From the Backstretch by Reuben Frank

Yesterday, we took a look at the South Jersey athletes headed to the NCAA Division 1 Championships, which start today at Hayward Field in Eugene. You can find that piece here.

But how many South Jersey athletes have won national titles?

It’s been 85 years since the first South Jersey athlete won an NCAA title. And it’s been 12 years since the last one.

In 1940, Ocean City High School graduate Archie Harris, a junior at the University of Indiana, won the discus at the 15th annual NCAA Championships in Minneapolis with a throw of 162-4 ½ – yeah, they recorded fractions of inches back then.

A year later at the NCAA Championships in Palo Alto, Harris threw 174-8 ¾ in the prelims, which broke the world record of 174-2 ½ set in 1935 by Germany’s Willy Schröder in Magdeburg, Germany. The discus was held that day on a field outside Stanford Stadium with only a handful of spectactors watching.

Harris’s mark stood as the world record until that October, when Adolfo Consolini of Italy threw 175-0 in Milan.

Harris also played football at Indiana and was a 2nd-team all-Big Ten Conference pick in 1940.

Harris was a war hero, a second lieutenant as a bomber pilot with the famed Tuskogee Airmen, the 332nd Fighter Group. He was inducted into the South Jersey Track Hall of Fame in 2016.

The most recent NCAA champion from South Jersey was Florence’s Curtis Thompson of Mississippi State, who won the javelin at the 2014 meet in Eugene with a throw of 254-9.

1940
MEN
Archie Harris, Indiana [Ocean City], Discus [162-4]
1948
Browning Ross, Villanova [Woodbury], 3,000-Meter Steeplechase [9:25.7h]
1955
Don Bragg, Villanova [Penns Grove], Pole Vault [15-1]
Charley Pratt, Manhattan [Palmyra], 220-Yard Hurdles [23.1]
1980
Carl Lewis, Houston [Willingboro], Long Jump 27-4¾w [held indoors]
1981
Carl Lewis, Houston [Willingboro], 100-Meter Dash [9.99w]
Carl Lewis, Houston [Willingboro], Long Jump 27-0¾ [held indoors]
1989
Dennis Mitchell, Florida [Edgewood], 200-Meter Dash [20.09A]
2004
Mike Morrison, Florida [Willingboro], 400-Meter Relay 2nd Leg [39.11]
2014
Curtis Thompson, Mississippi State [Florence], Javelin [254-9]

WOMEN
1983
Carol Lewis, Houston [Willingboro], Long Jump [21-11 ¾]
1985
Carol Lewis, Houston [Willingboro], Long Jump [22-1]
1990
Denise Mitchell, Florida [Edgewood], 1,600-Meter Relay 1st Leg [53.8, 3:27.53]
2002
Jamine Moton, Clemson [Delsea], Hammer Throw [220-6]
2004
Nadia Davy, LSU [Bridgeton], 1,600-Meter Relay, 4th Leg [50.3, 3:25.26]
2011
Nia Ali [Pleasantville], 100-Meter Hurdles [12.63w, 2.1]
2012
English Gardner [Eastern], 100-Meter Dash [11.10, -1.7]
English Gardner [Eastern], 1,600-Meter Relay, 1st Leg [50.8, 3:24.54]
2013
English Gardner [Eastern], 100-Meter Dash [10.96, +0.9]