On This Day In Alabama History: Track Star Alice Coachman Was Born

Alabama News Center | November 9, 2017 @ 5:00 am

By Graydon Rust Alabama 200

November 9, 1923

Tuskegee Institute track star Alice Coachman was born in Georgia. At the age of 16, Coachman enrolled in the high school program at Tuskegee Institute and won 10 straight national championships in the high jump and 25 other track and field championships. In 1948, she competed in her first Olympics and set an Olympic record in the high jump that stood for eight years. She was the first black woman of any nation to win an Olympic gold medal and the first American woman to win an Olympic medal in track and field. Coachman was inducted into the Alabama Sports Hall of Fame and the Olympic Hall of Fame.

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