WHITFIELD, Mal(vin) Greston

(b. 11 October 1924 in Bay City, Texas), middle-distance runner who won five Olympic medals, three of them gold, and who devoted much of his life to promoting track and field in Africa.

Whitfield's family moved from Texas to Los Angeles when he was a toddler. By the time he was in elementary school, Whitfield was selling fruits and vegetables in Watts to help the family pay its bills. He began his education at the Forty-ninth Street School in Los Angeles, and progressed to the 111th Street School. In 1936, at age eleven, he snuck into the Los Angeles stadium to watch Jesse Owens—his idol—run. Not only did he get Owens's autograph, he also watched how Ohio State University (OSU) coach Larry Snyder instructed Owens, and was impressed. Whitfield dreamed of following the path of four great Ohio State runners—Jesse Owens, Mel Walker, Dave Albritton, and Charlie Beetham—as one of Snyder's protégés.

While attending Willowbrook Junior High School, George Washington Culver High School, and Jefferson High School in Los Angeles, Whitfield became a track star. After graduating from high school, he was offered scholarships at several colleges, but chose to enter OSU in autumn 1946 so he could train with Coach Snyder. He ran on the Ohio State varsity track team as a freshman, and in summer 1947 he joined the U.S. Air Force. Through the influence of his benefactor, the newspaper magnate Otis Chandler, Whitfield was stationed at Lockbourne Air Force Base, just outside Columbus, Ohio, as part of the 100th Fighter Squadron. While at Lockbourne, Whitfield married and competed in college track for the next two years. In 1948 he was one of three African Americans on the OSU track team.

At the 1948 National Collegiate Athletic Association (NCAA) championships held in Minneapolis, the six-foot, 165-pound Whitfield won the 800-meter event and placed fourth in the 400-meter run. Two weeks later at the Amateur Athletic Union (AAU) championships at Marquette University, Whitfield placed second in the 400-meter event. His performances earned him a place on the U.S. Olympic team headed for London, England.

Considered an outsider, Whitfield was not expected to make much of a splash in his first international competition. He proved, however, to be a strong contender. On the brick-red track at London's Wembley Stadium, he surprised everyone by winning the gold medal in the 800-meter run and 1,600-meter relay, and by taking a bronze in the 400-meter dash. He was the first Olympian in 28 years to win medals in both the 400-and 800-meter races.

After the Olympics, Whitfield returned to compete and study at Ohio State, while continuing to serve in the air force. From 1946 to 1949 he lettered in track four times and was elected as the cocaptain of the 1949 OSU outdoor track team, one of only two African Americans on the team. Following the 1949 school year, Sergeant Whitfield served a tour of duty in the Korean War (1950–1953) as a bombardier/tail gunner on a B-26. In 1950 he withdrew as a student from OSU without graduating. After Korea, he was reassigned to Lockbourne, where he continued his amateur track career.

In June 1951 Whitfield represented the United States at the Pan-American Games in Buenos Aires, Argentina, winning the 800-meter race. In late March 1952 at the sixteenth annual Chicago Daily News relays, Whitfield permanently retired the Frank Hill Trophy for the 600-yard run. The following month he helped the air force track team win the Mile Relay Championship of America at the Penn Relays. Finally, in June, he tied the U.S. record for the 800-meter run at the U.S. Olympic trials and won the AAU 400-meter title. In doing so, Whitfield qualified for his second Olympic team in both the 400-and 800-meter runs.

Whitfield was even more serious about his second Olympic chance than he was in 1948. He told reporters, "Sports can be a foundation for better social relations. We athletes have a common ground, not based on class or creed. I sincerely feel we can do a lot of good for America, not just in a sports way." As if to prove the truth of Whitfield's words, Mayor James Rhodes urged the citizens of Columbus to raise the $1,400 necessary to send "the flying sergeant" and his wife to the Helsinki Olympic Games.

On 22 July 1952 in Helsinki, Finland, Whitfield tied his own 800-meter Olympic record (1:49.2) in the finals, and won the race by two yards. He got off poorly in the finals of the 400-meter dash and placed sixth, but redeemed himself in the 4 x 400-meter relay to win his fifth Olympic medal, a silver. Although the U.S. team finished second to Jamaica by a yard, Whitfield ran a splendid race and the U.S. team, despite coming in second, broke the previous world record by more than four seconds.

Following the Helsinki Olympics, Whitfield left the air force, but continued to compete in track events. In 1954 he won both the 1,000-meter run at the eighteenth annual Chicago Daily News relays in record-setting time (2:10.5), and, for the fifth time, the AAU 880-yard championship. As a result of these accomplishments, in 1954 Whitfield became the first African American to win the James E. Sullivan Memorial Award as the AAU athlete of the year. In 1955 Whitfield enrolled at Los Angeles State College, running for their track team and for the Los Angeles Athletic Club. He narrowly missed making the 1956 Olympic team, and soon retired from competitive running. In 1956 he graduated from Los Angeles State.

In 1957 "Marvelous Mal" Whitfield gave away twenty of his most prized trophies to the schools he had attended, former coaches, and those he believed had assisted him in achieving international fame, saying the gesture was inspired by what he had seen in the Belgian Congo while on a goodwill trip for the U.S. State Department: "I saw how badly the young athletes in those countries deep inside Africa needed equipment, facilities, and proper training. I saw these kids do so much with so little.… I always felt [that] without the interest people had in me, I never could have been successful."

Whitfield spent more than thirty years in Nigeria, Mali, and other African nations building physical education, academic, and sport programs, working as an employee of the U.S. State Department's Information and Foreign Services. In 1974 Whitfield was inducted as a member of the National Track and Field Hall of Fame. He also was inducted into the OSU Athletic Hall of Fame and the U.S. Olympic Hall of Fame (1988). As of 2001 he was a consultant in African affairs, living in Washington, D.C.

Reliable information on Whitfield is limited; in addition, he has been sparing with and, at times, inconsistent in reports about his personal life. The best sources of information are the Ohio State University Directory Supplement (winter 1947–1948 and 1948–1949); Ohio State University Alumni Magazine (June 1951, Apr. 1955, Oct. 1978, July 1983, Nov. 1992). Articles about Whitfield appear in the Columbus Dispatch (13 July 1948, 2 Aug. 1948, 5 Aug. 1948, 3 July 1952, 6 July 1952); Atlanta Daily World (3 Apr. 1952, 10 July 1952, 23 July 1952, 26 July 1952, 27 July 1952, 29 July 1952); Bloomington Herald-Telephone (22 Mar. 1954); and New York Times (19 Feb. 1956).

Keith McClellan