Jim Hines, First to Sprint 100 Meters in Under 10 Seconds, Dies at 76

Jim Hines, who in 1968 grew to become the primary man to dash 100 meters in below 10 seconds, and later that 12 months gained a gold medal in that distance on the Olympic Games in Mexico City with a blistering time of 9.95 seconds, a mark that stood as a world file for 15 years, died on Saturday. He was 76.

His loss of life was confirmed in an obituary on the official Olympics web site, which supplied no additional particulars.

Hines first formally broke the 10-second barrier within the 100-meter occasion on the United States Outdoor National Track and Field Championships in 1968 in Sacramento, which he gained with a hand-timed pace of 9.9 seconds.

Hines was assured within the months earlier than the Games. When The Oakland Tribune requested him if he thought he would win in Mexico City, he stated, “Yeah, for sure.”

The 1968 Olympics are broadly remembered for the civil rights protest staged by Tommie Smith and John Carlos, two African American medalists within the 200-meter race who raised their fists in solidarity with the Black Power motion whereas standing on the winners’ podium as “The Star-Spangled Banner” performed.

Hines, who was additionally Black, had no remark when a reporter requested what he considered makes an attempt to prepare a Black boycott of the 1968 Games. But in 1991 he advised The Los Angeles Times that not the entire Black athletes on the Games — himself included — agreed with the protest.

“Most of us felt the best way a Black athlete could make a statement was by going and doing his best,” Hines stated. “Tommie and John felt what they were doing was for all Black athletes and Black men in America. They didn’t think it out.”

At the 100-meter finals, Hines confronted a subject that included the Jamaican sprinter Lennox Miller and his American teammates Charles Greene and Mel Pender.

In 1974, Pender advised The New York Times that Hines used his confidence to intimidate opponents.

“You’d just hear him saying, ‘I’m ready, baby,’” Pender stated. “He’d say it so nonchalant, like there was no way he could lose.”

Hines thought of Greene the best risk within the gold medal race, he advised The Tribune, however added, “To tell the truth, I’m faster than he is.”

In Mexico City, Hines burst out of the blocks and ran with the wind at his again, eyes vast and tooth clenched as he tore to the entrance of the pack and broke the tape.

“It was the best start I had in my life, and it was the best 100 I ever raced,” he stated afterward.

His 100-meter file stood till 1983, when Calvin Smith broke it with a pace of 9.93. The web site for World Athletics, the worldwide governing physique for monitor and subject, lists Usain Bolt as the present world-record holder, with a time of 9.58, set in 2009 on the World Athletics Championships in Berlin.

Hines gained one other gold medal on the 1968 Olympics, serving to his teammates Pender, Greene and Ronnie Ray Smith triumph within the 4×100 males’s relay for the United States.

After finishing the 1968 monitor and subject season, Hines, coveted for his pace, performed within the American Football League. He joined the Miami Dolphins as a receiver, and in doing so gave up any additional likelihood to compete within the Olympics, which on the time required athletes to be amateurs.

He performed with Miami in 1969 however recorded solely two receptions and one rush try through the season. The Dolphins then traded him to the Kansas City Chiefs, however he didn’t play within the 1970 season and shortly left skilled soccer behind.

James Ray Hines was born in Dumas, Ark., on Sept. 10, 1946, and grew up in Oakland, Calif., in keeping with the World Athletics web site. His father, Charlie, was a development employee; his mom, Minnie West Hines, labored in a cannery, in keeping with the Encyclopedia of Arkansas.

As a youth Hines was extra involved in baseball and soccer than working, however his pace impressed the monitor coach at McClymonds High School in Oakland, who requested him to affix the crew.

Hines attended Texas Southern University in Houston, the place he ran monitor. The Dolphins drafted him in 1968 although he had not performed soccer since highschool. He delayed signing a contract with the Dolphins in order that he might compete within the Olympics.

After his soccer profession ended, Hines ran as an expert, getting into meets into his 30s and generally struggling to make ends meet. After retiring from sports activities, he labored for a few years as a social employee and based a charitable group to assist individuals within the Oakland space.

Information on his survivors was not instantly accessible.

Kitty Bennett contributed analysis.