Jim Hines, first sub-10 second 100m US sprinter, passed away at 76.
Jim Hines was the first man to officially run a 100 meter race in under 10 seconds in the 1968 US Championship in Sacramento, with a hand timed 9.9 seconds.
Hines later that year dropped the world record to an electronic timing of 9.95 seconds by winning the 100m gold medal at the 1968 Summer Olympics in Mexico City at altitude.
Surprisingly, that record lasted 15 years, making it the longest standing men 100 meter world record during the fully automatic era.
Another American, Calvin Smith, finally broke it in 1983 with a time of 9.93 seconds while also in the air.
Hines, a construction worker son, was reared in Oakland, California, but was born in Dumas, Arkansas, in September 1946.
His first love was baseball, but when Jim Coleman, an athletics coach, saw his aptitude for sprinting, Hines was already among the top 20 in the world over 100 yards by the age of 17.
His first podium finish at the US Championship occurred in 1965 when he finished second in the 200 meters while a student at Texas Southern University.
He set a new world record in the 100 meter race at the Mexico Olympics by leading home Lennox Miller of Jamaica and Charles Greene.
Hines added a second Olympic gold medal and world record as he helped the USA win the 4x100m relay in 38.24 and set a new time.
His gold medals were taken by criminals who broke into his Houston house shortly after the Olympics.
But after he published a request for the medals’ return in his neighborhood newspaper, they were sent back to him in a simple brown package.
