November 27, 2004: Herb McKenley was honoured with the Key to the City and the renaming of Roosevelt Avenue to Herb McKenley Drive. - Ian Allen/Staff Photographer
One thing I would love to put across at the time of his death is that the wonderful achievements that we are getting today are a part of the legacy and the foundation that he has established through his own exploits on the track. Tremendous athlete, tremendous person.- Mike Fennell, president of the Jamaica Olympic Association.
Herbert Henry McKenley, O.D., C.D., was born July 10, 1922, in Clarendon where he grew up in Pleasant Valley before becoming one of Jamaica's most decorated and beloved sons being a pioneer in athletics and athletics administration.
He attended Pleasant Valley Elementary School before enrolling at Mico Practising and later Calabar High School in St. Andrew.
The legendary Herb McKenley blossomed into one of Jamaica's greatest-ever all-round sprinters. But he was a late bloomer.
At the annual Boys Championship, he showed potential as an all-round sprinter but won just one race in four years of competition.
In 1947, he became the first athlete from the English-speaking Caribbean to win an athletic scholarship to the United States college.
He attend Boston College and later the University of Illinios.
However, he displayed this versatility at the highest levels winning medals in all the sprints from 100 to 400m.
He won one gold and three silver medals in the Olympic Games in London and Helsinki in 1948 and 1952.
Making history
He is the only person in history to have won Olympic medals in both the 100 and 400 metres and the only person to reach the 100, 200 and 400 metres finals.
A world record holder for the 400m and 440 yards in the mid-1940s, McKenley made his first real mark in international competition at the 1948 Olympic Games in London.
He reached the 200m final where he placed fourth. He was the hot favourite for the 400m, but was pipped by his countryman Arthur Wint who mined gold in 46.2 to McKenley's 46.4.
Bad luck was to hit the Jamaican team in the 4x400m when Wint pulled up with the quartet well in contention for the gold medal.
At the Helsinki Olympics in 1952, McKenley was again in top form but at the individual level he missed gold twice.
The 100m final was one of the closest races in Olympic history. McKenley was beaten into second place by a hair's breadth. American Lindy Remingino was adjudged the winner with both clocking the same time, 10.4 seconds. Remingino was quoted as saying he thought McKenley had won the race.
It was to be the same story in the 400m. McKenley just failed to catch his fleet-footed countryman George Rhoden. Both were timed in 45.9.
McKenley, having reached five Olympic finals, was hungry for gold and it eventually came in the 4x400m relay.
Greatest relay leg in history
1952: The Helsinki 4x400 metres relay quartet exhausted but exultant after winning the Olympic gold medal and setting a new world record. Herb McKenley is shown clearly, smiling.
In what is regarded as Jamaica's greatest performance at Olympics, McKenley ran arguably the greatest relay leg in history.
Four men ran the race for Jamaica, but everybody agreed the triumph belonged to McKenley. His scintillating run on the third leg ate up a 15-metre gap to hand over the baton first, as the quartet clocked a then world record time of 3:03.9.
McKenley's leg was timed at an astonishing 44.6 seconds.
During his heyday, McKenley set three world records. The first came on June 28, 1947, in Berkeley, California, when he clocked 46.3 seconds for the 400m. He lowered this to 46.0 on June 5, 1948, also in Berkeley. On July 2 in the same year, he became the first man to go under 46 seconds for the 400m.
An old boy of Calabar High, McKenley has been head coach at his former school for more than 30 years. He has led Calabar to 18 of the 19 Boys Champion-ships the school has won.
McKenley's exploits on the track earned him international acclaim and respect, earning several awards. In 1983, he was inducted into the U.S.A. - Black Athletes - Hall of Fame and was given the Illinios Comeback Award.
In 1986, he was inducted into the Shore Athletic Club Hall of Fame. In 1989, he was inducted into the Jamaica Sports Hall of Fame.
Left: 1952: Herb McKenley, second from right, coming through the field to take the silver medal in Helsinki Olympics 100 metres. Right: 1952: McKenley passes the baton to Rhoden after running arguably the greatest relay leg in history in the Helsinki Olympics.
Herb McKenley exemplified what I call the essence of patriotism and nationalism. He put Jamaica above everything else. - Howard Aris, president of the JAAA.
