William Harrison Dillard (born July 8, 1923) is an American athlete, the only male so far to win Olympic titles in both sprinting and hurdling events.
Harrison Dillard, born in Cleveland, Ohio, attended East Technical High School. He entered Baldwin-Wallace College in 1941 and joined Pi Lambda Phi International Fraternity, and two years later was drafted into the Army. He returned to college in 1946 and resumed athletics, to which he had been ins...
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William Harrison Dillard (born July 8, 1923) is an American athlete, the only male so far to win Olympic titles in both sprinting and hurdling events.
Harrison Dillard, born in Cleveland, Ohio, attended East Technical High School. He entered Baldwin-Wallace College in 1941 and joined Pi Lambda Phi International Fraternity, and two years later was drafted into the Army. He returned to college in 1946 and resumed athletics, to which he had been inspired by Jesse Owens, who was also from Cleveland and had attended East Technical High School as well. He won the NCAA and AAU 120-yard and 220-yard hurdles in both 1946 and 1947 and he tied world records in both events with a 22.3 in the 220 in 1946 and a 13.6 in the 120.
He particularly excelled in hurdling, and was probably the best hurdler in the world shortly after the war.
However, at the trials for the 1948 Summer Olympics, Dillard failed to qualify for the 110 m hurdles event, though he qualified as third (and last) for the 100 m, not...
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