MEN'S TRACK & FIELD COACH • 1920-22

Harold Osborn is a member of the U.S. Track & Field and Cross Country Coaches Association Hall of Fame. He competed for the U.S. at the 1924 and 1928 Olympic games and was the 1924 high jump and decathlon gold medalist (only time ever an athlete won decathlon gold and individual event gold) and 1928 high jump silver medalist. Osborn set six world records during his career and helped the Illini win Big Ten team championships indoors and outdoors all three years at Illinois. Osborn won NCAA and AAU high jump titles in 1922, while setting the high jump world record with a leap of 6’8 ¼" in 1924. Altogether, he won 17 national titles and held world indoor records in the standing hop, step and jump; the 60-yard high hurdles and the running high jump. His world record in standing high jump of 5-5 ¾ still stands today. He won the AAU outdoor high jump title in 1925 and 1926, the indoor title four years in a row, 1923-26, and he was the AAU decathlon champion in 1923, 1925 and 1926. After his international competition career, he received his Doctor of Osteopathic Medicine in 1937 and returned to Champaign where he practiced osteopathic medicine, continued to compete in athletics and assisted the UI track team in the 1940s. He was selected as a charter member of the National Track and Field Hall of Fame in 1974, a year before his death in 1975 at the age of 75.