LeRoy Walker Dies, Wanted to Be Remembered as 'Coach'
LeRoy Walker, the first African American to lead the United States Olympic Committee, died at the age of 93. No cause of death has been given as of this time.
Walker led the U.S. Olympic Committee from 1992 to 1996 and wanted to make sure that everyone was included under his leadership.
"We ought to keep them informed. We ought to let them know what the Olympic movement is all about and what's happening to the dollars that they give," he said in a public statement.
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He spent a lifetime establishing a solid career in coaching, having earned a Ph.D. in biomechanics from New York University. Walker went on to coach track and field at his alma mater, Benedict College. In 1945 he was named head coach for the North Carolina Central University track team, which produced many Olympic candidates from 1956 to 1980.
By the time he retired from NCCU in 1986, Walker's team has amassed 11 gold medals, 35 national championships and 80 athletes were named to the All-American team. He then went on to coach teams in Israel, Ethiopia, Jamaica, Kenya and Tobago, which all produced Olympic competitors.
Walker has earned several awards and was inducted into the USA Track and Field Hall of Fame and the U.S. Track and Field Cross Country Coaches Association Hall of Fame.
Olympic Committee Chairman Scott Blackmun spoke about the legacy Walker leaves behind.
"We join the entire Olympic family in remembering and appreciating the vast contributions he made to the worldwide Olympic Movement throughout his 93 years of life. He devoted himself to the betterment of sport and we were fortunate to have called him our president," he said in an official statement.
Of all the titles and awards Walker was awarded, one title stood above them all: coach.
"When you call me that, it means you're my friend," he told the Associated Press in 1996. "That means you've known me for a long time. As coaches, we're in the community somehow. So I like the word Coach. It gives a different connotation than a Ph.D. degree."
