Willie Davenport

Willie Davenport. , Willie Davenport embodied the indomitable will and relentless spirit of Southern University's greatest athletes. Davenport enrolled at Southern University in Baton Rouge after his discharge from the U.S. Army and was ranked the No. 1 in the world six consecutive years in track and field. In the 1968 Olympic Games in Mexico City, Davenport won the gold medal with an Olympic record clocking of 13.3 seconds. In the 1976 Montreal Games, Davenport finished less than one-tenth of a second behind the winner and returned to the victory stand to accept the bronze medal. When Davenport was denied an opportunity to compete in the 1980 Olympics in Moscow, Russia, due to President Jimmy Carter's boycott, he qualified for the Winter Olympics as a member of the U.S. bobsledding team. Davenport was a U.S. Army private at the time of his first Olympic participation and was promoted to colonel in the U.S. Army National Guard at the time of his death.