Milt Campbell
Olympic champion, motivational speaker
Born: December 9, 1933, in Plainfield, New Jersey
Died: November 2, 2012, in Gainesville, Georgia
New Jersey Hall of Fame, Class of 2012: Sports
Milt Campbell was a dreamer, who through hard work, immense talent, and sheer desire made his dreams come true.
Campbell’s abilities as an all-around athlete were first recognized during his years at Plainfield High School, where he competed in track, football, and swimming. He set state records in the high and low hurdles and in the high jump; scored 140 points as a fullback on the football team; and made the all-state swim team.
He was still in high school when he began training for the U.S. Olympic Team. Just 18, he earned a place on the U.S. track-and-field squad for the 1952 Olympics in Helsinki, Finland. Competing in the decathlon – which comprises 10 events in two days – he earned a silver medal, finishing behind fellow American Bob Mathias, the reigning decathlon champ.
Returning from the Olympics, Campbell enrolled in Indiana University where he competed in track and football. According to The New York Times, he also excelled in tennis, bowling, judo, karate, and wrestling.
In 1956, Campbell headed to Melbourne, Australia, for a second chance to pursue his dream of Olympic glory. This time, he triumphed in the decathlon over the favorite, Rafer Johnson, a fellow American. With his victory, Campbell became the first African American to win gold in the decathlon. He also could rightly claim to be the world’s greatest athlete for winning the Olympics’ most demanding all-around event.
The 6-foot-3 Campbell’s next frontier was professional football. Drafted in 1957 by the Cleveland Browns, he played for one season as a reserve running back before being released in 1958 by the team’s owner, who, Campbell claimed, could not tolerate his marriage to a white woman. Campbell spent the next several years playing for a number of teams in the Canadian Football League, before his retirement in 1964.
Campbell returned to New Jersey after the 1967 riots in Newark and helped found the Chad School, an alternative educational center for inner-city kids. He also coached and mentored young athletes, and began a new career as a motivational speaker.
Despite all he achieved, Campbell, who was outspoken about racial discrimination, never won the fame or financial rewards of other decathlon champs. “I’ve paid my dues, but the advertising and commercial worlds don’t call me,” he said in a 1980 interview with The New York Times.
Yet Campbell remained optimistic. At his 2012 New Jersey Hall of Fame introduction, he declared, “If you fall in love with a dream, you can do anything you want to.”