UNPRECEDENTED ACHIEVEMENTS
1938-48 – 25 National Titles, Mostly High Jump
1948 – First Black Woman to Win the Gold Medal – London Olympics
1952 – Coca-Cola Spokesperson
1975 – USA Track and Field Hall of Fame
1979 – Georgia Sports Hall of Fame
1996 – Honored at Summer Olympic Games as one of the 100 Greatest Olympians
1994 – Founded The Alice Coachman Track and Field Foundation
1998 – Honorary Member of Alpha Kappa Alpha Sorority
1999 – Included in Georgia’s Top 100 Athletes of the 1900s
2002 – Women’s History Month Honoree – National Women’s History Project
2004 – US Olympic Hall of Fame
Obstacles Be Damned
Born into the segregated south in 1923 as a woman of color, today’s refined rebel faced multiple levels of discrimination and had to overcome several barriers and obstacles in order to achieve her dreams.
Alice was one of ten children born to Fred and Evelyn Coachman. She was athletic from the start, and loved to play sports like softball and basketball, but thought she would become a dancer or musician. When her 5th grade teacher Cora Bailey saw her athletic abilities, she encouraged her to pursue running, as did her aunt Carrie Spry. By the time she was in 7th grade, she was the best runner in Albany.
Society frowned on women playing sports during this time, especially sports like track and field that were seen as masculine. Alice’s father disapproved of his daughters playing sports, and he wanted Alice to sit on the porch and look “dainty”, but she had other plans. She pursued running, even after being whipped by her father.
Living in the south during segregation, she not only faced racism and bigotry, she was denied opportunities, and was forbidden from training at fields with white athletes.
Alice didn’t let any of these obstacles stop her from achieving her dreams. She would train by running barefoot on dusty roads, and she would use sticks and rope for a makeshift high jump. She was responsible for her own training until she was finally able to join her school team, where she found support and encouragement.
Her parents eventually came around and supported Alice’s athletic endeavors. She went on to break many high jump records, barefoot, and caught the attention of a coach at Tuskegee Institute in Alabama, which is one of the earliest Historically Black Colleges and Universities (HBCUs) in the United States.
Jump for Gold
Tuskegee gave her a scholarship and she studied dressmaking while competing for the school’s track-and-field and basketball teams. She was one of the best athletes in the country, winning four national championships for sprinting and high jumping. Due to her abilities, many of her supporters encouraged her to enter the Olympics, but she was initially reluctant.
Eventually she decided to try out and she made it to the 1948 London Olympics. Even though she was nursing a back injury during her Olympic event, Alice still destroyed the existing US high jump record, clearing the 5 foot 6.125 inch bar. She became the first black woman to win the Gold!
Her gold medal was awarded by King George VI, she was congratulated and honored by President Truman at the White House, and she was celebrated in a motorcade traveling from Atlanta to her hometown of Albany, Georgia.
Sadly, when she was honored in her home state, whites and blacks had to sit separately in the auditorium of the celebration. The white mayor of Albany sat on the stage with her, but refused to shake her hand! She even had to leave her own celebration by a side door. Despite this poor treatment, Alice didn’t let it get her down.
Paving the Track
Her athletic career ended at the age of 24, but dedicated the rest of her life to helping others. She graduated with a B.S. in Home Economics and a Minor in Science at Albany college in 1949, and she became an elementary and high school teacher, and a track coach. She was married twice and had children with her first husband.
In 1952, she became the first black female athlete to endorse an international consumer brand, Coca Cola.
She was inducted into nine halls of fame and in 1994, she started the Alice Coachman Track and Field Foundation to aid young athletes and former competitors in financial need.
Alice Coachman, an inspiration to all, died at the age of 90. The international President of Alpha Kappa Alpha lauded her as “a treasured athletic pioneer who paved the way for other African American female Olympic track and field champions such as Wilma Rudolph, Evelyn Ashford, Florence Griffith Joyner and Jackie Joyner-Kersee to follow.”