the front door of the LeRoy T. Walker Building on N.C. Central's campus, through downtown and onto the Duke campus -- to the Gold Rush, which is expected to draw 15,000 to 20,000 spectators to catch a glimpse of Olympic-like competition.
Calm in the midst of storm
In 1991, the U.S. Olympic Committee was in disarray, rife with turmoil and controversy. At the center of the entire mess was USOC president Robert H. Helmick, who was eventually forced to resign because of the cozy relationship between his law firm and various arms of the USOC.
William Hybl was appointed to serve the remainder of Helmick's term, and as his year in office drew to a close, the USOC was at a critical crossroads with the Atlanta Olympics--already being billed by ACOG president Billy Payne as the ``greatest Olympics of all time''--on the cloudy horizon.
When the search for Hybl's replacement began in earnest, there were some demanding criteria for any candidate who would lead the U.S. Team in the 22nd Summer Games.
"Every time we punched in the information about what we wanted in every area, LeRoy's name came up," USOC public information and media relations director Mike Moran said. "He was the perfect candidate."
Walker, began his work with the USOC in 1977 while vice chancellor at NCCU. He worked his way up the ladder, chairing just about every major committee in the organization.
He paved his way to the presidency by serving a four-year term as treasurer (1989-92, leaving a $57 million surplus in the coffers) and as the Chef de Mission for the U.S. Olympic team in Barcelona in 1992, a massive organizational undertaking.
He was a ground-breaking candidate, since no minority person had held the position. But that, everyone insists, was not the point.
"It is an aside that he is the first African-American to hold the position," Moran said. "That is incidental. This is a man who is respected by every part of the public we deal with: the sports federations, the media, the athletes and the general public. His scorecard over his decades of service is an `A' in every area."
Walker ran unopposed and was elected unanimously on Oct. 11, 1992, to serve a four-year term as president. His term ends in October.
"We needed four years of tranquility, and we needed someone with solid leadership, an impeccable record and a touch of class," Moran said. "He has brought dignity back to the office.
Redefining `tireless'
Walker also brought a long agenda to the position, which in years past had been more of a figurehead in an organization run by an executive director and overseen by a board of directors.
He has done much more than preside over the messes that keep flaring up on the fields of friendly strife. As chef of mission at Barcelona, he had to deal with the Dream Team gold medal flap, when the first team of professional players almost didn't accept their gold medals because of conflicting endorsements. There was the Nancy Kerrigan-Tonya Harding ordeal in 1994, and more recently and more tragically, the shooting death of wrestler Dave Schultz by long-time wrestling supporter John Du Pont.
Walker has traveled the world, tirelessly promoting the Games and the USOC. He has burned a trail from here to Atlanta, where he maintains an office at ACOG's headquarters.
"His energy level is frightening," Moran said. "Most of the people half his age can't do what he has done."
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| Dr. LeRoy Walker carries the Olympic torch on N.C. Central's campus. |
In the last year, he's made five trips abroad, including one to Greece for the re-enactment of the first Modern Olympic Games. He's made three commencement addresses, served as the honorary starter for the Penn Relays, accepted the Olympic Flame upon its arrival from Greece and carried the Olympic torch on the N.C. Central campus.
"I can't even remember the last day I had off," said Walker, whose last mini-vacation was a three-day trip to the Caribbean at Thanksgiving.
To tell the truth, he's having a ball. He and his son, LeRoy Jr., have made several working trips together over the last year and relaxed by taking in the World Series, the Fiesta Bowl, the Super Bowl and a fistful of ACC basketball games.
Still, this is work, and Walker has spent his time as president getting things done.
He pushed through legislation in the most recent USOC board of directors meeting in San Diego to institute a code of conduct and out-of-competition drug testing to help combat the doping problem that has hounded international athletics.
Most recently, he lobbied the IOC--successfully, of course--to recognize all finalists in the Olympic Games, not just the three medal winners. He wanted them all to be honored at the stand during these Olympics, but that proved too difficult. In most cases, the fourth-place athlete is too hard to find. So the compromise he reached with ACOG and the IOC is to have the names of all finalists posted on the scoreboard during the medal ceremony, a move that has tickled both athletes and coaches.
Much of his work has been for the benefit of the athletes. More money from every dollar spent by the USOC goes for athletes and training than ever before.
``He's always been an athlete's president,'' Moran said.
That will likely show up on the field of competition, beginning next week, when the U.S. is expected to haul home a ton or so of precious medal. Having the hometown advantage plays a big part in that, but so does having a former Olympic coach in the USOC's highest position.
Walker has guided the USOC through turbulent times, quickly hiring a replacement for executive director Harvey Schiller, whose departure last year could have proven disastrous.
