Former NCCU chancellor, USOC head Dr. LeRoy T. Walker, dies

DURHAM, North Carolina -- Dr. LeRoy T. Walker, a historic leader in the U.S. Olympic movement and a hugely accomplished coach and educator in North Carolina, died Monday in Durham, his home for more than 60 years. He was 93.

Walker was the first African-American to head the U.S. Olympic Committee and was instrumental in bringing the Olympic Games to his native Atlanta in 1996.

In his long life, he overcame poverty and discrimination to earn honors as an athlete and coach, but he also was an academic. He was the first African-American to earn a doctorate in biomechanics, and he went on to become chancellor of N.C. Central University.

LeRoy Walker was truly a remarkable human being, a great teacher, a great leader as chancellor, and a great international figure in competitive sport, especially the Olympics,” said William Friday, president emeritus of the UNC system and a friend of Walker for 40 years. “I don’t know of a man who has had a greater impact in his world than did LeRoy. He will be greatly missed.”

Walker as an inspiration

Walker was a member of more than a dozen halls of fame, but his admirers said his most impressive legacy may be not in what he accomplished, but in what he inspired and enabled others to achieve.

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Dr. Walker said at the time of his being named president of the U.S. Olympic Committee, “There are a lot of disenchanted blacks, women and Hispanics in our country who feel they will never get their just due no matter what they accomplish. I think I serve as a model of the idea that if you constantly pursue excellence, in spite of everything you have suffered, there are enough fair-minded people out there who will eventually recognize your talents.”

Longtime NCCU, Olympic coach dies in Durham

DURHAM, North Carolina — LeRoy Walker, a longtime track and field coach at North Carolina Central University and the first African American to head the United States Olympic Committee, died in Durham Monday. He was 93.

During his career at NCCU, he coached 111 All-Americans, 40 national champions and 12 Olympians. He also served as chancellor from 1983 to 1986.

Walker coached Olympic track and field all over world, including in Israel and Kenya. At the 1996 Summer Olympics, he led a 10,000-member group of some of the most talented athletes in the world.

In addition to track and field, Walker was passionate about education.

"It is our young people now that are our next group leaders," he said in February 2007, about a week before he was given a lifetime achievement award from the Triangle Urban League for his leadership in the community. "(They) are going to make this the community we want it to be, but they have to have some training."

He had degrees from Benedict College in South Carolina and Columbia University in New York. He got a PhD in exercise physiology and biomechanics from New York University in 1957.  He was named president of the United State Olympic Committee in 1992.

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