Wilma Rudolph by Jo Harper & Meryl Henderson

Author:Jo Harper & Meryl Henderson
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Aladdin
Published: 2004-11-15T00:00:00+00:00

After the games the Olympic competitors didn’t want to leave one another, but they had to, so they began to exchange gifts. They traded clothes—sweatshirts, shirts, uniforms. That was their way of giving one another other a small part of themselves. Wilma left carrying souvenirs and memories. And she carried a new goal. She would compete and win in the next Olympics.

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It was November, and in Clarksville, Tennessee, it was basketball season.

Coach Temple met Wilma at the plane. She was thrilled to see him. He told her that Burt High School had closed for the day, and that there was a special assembly for her. Everyone at the assembly cheered. People gave Wilma flowers. She even had to speak to the crowd that packed the auditorium. She told them that it was great to be back home. That was true. It was a wonderful day for Wilma Rudolph, but there was something weighing on her mind. As soon as she could leave the stage, she went looking for Coach Clinton Gray.

She found him. “Coach, this is Friday night, and I hear the first basketball game of the season is tonight. Is that right?”

“Yes, that’s right.”

“Look, Coach, I’ve been away at the Olympics and all, and I’ve been doing more running than playing, but I’ll tell you something—I’m in great shape.”

Coach Gray smiled.

Wilma took a deep breath. “Coach, can I play tonight? Please?”

Coach Gray laughed as he said, “Yes.”

That game was the first in an incredible season. Burt High School had one of the best teams in the history of Tennessee. They won every game that season and were the first girls’ team to score more than one hundred points a game. Wilma averaged thirty-five points a game and her friend Nancy Bowen averaged thirty-eight. But things weren’t always rosy.

“Hey, she’s no better than we are. She ain’t so hot.”

Wilma overheard remarks like that during the basketball season. It seemed to her that after the Olympics, everyone expected her to be phenomenal all the time. Her friends acted differently too. She couldn’t be just plain Wilma Rudolph anymore, except with Robert, who was now her boyfriend, and her best girlfriends, Nancy Bower and Delma Wilkerson. Other people either put her on a pedestal or knocked her down. Sometimes she felt like an outcast in spite of winning so many games, but the team made it to the state tournament again. It was in the gym at Tennessee State in Nashville.

Coach Gray was an emotional man, and on his teams there was always a mixture of love, friction, and conflict. He often lost his temper and shouted at his players. That showed he was really involved with them and with what they were doing, but it was unpleasant. He was especially emotional about this championship game because the Burt High team of Clarksville was playing against the Merry High team from Jackson. Coach Gray had gone to school at Merry High, so he had something to prove. He desperately wanted to win.

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