Tennessee State University Digital Scholarship @ Tennessee State University Tennessee State University Olympians Tennessee State University Olympic History 7-2020 Margaret Matthews Wilburn Julia Huskey Follow this and additional works at: https://digitalscholarship.tnstate.edu/tsu-olympians Part of the Sports Studies Commons, and the United States History Commons Margaret Matthews (Wilburn) Margaret Matthews (Wilburn) was a sprinter and long-jumper for TSU. She competed in both the long jump and the 4 x 100 meter relay in the 1956 Olympics, where she won the bronze medal in the latter. In 1958, she became the first American woman to long-jump 20 feet. She was a member of several of TSU’s national champion relay teams. Matthews was born in 1935 in Griffin, Georgia. She attended David T. Howard High School, which produced several other world-class athletes (including high-jumper Mildred McDaniel Singleton); a gym teacher at Howard, Marion Armstrong-Perkins (Morgan), encouraged her to participate in sports.i After Matthews’s graduation from high school, she first attended Bethune Cookman College, and she then competed for the Chicago Catholic Youth Organization before she enrolled at TSU. Matthews was known for pushing her teammates in practice: Wilma Rudolph said, “Margaret would openly challenge anybody on the track. Every day. You'd think 'My God, I have to feel this every day?'”ii As a Tigerbelle, Matthews won the AAU outdoor long jump title four years in a row (from 1956 to 1959) and the 100 meter outdoor title once (in 1958)iii. Although she set an American record of 19 feet, 9.25 inches in the long jump at the 1956 Olympic Trialsiv, the Olympic Games did not go well for her: she fouled on her first two attempts and jumped far short of her best on the third jump, so she did not qualify for the finalsv. Matthews again set the American record in the long jump at nationals in 1958, and although Willye White exceeded it a few days later, Matthews regained the record by jumping 20 feet 3.5 inches at a USA-Hungary-Czechoslovakia tri-meet that summervi. The American record came after a disappointing USA-USSR meet; Matthews had initially been named to the team (the first ever such dual meet) for the 100 meters, but she was replaced because she was not training hard enough. She did compete in the long jump at that meet, but she placed only fourthvii. In 1959, Matthews won the long jump at the USA-Hungary meet and placed second in the long jump at both the Pan American Gamesviii (behind Tigerbelle Anne Smith) and the USA-USSR meet. Matthews, who married former TSU running back Jesse Wilburn in 1957ix, gave birth to her first son in the spring of 1960, and she was unable to compete in the Olympic Trials that year.x Another son, Barry Wilburn, played eight seasons in the NFL and is a member of the Tennessee Sports Hall of Fame.xi After her graduation from TSU in 1959, Matthews was a teacher and school principal in the Memphis area. i Michael Davis, Black American women in Olympic track and field: a complete illustrated reference (Jefferson, North Carolina: McFarland & Company, 1992): 101. ii Ralph Wiley, “Born to be a Champion,” Sports Illustrated (August 8, 1988) https://vault.si.com/vault/1988/08/08/born-to-be-a-champion-redskins-cornerback-barry-wilburn- who-had-a-super-season-comes-from-a-family-of-winners iii USATF Outdoor Champions, USA Track & Field https://www.flipsnack.com/USATF/usatf- outdoor-champions/full-view.html : 123, 157. iv “Women’s Track Team Praised by Manager,” State Times Advocate (Baton Rouge, Louisiana): August 24, 1956. v Will Grimsley, “Americans have Won Seven of Nine Events,” Morning Advocate (Baton Rouge, Louisiana): November 27, 1956. vi “Margaret Mathews Snares Top Honors in AAU Track,” The Canyon Repository (Canton, Ohio): July 6, 1958. vii Davis: 104. viii Jerry Liska,“West Indian Ace Wins 400 meters,” Cleveland Plain Dealer, September 2, 1959. ix Wiley. x Emil Tagliabue, “No Russians with Guns,” Corpus Christi Times, July 8, 1960. xi “Barry Wilburn,” Tennessee Sports Hall of Fame, http://tshf.net/halloffame/wilburn-barry/. Accessed July 8, 2020. .