The AAU Sullivan Award

Part I of V: The 1950s

Known as the “ Oscar” of sports awards, and older than The Heisman, the Amateur Athletic Union (AAU) Sullivan Award honors the outstanding amateur athlete in the United States. It has been presented annually by the AAU since 1930 as a salute to founder and past president of the Amateur Athletic Union, and a pioneer in amateur sports, James E. Sullivan. Based on the qualities of leadership, character, sportsmanship, and the ideals of amateurism, the AAU Sullivan Award goes far beyond athletic accomplishments and honors those who have shown strong moral character.

The namesake of the award is James E. Sullivan. James E. Sullivan actually created the Amateur Athletic Union in the clubhouse of the New York Athletic Club back in 1888. Since then, the AAU has become one of the largest, non-profit, grass roots sports programs in the country.

The AAU’s roster includes Olympic Gold medallists, professional baseball and basketball players, and hundreds of World Champion athletes who all began as young children with stars in their eyes as they looked to the future.

BSTM will present to you, those minority athletes who have won the Sullivan Award in the 1950s, 1960s, 1970s, 1980s, and 1990s (a five-part series).

The 1950s

1953: Sammy Lee

Sammy Lee was an American diver, who won the gold medal in platform diving at the Olympic Games in 1948 and 1952. He was the first man to win diving titles at two consecutive Olympics.

Samuel Lee was born in Fresno, California, and educated at Occidental College and the University of Southern California Medical School. He won the United States national title in both springboard and platform diving in 1942, but he then stopped competing in order to earn his medical degree. Lee returned to diving, however, winning the 1946 U.S. national platform title.

At the 1948 Olympics in London, he won the platform event and placed third in the springboard competition. He was the first American-born athlete of Korean descent to win an Olympic gold medal. Four years later at the 1952 Olympics in Helsinki, Finland, Lee successfully defended his title in the platform competition.

In 1953, he won the James E. Sullivan Memorial Award, given annually by the Amateur Athletic Union of the United States (AAU) to the outstanding amateur athlete in the country.

Lee retired from competitive diving in 1953, but he remained involved with the sport while pursuing a career as a doctor. He coached the U.S. Diving Team in 1960, and he later coached American Greg Louganis to a silver medal in the platform event at the 1976 Olympics in Montreal, Quebec, Canada.

Lee was inducted into the U.S. Olympic Hall of Fame in 1990.

1954: Malvin G. Whitfield

Mal Whitfield was born on October 11, 1924, in Bay City, Texas.

Whitfield, or “Marvelous Mal” as he was called, held his share of world records, but he was an athlete who ran to win, rather than run for time.

He was competitive at any distance from the 220 to the mile. “Marvelous Mal” put together a record that included two Olympic 800-meter crowns, six world records and eight National AAU titles, six of them outdoors.

He was a sergeant in the U.S. Air Force while attending Ohio State.

Whitfield won national collegiate 880-800 titles in 1948 and 1949.

He made his first Olympic team in 1948, taking the 800 in 1:49.2 and placing third in the 400. He garnered a second gold medal in the 4 x 400 relay.

In 1952, he repeated his 800 victory, again in 1:49.2, and earned a silver medal in the 4 x 400.

He set a world 880 record of 1:49.2 in 1950 and dropped it to 1:48.6 in 1952.

Whitfield narrowly missed making the 1956 Olympic team while a student at Cal State Los Angeles.

He was the 1954 Sullivan Award winner as the top amateur athlete in the U.S.

After his track career, Whitfield worked as a diplomat for the U.S. Information Agency and was assigned to Africa as Sports Ambassador. He vigorously promoted the use of sports as a diplomatic tool to bring countries together. In his 34 years of service, Whitfield provided the missing ingredient that the talented African athletes needed: training. He taught the methods that made him successful and wrote the first textbook for African youth, Learning to Run, which was translated into three languages.  

His life story as an athlete, diplomat, and businessman are outlined in his biography.

He was elected to U.S. Olympic Hall of Fame in 1988.

1955: Harrison Dillard

Harrison Dillard was born July 8, 1923, Cleveland, Ohio.

When Cleveland honored the great Jesse Owens with a parade upon his return from the 1936 Olympics, the thirteen-year-old Dillard was one of the spectators. He later met Owens, who presented him with his first pair of running shoes.

They called him “Bones” because of his spindly (5-10, 152 pounds) size, but Harrison Dillard was fast, whether sprinting or running the hurdles. He is still the only man to ever win Olympic gold medals in both the sprints (100 meters, 1948) and high hurdles (1952).

A graduate of East Tech High School in Cleveland, Ohio (the same school that also produced Hall of Famers Dave Albritton and Jesse Owens), Dillard was inspired by Owens and went to little Baldwin-Wallace College in Berea, Ohio. While there, he won four national collegiate titles in the high and low hurdles. He also took 14 AAU outdoor titles in the high and low hurdles and probably would have had more had not World War II intervened.

He won the NCAA and AAU 120-yard and 220-yard hurdles in both 1946 and 1947 and he tied world records in both events with a 22.3 in the 220 in 1946 and a 13.6 in the 120.

He was unquestionably the best hurdler of his time, winning eighty-two consecutive races from May 31, 1947, through June 26, 1948. However, he hit several hurdles in the Olympic trials and failed to qualify in his specialty, although he made the Olympic team by finishing third in the 100-meter dash. In the Olympic final, Dillard and Barney Ewell finished in a virtual dead heat and the photo showed that Dillard was the winner. He tied the world record of 10.3 seconds.

Dillard qualified in the 110-meter hurdles in 1952 and won his second individual gold in that event. He was also on the gold-medal 4 by 100-meter relay teams in both 1948 and 1952.

A world record holder in the high and low hurdles, Dillard won the 1955 Sullivan Award as the nation’s top amateur athlete. Reprint permission from www.bstmllc.com.