"It's going to be a hard act to follow," Moran said.
If not impossible.
`Excellence without excuse'
On an elevated train LeRoy Walker took to school every day, there was a drunk, sullen man who scared the passengers. He was black.
His actions would nauseate Walker, and whenever he saw the man, he would take off for another car, not wanting to somehow be lumped together with this man's disgusting, disgraceful behavior.
One day, however, Walker decided to stop running.
"Why should I move?" thought Walker, a clean-cut figure clearly on his way to school. "Anybody who looks at him and looks at me and thinks we are not different, then they are just stupid. Why should I leave my seat?"
Growing up in New York, Walker learned valuable lessons in tolerance among diverse peoples, lessons that have guided him ever since.
He doesn't talk much about his experiences with racism, though he, like the millions of other blacks who lived through segregation and the fierce battles to end it, knows it all too well. He's driven hundreds of miles out of his way to find a restaurant that would serve him and his teams or a hotel that would board them. He has vivid memories of the racial tension that filled the air during the turbulent '60s.
"I learned to deal with them and put them behind me," Walker said. "I would not allow them to determine what I could be. I don't know whether it gave me motivation or what, but it was like Joe had told many before: 'You look at things and you deal with them.'"
He is not bitter about any of those experiences. During his travels he learned how to overcome those people who wanted to hold him back.
"My mother always told me not to let the environment affect you," Walker said. "I was born in a safe little neighborhood. We were probably a poor family, and we may have lived in a ghetto, if that word had been coined yet. But we kept our neighborhood clean and we were disciplined people. We were compassionate about people in our community.
"She always told me that I should never let the environment affect what I could become. She said, `What you become is dependent upon how much you want to be good at what you do.' So one of my themes while I was at the university was `Excellence without Excuse.'"
Neither ``Big Mama'' nor Joe would ever let young LeRoy make excuses, and that philosophy has stuck throughout his life.
"I don't know how many of the many things you learn as a child stay with you, but certain things come out forever," Walker said.
At first, when everyone was making a big deal about him being the first black man to head the USOC, Walker balked at the attention. These are supposed to be "more enlightened" times, and his election to the post certainly was no gift. He worked his way up the ladder for decades, chaired every major committee, was an elected officer, headed a national governing body, accomplished more in athletics than any other person who has held this post.
As Moran said, Walker's race is incidental.
"This is not a token appointment," Walker said. "It is based on merit. I don't have any self-consciousness about people saying I got this job because I was black or because I was a minority. I got it because I was the best person for the job. That is why it was a unanimous decision."
As he thought more about it, however, he decided it was good that he is introduced as the first black president of the USOC, because he has no qualms about his life and accomplishments setting an example for young people of every race.
"I want the young minority [person] out there, whether it is a Hispanic or black or otherwise, to know that in this day and society, if you do things well and you are being effective, there are enough fair-minded people in the world to recognize that and push you do the next level," Walker said.
That's why he followed his mother's advice. He has had faith that people will recognize the quality of his work and not the color of his skin.
Legacies are important to Walker, and he'd like his accomplishments in the face of segregation, racism and all other less enlightened obstacles to be his legacy, not only in the world of athletics but also in the fields of education and administration. He unabashedly claims the title of role model, a direct slap at the Charles Barkleys of the world who don't want to accept that responsibility.
"I ran into Charles at the Fiesta Bowl, and I told him that you can't tell somebody not to use me as a role model," Walker said. "You don't get to make that choice."
Culmination of a lifetime's work
Dr. LeRoy Walker isn't sure how he will feel when he leads the U.S. Team into the Centennial Olympic Stadium. Frankly, he's tried to push all thoughts about Friday night out of his mind.
"It's going to be a strange feeling," Walker said. "I don't want to think about it, because I don't want to get too excited. But to lead that team in . . ."
If only "Big Mama" could see him now. Those eyes, the ones that could bring this strong, unstoppable man to his knees, would be gleaming with pride.
"She would have been very proud of me as an individual representing her," he said. "That influence has lasted this long, more than half a century. I think she would have been very proud."
Walker regrets that his late wife, Katherine--who died on Easter 1979--won't be in Atlanta with him, to share in the culmination of his life's work.
"She spent so much time and dedication. . . . There are so many things I wish she could be here to share," Walker said. "She was there in Montreal, and she did enjoy that so much.
"And then she passed two years later."
Friday will be a happy time, with Walker beaming even brighter than he did two weeks ago when he carried the Olympic Torch on Central's campus, then watched joyously as long-time friend Al Buehler paraded the torch to the steps of Duke Chapel.
"This is the culmination," Walker said then. "This is the top.
Maybe Hollywood should look into this.