Pro athletes that used to run track

I remember seeing Thompson get hurt in a pro game when he and a very athletic opponent both went up as high as they could while Thompson was trying a running shot. DT got hurt because he caught the back of his knee on the guy's shoulder...

Jordan using only a 1/2 run up on a hardwood court in basketball shoes, dunked from the free-throw line (and was stylin' while doing it), so he could LJ at least 15ft.

Hershel Walker has already been mentioned, but it is worth noting that he qualified for the 100m at the 1980 Olympics which was boycotted by the U.S. so unfortunately he never got to go.

A few others missed thus far:

Jonathon Ogden, Shot Put

Russ Francis, HS javelin record holder

Sprinters too many to name

Rod Woodson, ranked in world in 110 H Hurdles as Purdue senior

Actor Michael Landon, excellent javelin thrower at USC

Alice Cooper, Maybe state champ in XC in hs

Katie Smith, WNBA, HS state champ in discus

Didn't Mike Powell win some kind of slam dunk competition a few years in a row?

DW in the half? Boogity, Boogity, Boogity! He is from Owensboro, KY, also the home of NASCAR star Jeremy Mayfield.

Walter McCarty (Boston Celtics) 1:55 800m in high school

Calbert Cheany (Washington Wizards?) 14.2 110 highs in HS

Tiger Woods - supposedly a 49 sec 400m pr

Axl Rose- not a pro athlete- G n' R frontman, ran XC at Lafayette Jefferson HS in Indiana...he was not very good.

Unless he went by Kiki when he was younger, the Barber twins are Tiki (RB for NY) and Ronde...

Michael Bennett from the Vikings ran at Wisconsin, and I think both Lockett brothers (Aaron and Kevin) ran at K-State

Wasn't James Jett of the Raiders (?) a good sprinter? I seem to remember him from the 92 Trials.

Remember the Penn Relays where Rocket Ismail got to run. False started and then got his ass kicked, as I recall.

Michael Carter has a Superbowl ring and an Olympic silver, and I think Gault has a relay gold. Terry Metcalf's kid (damn, his name escapes me)was on the cover of TFN as a collegiate LJer at UT, and he's been in the league a long time. Lastly, the name James Trapp comes to mind. Any help there?

Your guys are forgetting a really big time pro athlete,,,RANDY MOSS everyone knows about his football skills but Mr Moss also was a 2time WV State Basketball Player of the yr, I ve heard he was also a great HS Baseball player but most importantly Moss ran 1yr of college track setting school records in the 55m and 200m sprints while at Marshall University he also qualified for the NCAA indoor meet but did not want to go! So i quess he runs when he wants too also!

I saw James Lofton in Dallas about 3 years ago at a low key all-comers track meet. I heard he was training to run the 400m as a master under 50 sec.

It's Eric Metcalf... didn't want it to be bugging you all day.

Hopefully you didn't meet Lofton in a stairwell!

Whoa! watching Bernie Williams trot after a homer is like hmmm....thats not just a regular average joe baseball player stride!

How can I forget James Jett from the raiders...Clemson sprinter.

The guy you're thinking of from iowa that plays for the falcons was tim dwight. Yeah he came back his senior year and won the big 12 100m championship. And Bob Hayes played for the cowboys not tha raiders!

800m man wrote:

Oh KIKI Barber And TIKI Are Twins one plays for the new your giants and the other plays fro the tampa bay bucs. I was looking through an old trank&field news and saw the high school rankings one of them jumped 24-25 feet in high school!

Tone up on the typing skills. Tiki plays for the NY Giants - he's a running back. Rhonde plays for the Tampa Bay Bucs - a defensive back.

laissez-faire wrote:

Olympic 100 meter dash gold medalists Bob Hayes and James Hines both played football for the Raiders. Correct me if I'm incorrect, but I believe Hines was the first person legally under 10 seconds. He was also so bad at catching the ball that Madden called him "Oops".

Robert Smith, recently retired Viking, was a stellar quarter miler in high school, in the 46-47 range.

This could be completely false, but rumor has it Larry Bird could knock off a 36-37 minute 10k in his day. I can't imagine that would be very pretty... the Danny Ainge 1:56 Thesis is far more interesting however.

Bob Hayes played for the Cowboys. Jimmy Hines played for the Dolphins, I think. Hayes and Hines as receivers were opposites. One could play and is a HOFer. The other couldn't.

Robert Smith ran 45 point in college.

Stepay wrote:

The Yankees Bernie Williams was a 45+ second 400 meter guy.

That must be an urban legend. He was fast but not that fast.

prior to one Yankee game I watched Bernie run sprints along the warning track. He was a moving like a gazelle.

ron dayne was a real good thrower in high school, both the shot and disc. still holds the NJ record for the disc with a toss of about 215'...he rarely kept his throws within the boundaries at major meets, hit a car in the parking lot on one occasion because the fence was in too close. 60+ in the shot as well.

Al Toon of the NY Jets was an All-American (may have won the NC's) triple jumper at the U of wisconsin