Wilma Rudolph collection

Wilma Goldean Rudolph was born to Eddie and Blanche Rudolph in Montgomery County, Tennessee, on June 23, 1940. She was the twentieth of her father’s twenty-two children. Stricken by scarlet fever and then polio, and denied local treatment due to racial discrimination, she required leg braces and physical rehabilitation therapy until the age of nine. Following her recovery, she quickly became a champion athlete and a highly successful woman.

Rudolph attended Burt High School, an all-Black school in Clarksville, Tennessee, where she excelled in basketball. In 1956, at only sixteen years of age, she won a bronze medal in track at the Olympics in Melbourne, Australia. Rudolph graduated high school in 1957 and gave birth to her first child, Yolanda, in 1958. She then attended Tennessee State University (TSU) on a track scholarship. While at TSU, she competed in the 1960 Olympics in Rome, becoming the first American woman to win three gold medals in track and field. In 1961, she won both the James E. Sullivan Award and the Associated Press Female Athlete of the Year title. In 1963, she graduated from TSU with a bachelor’s degree in education.

In 1961, Rudolph married William Ward, but the couple divorced in 1963. That same year, she married Robert Eldridge, with whom she remained for seventeen years before divorcing. Rudolph and Eldridge had four children: Yolanda, Djuanna, Robert, and Xurry.

After retiring from competition in 1962, Rudolph continued to achieve numerous accolades. These included induction into the Black Sports Hall of Fame (1973), the National Track and Field Hall of Fame (1974), and the U.S. Olympic Hall of Fame (1983), among others. She worked as an educator, author, entrepreneur, and coach, centering disadvantaged youth. In 1982, she founded the Wilma Rudolph Foundation in Indianapolis, Indiana, to support youths through athletics and education. In 1987, she became the director of the women’s track program and a Special Consultant for Minority Affairs at DePauw University.

Wilma Rudolph passed away from a brain tumor on November 12, 1994, in Brentwood, Davidson County, Tennessee. She is buried at Edgefield Missionary Baptist Church Cemetery in Clarksville, Montgomery County, Tennessee.

Sources:

“Biographical Data: Wilma Rudolph, Director of the Women’s Track Program and Special Consultant to the President on Minority Affairs,” DePauw University News Services, January 1987, “Wilma Rudolph Papers” in DePauw University Archives and Special Collections, Greencastle, Indiana.

Angelou, Maya, and Workman Publishing Company, I Dream a World: Portraits of Black Women Who Changed America, interview by Brian Lanker, edited by Barbara Summers, (New York: Stewart, Tabori and Chang, 1989), 140.

”Olympic Gold Medalist to Coach Track, be Consultant on Minority Affairs at DePauw University,” DePauw University News Services, January 14, 1987, “Wilma Rudolph Papers” in DePauw University Archives and Special Collections, Greencastle, Indiana.

“Wilma Goldean Rudolph,” Find a Grave, memorial page for Wilma Glodean Rudolph, Find a Grave Memorial ID 5532, citing Edgefield Missionary Baptist Church Cemetery, Clarksville, Montgomery County, Tennessee.

This biographical note was created by Jay’la Teasley and Kenlie Thomas as part of the HIST278: Women's History from 1890-Present course during the fall 2024 semester. It was revised by Professor Sarah Rowley and the Coordinator of Archives and Special Collections Bethany Fiechter.