Payton Jordan: 1917-2009
Former Stanford coach wasn’t immortal, it just seemed that way
Payton Jordan was Stanford’s head coach from 1957-79.
Feb. 6, 2009
STANFORD, Calif. - If anyone seemed immortal, it was Payton Jordan.
He was a man so fast and finely-conditioned in his later years that they called him “The Silver Streak.” Instead, it’s his legacy that may live forever.
Jordan, a longtime Stanford track and field coach, died of cancer Thursday in Laguna Hills, Calif., at age 91, but left a lasting imprint for his role in some of the sport’s most enduring moments.
The turmoil and triumph of the 1968 Olympic Games? Jordan was there. The most successful single track and field meet in American history? It was Jordan’s idea. The masters movement that allows athletes to shine into old age? Jordan was a pioneer.
But those who knew Jordan were touched by him in ways that went far beyond his substantial influence in the sport.
“Most people talk about Payton in reference to track,” said Stanford’s Franklin P. Johnson Director of Track and Field, Edrick Floreal. "But for the people who really know Payton, there is so much more.
"He’s a rare person. Payton had the rare ability to captivate people, to inspire people to expand their wings and expand their limits.
“You look at guys who were coached by Payton and you see how they treat their wives, treat their kids or run their businesses. These are the examples of Payton’s influence.”
Jordan coached Stanford from 1957-79, producing seven Olympic athletes, six world-record holders, six national champions and leading the team to an NCAA runner-up finish. But that’s not all. He was the mastermind behind the 1962 U.S. vs. USSR dual meet that drew 155,000 over two days to Stanford Stadium during the height of the Cold War.
The friendships Jordan developed and the welcoming tone of the meet during a tense period of history softened America’s view of the Soviets, if only for a short while.
“He greeted them with a great big smile and with an outstretched hand,” said longtime friend Bob Murphy. "He had a smile that would just melt the world.
"He found a vein of understanding and appreciation that did not exist in any government’s so-called diplomacy. He found a common ground in track and field, where the Soviets and the U.S. could get together and compete in a friendly and very productive way.
“It certainly produced a warming spot in the Cold War. There was a numb that extended far into Moscow and Washington D.C.”
Jordan’s athletic accomplishments were many. In his younger days, he was a record-breaking sprinter and a Life Magazine cover boy. He was a member of USC’s world-record 440-yard relay team (40.5) in 1938 and ran the fastest 100 yards ever on grass, in 1941. In addition to helping the Trojans to three national track championships (1937-39), he helped USC beat Duke in the 1939 Rose Bowl.
Jordan never competed in the Olympics, with the 1940 and 1944 Games canceled during World War II. Jordan joined the Navy instead and, afterward, began his collegiate coaching career at Occidental College, which he led to an NAIA title and conference championships in each of his 10 seasons.
Late in his coaching career and after retirement, Jordan gave rise to the masters track movement, setting six age-group world records in the sprints. In 1997 at age 80, Jordan set the last of his world marks, 14.65 in the 100 meters and 30.89 in the 200.
And though he moved to Southern California, Jordan continued to play an enthusiastic role in Stanford track and field, lending his name to the annual invitational that continues to bear his name.
When the meet formerly known as the U.S. Open was renamed in his honor in 2004, Jordan said, “I am overwhelmed and deeply grateful to be honored by my old school. It is a wonderful feeling to know that you are still remembered.”
But Jordan’s supreme achievement may have been his delicate handling of the 1968 U.S. Olympic team in Mexico City.
Jordan was the head coach of the team many consider to be the greatest of all-time. It earned a record 24 medals, 12 gold, and featured Bob Beamon’s extraordinary long jump, Dick Fosbury’s revolutionary high jump, and world marks in the sprints by Jim Hines and Lee Evans.
Before the Games, Jordan’s tolerance and open-mindedness helped deflect a threatened boycott from the team’s African-American athletes and kept the team from falling apart. And during the Games, he dealt with the fallout of the Tommie Smith-John Carlos black-gloved civil rights protest that drew the ire of Olympic officials and politicians and forced the athletes out of the Games.
Jordan and sprint coach Stan Wright were informed of Smith’s and Carlos’s plans, but allowed them to make their own decisions. They even supplied the runners with black socks and handkerchiefs.
“I always tell my kids, everybody’s born for a time in their life,” Floreal said. "That there is a special person to handle every difficult moment in life. I think Payton Jordan was bred for that time.
"He was the right person at the right time to handle that situation. Nobody could have handled it any better.
“Maybe that’s his legacy. Maybe, that’s how his legacy lives in the rest of us.”
- David Kiefer, Stanford Athletics Media Relations