Barney Ewell

Barney Ewell of Penn State had a remarkable career as a top-class sprinter. He began by winning the AAU junior 100m in 1936 while a schoolboy in Lancaster, Pennsylvania, and finished 12 years later, at the age of 30, with three medals at the 1948 Olympics. In the intervening years he won 16 major outdoor titles, which included sprint doubles at both the 1940 and 1941 NCAA and IC4A meets, with a repeat at the 1942 IC4A. Ewell was also an outstanding long jumper and in the three years he won the IC4A sprint double, he won the long jump. He also won the AAU indoor long jump in 1944 and 1945 and the IC4A indoor long jump in 1940 and 1942. After winning the 100m at the 1948 combined AAU and Final Trials meet in a world record equaling 10.2, he lost the Olympic final by inches to the outsider Harrison Dillard and in the 200m he was beaten by a similar margin by Mel Patton. After the Olympics he lost his amateur status for accepting an excessive amount of gifts from his townsfolk, and then competed in Australia and New Zealand as a professional.

Personal Bests: 100 – 10.43 (1948); 200 – 20.8 (1948).