James Ray Hines

James Ray Hines was born in Dumas, Arkansas, and raised in Oakland, California. A baseball player in high school, his explosive speed was spotted by track coach Jim Coleman. At Texas Southern University, Hines ran for the legendary Tigers track team under coach Bobby Morrow.

In June 1968, at the US National Championships in Sacramento ("the Night of Speed"), Hines hand-timed an unofficial 9.9 seconds in the 100 meters. Four months later, on October 14, 1968, at the Summer Olympics in Mexico City, Hines ran the race of his life: rocketing down the track, he broke the tape in an electronic world record time of 9.95 seconds to win the 100m Olympic gold medal. He broke the seemingly impenetrable 10-second barrier, setting a world record that stood unbroken for fifteen years until Calvin Smith ran 9.93 in 1983. Hines also anchored the US 4x100m relay to gold in another world record time (38.24). He briefly played in the NFL for the Miami Dolphins and Kansas City Chiefs.