HIGH POINT CONFIDENTIAL: Was High Point runner really North Carolina's first Olympian?
Feb. 4—HIGH POINT — Great athletes are often described as having performed athletic feats "of mythical proportions." But what if we told you the claim to fame of one of High Point's most celebrated athletes is a myth?
The alleged claim to fame is this:
When High Point native — and nationally renowned distance runner — Harry Williamson competed at the 1936 Summer Olympics in Berlin, he became the state's first Olympian, heading a long list of future Tar Heels who would compete for the red, white and blue. Even though he finished a disappointing sixth place in the finals of his event, the 800-meter run, he etched his name in history as North Carolina's first Olympic athlete, and was celebrated as such when he returned home from the games.
To this day, High Pointers have boasted proudly of the native son who became the state's first athlete to compete in the Olympics. Even the venerable N.C. Sports Hall of Fame, which inducted Williamson in 1999, describes him as "North Carolina's first Olympian."
So what's the problem?
Well, the problem is that Williamson wasn't actually the first North Carolinian to compete for the USA. That distinction belongs to Statesville native Louis "Pinky" Clarke, who not only competed in the 1924 Summer Olympics in Paris, but medaled.
In contrast to Williamson's distance-running prowess, Clarke was a world-class sprinter, a bench-warming baseball player at Johns Hopkins University who switched sports when a track team member noticed how fast he could run. He won an NCAA championship in the 100-yard dash in 1923, and later set an indoor world record in the event with a time of 9.8 seconds.
At the Paris Olympics, Clarke was a member of the 4x100-meter relay team, which set a world-record time of 41.0 seconds in the process of winning the gold medal. According to newspaper accounts, Clarke ran the second leg for the U.S., coming from behind to give his team a lead it would not relinquish.
So why is Clarke not considered North Carolina's first Olympian? And why was he never inducted into the N.C. Sports Hall of Fame?
High Point Confidential reached out to Trip Durham, executive director of the N.C. Sports Hall of Fame, with those very questions. Durham said that while he wasn't familiar with Clarke or his backstory, "it could be Pinky never got a shake because the nomination process wasn't communicated well or was too cumbersome."
It's also possible, Durham added, that Clarke wasn't given consideration because he moved out of the state at a young age. Clarke was born in Statesville in 1901, but his family moved to Pennsylvania when he was still a youth, and he never moved back here. The hall's eligibility guidelines state that a nominee might not be inducted if, "in the judgment of the Board, they moved from the state (and never returned to live) at too early an age to be reasonably considered."
Whatever the reason, Durham acknowledged Clarke probably does belong in the hall, and said the board will consider him for the class of 2024 (the class of 2023 has already been named and will be inducted in April).
Of course, Clarke's induction would mean Harry Williamson, the pride of High Point, would no longer be considered the state's first Olympian. It would not, however, diminish the accomplishments of Williamson, who certainly deserves to be in the N.C. Sports Hall of Fame.
Before his sixth-place finish in Berlin, Williamson was a state-champion miler at High Point High School and at the University of North Carolina, where he set several distance-running records. And a few days after the Berlin Olympics, competing at the British Empire Games in London, he and three teammates set a world record in the 2-mile relay.
Regardless of whether Williamson was North Carolina's first Olympian or its second, those are still feats of mythical proportions.
jtomlin@hpenews.com — 336-888-3579
