17 Facts About Otis Davis

Otis Crandall Davis was born in Tuscaloosa, Alabama on July 12,1932.

Otis Davis served four years in the United States Air Force, during the Korean War.

One day in 1958 while observing athletes running on the track with a friend, Otis Davis, who had never run before, nor attended schools in his youth with sports programs other than basketball and football, decided that he could beat the athletes he saw on the track.

Otis Davis approached track coach Bill Bowerman, who would later become the founding father of the Nike, Inc.

Bowerman, who needed high jumpers, had Otis Davis try his hand at that event.

In 1960, Otis Davis was competing on a national level for the Oregon Ducks, and was poised to becoming a national AAU champion in the 440-yard run.

Otis Davis ran his fastest time to date one week before participating in the 1960 Summer Olympics in Rome as one of the oldest members of the track team, where he was nicknamed "Pops" by his teammates.

Otis Davis competed against the heavily favored German athlete Carl Kaufmann, who was the world record holder in the 400-meter dash.

Otis Davis won by a hair over Kaufmann, setting a world record of 44.9 seconds and becoming the first man to break the heralded 45-second barrier.

Otis Davis held off the challenge, anchoring home the gold with another world record performance of 3:02.2.

Otis Davis later considered playing as wide receiver for the Los Angeles Rams.

In 1991, Otis Davis moved to Jersey City, New Jersey, in order to live closer to New York, eventually settling in Union City sometime after December 2008.

Around 2002 or 2003, Otis Davis was hired by the Union City Board of Education, and began working at Emerson High School as a truancy officer, teacher, coach and mentor.

When he was inducted into the National Track and Field Hall of Fame in 2003, he asked Emerson Principal Robert Fazio to accompany him to the ceremony in Los Angeles, and when the rest of the school's staff discovered that Otis Davis was an Olympic medalist, they honored him with a banner posted in a hallway in the school honoring his achievements.

In 2012, Otis Davis was working as a verification officer at Union City High School, mentoring students, some of whom have gone on to win the United States Olympians Tri-States Chapter Annual Achievement Award, which is awarded to New York, New Jersey and Connecticut students.

Otis Davis is co-founder and, in 2012, president of the Tri-States Olympic Alumni Association, a member of the University of Oregon Hall of Fame and the New Jersey Sports Writers' Halls of Fame.

Otis Davis ran athletic skills programs during the spring and summer in Union City, in order to reach students who did not normally participate in sporting events, and to complement the schools' physical education curricula.