JAMES RAY HINES, BREAKING THE 'TEN-SECOND BARRIER'

Today, The Grandma has been reading about Jim Hines, the American athlete who became the first man ever to break the so-called ten-second barrier in the 100-metre sprint with a time of 9.95 seconds, on a day like today in 1968.

 

James Ray Hines (born September 10, 1946) is a retired American track and field athlete and NFL player, who held the 100-metre world record for 15 years.

 

In 1968, he became the first man to officially break the 10-second barrier in the 100 meters, and won individual and relay gold at the Mexico City Olympics.

Born in Dumas, Arkansas, Hines was raised in Oakland, California and graduated from McClymonds High School in 1964. He was a baseball player in his younger years until he was spotted by track coach Jim Coleman as a running talent, and Hines became a sprinter.

At the 1968 US national championships in Sacramento, California, Hines became the first man to break the ten-second barrier in the 100-metre race, setting 9.9 (manual timing), with an electronic time of 10.03 – two other athletes, Ronnie Ray Smith behind him (electronic time 10.13) and Charles Greene on the other semi-final (electronic time 10.09) having the same official clocking. That evening of June 20, 1968, at Hughes Stadium has been dubbed by track and field historians as the Night of Speed.

Hines attended Texas Southern University in Houston, Texas. He was a member of the Texas Southern University Tigers track team.

A few months later, at the 1968 Summer Olympics, Hines -a black athlete- found himself in a tense situation, with racial riots going on in his home country and a threat of a boycott by the black athletes of the US team, who were disturbed by the controversial idea of admitting apartheid South Africa to the Games and revelations linking the head of the International Olympic Committee, Avery Brundage, to a racist and anti-Semitic country club.

More information: Olympics

Hines reached the 100 m final, and won it with the time 9.89 appearing on the screen, later corrected to 9.95. The 9.89 was taken from a light beam across the finish line, while the official photographic process used Polaroid film and took a couple of minutes to process and read.

There was some controversy over how his, slower appearing, electronic time of 9.95 should compare to the hand timed 9.9 record races of the day. Automatic times start instantly with the sound of the gun, while hand times include human reaction time to start the watch.

It took until 1977 before fully automatic timing was required of world records. As the fastest electronic time to that point, Hines' mark was recognized exclusively as a new world record. The race was also significant for being the third all-black podium in Olympic history.

Hines helped break another world record, when he and his teammates sprinted to the 4 × 100 m relay gold at the same Games.

More information: News 4 Us Online

After these successes, Hines was a 6th round pick in the 1968 NFL Draft by the Miami Dolphins, an American football team. Hines did not have the football skills to match his speed and spent the 1968 season on the practice squad. He was given the nickname Oops due to his lack of football skill.

He appeared in 10 games with Miami in 1969 catching two passes for 23 yards, rushed the ball one time for seven yards and returned one kick-off for 22 yards. Hines then appeared in one game with the Kansas City Chiefs in 1970. He never played pro football again.

He has one of the top 100-metre times by NFL players.

Hines was ranked the 10th worst NFL player of all time by Deadspin writer Jeff Pearlman.

For years, Hines worked with inner-city youth in Houston, as well as on oil rigs outside the city.

Hines's world record remained unbeaten until Calvin Smith ran 9.93, also at altitude, in July 1983.

He was Inducted into the Texas Track and Field Coaches Hall of Fame, Class of 2016

More information: Fox Sports

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