Ted Corbitt

Ted Corbitt, born January 31, 1919, on a cotton farm near Dunbarton, South Carolina, was an American long-distance runner often called the father of American long distance running. He was the first African-American to run the marathon at the Summer Olympics, in Helsinki in 1952, and the founding president of New York Road Runners. He was also an ultramarathon pioneer who helped revive interest in the sport in the United States in the 1960s and 1970s, held US records at 25 miles, the marathon, 40 miles, 50 miles and 100 miles, and won the 1954 Yonkers Marathon to become US national marathon champion. He was among the first five runners inducted into the National Distance Running Hall of Fame and the first into the American Ultrarunning Hall of Fame. He died on December 12, 2007.