Sources
Help build the largest human-edited directory on the web.
Submit a site - Become an editor
Wikipedia. Licensed under the GNU Free Documentation License.
Are you an expert in this subject? Join the discussion and share your knowledge at Wikipedia.org.
Forrest Towns
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
| Olympic medal record | |||
| Men's Athletics | |||
|---|---|---|---|
| Gold | 1936 Berlin | 110m hurdles | |
Robert Forrest "Spec" Towns (February 6, 1914 - April 4, 1991) was an American track and field athlete. He was the 1936 Olympic champion in the 110 m hurdles, and broke the World Record in that distance three times.
Born in Fitzgerald, Georgia, Towns went to school in Augusta, Georgia, where he played football in high school. In 1933, he gained a track scholarship for the University of Georgia (UGA) after a track journalist had seen him high jumping in his back yard.
However, rather than high jumping, Towns specialized in the high hurdles, winning NCAA and AAU titles in the 120 y hurdles event in 1935. It was the beginning of a 60 race winning streak, lasting until 1937.
In 1936, Towns was named on the American Olympic team, becoming the first Georgian to achieve this. At the time of the Olympics, Towns was the world record holder with 14.1, and he won the Olympic gold in 14.2. Shortly after the Games, he became the first hurdler to beat 14 seconds. At a race in Oslo, he dramatically improved the world record to 13.7 - a time that would stand until 1950.
After his retirement, Towns became a track and field coach at UGA, a position he held unil 1975. He died in his hometown Athens, Georgia at age 77. He is remembered at UGA with the Spec Towns Track, and the annually held Spec Towns invitational.
| Olympic champions in men's 110 m hurdles |
|---|
| 1896: Thomas Curtis | 1900: Alvin Kraenzlein | 1904: Frederick Schule | 1904: Robert Leavitt | 1908: Forrest Smithson | 1912: Frederick Kelly | 1920: Earl Thomson | 1924: Daniel Kinsey | 1928: Sydney Atkinson | 1932: George Saling | 1936: Forrest Towns | 1948: William Porter | 1952: Harrison Dillard | 1956: Lee Calhoun | 1960: Lee Calhoun | 1964: Hayes Jones | 1968: Willie Davenport | 1972: Rod Milburn | 1976: Guy Drut | 1980: Thomas Munkelt | 1984: Roger Kingdom | 1988: Roger Kingdom | 1992: Mark McKoy | 1996: Allen Johnson | 2000: Anier García | 2004: Liu Xiang |
 This Olympics-related article is a stub. You can help Wikipedia by expanding it. |
Categories: 1914 births | 1991 deaths | American hurdlers | Athletes at the 1936 Summer Olympics | Olympic medalists | Olympic competitors for the United States | Olympic gold medalists for the United States | Georgia Bulldogs athletes | Georgia Bulldogs coaches | People from Georgia (U.S. state) | University of Georgia stubs | Olympics stubs | United States track and field athletics biography stubs