Reggie McAfee is one of the great heroes in all of sports. McAfee was the first Africa-American to break the 4-minute mile barrier in history. He did so on May 12th, 1973 by running 3 minutes 57.8 seconds. This was a big deal for many reasons. One of the biggest reasons being the first sub-4 minute mile ever run was just less than twenty years prior to McAfee’s run. The first sub-4 minute mile was run by the great Roger Bannister of Great Britain on May 6th, 1954 in a time of 3 minutes 59.4 seconds.
Prior to his historic 1-mile run McAfee was Cincinnati’s greatest high school distance runner. He had personal bests of 4 minutes 8 seconds for 1-mile and 1 minute 52.5 seconds for 880 yards. He continued his brilliant running career at the University of North Carolina. It was during his career at UNC that McAfee first broke four minutes for the 1-mile distance.
When considering McAfee’s great achievements as a distance runner during the 1960’s, 70’s and 80’s it’s important to remember that African-American’s weren’t considered being capable at distance running. In an article from February 25th, 2001 in the Cincinnati Enquirer McAfee mentions, “Most everybody thought African Americans were sprinters. I just never bought into that.” I believe this way of thinking is still common even today. Near the end of his interview McAfee addresses this issue as to why a lot of kids don’t give distance running a try today. He stated, “Kids have too many choices. Their time is taken up by a lot of different things. Running is quite demanding. If you tell kids they have to run 5 or 6 miles every day, they might not make that choice.”
Over the past 5 decades McAfee and many other distance runners in the African-American community have been pioneers in the sport of distance running in America. They have not only paved a way for young African-American boys and girls to excel in a sport that is deeply unexplored by the African-American demographic today, they have also shown African-American’s of all ages a way to live a healthier life – just by lacing up a pair sneakers and jogging around the track more than once.
Resources for this post: Fay, John. Catching up with Reggie McAfee. Cincinnati Enquirer. FEB 25th, 2001.
Hello, dear
ReplyDeleteMy companion has adulated your blog and I need to peruse your blog. There is a great deal of good data on your blog, I cherished understanding it and I figure individuals will get a ton of assistance from this (McAfee.com/Activate) blog. Sam, I have composed this sort of blog, I figure you will get a ton of assistance from this as well. I trust you like my blog, Users will get a ton of data from this blog. I trust you like my blog. I trust you got a great deal of assistance from this blog.