Pitt Athletics Hall of Fame
- Induction:
- 2018
- Class:
- 1948
Douglas enrolled at the University of Pittsburgh in 1945 and would go on to have milestone achievements as both a track and field athlete and football player. He won four intercollegiate championships in the long jump and one in the 100-yard dash. He additionally captured three National Amateur Athletic Union (AAU) championships in the long jump. In the 1948 London Summer Olympics, he was the bronze medalist in the long jump with a 24-foot, 9-inch leap. As a Pitt football letterman in 1945, Douglas became just the second African-American to score a touchdown against Notre Dame. (He also became the first of only two football athletes to score a touchdown against Notre Dame and win an Olympic medal.) Douglas later would be the founder of the Jesse Owens International Trophy Award, honoring the most outstanding amateur or Olympic athlete in the world. Douglas was inducted into the Pennsylvania Sports Hall of Fame in 1980 and the New York Athletic Club Hall of Fame in 1990.
