Mac Wilkins
Track & Field (2005)
Mac Wilkins’ track & field career spanned 23 years in which he qualified for four U.S. Olympic teams and established four world records. It can be argued that he is the greatest thrower in track history.
Wilkins placed sixth in the discus to help Clover Park High School win the 1968 state track and field championship. Some also might remember him as a starting receiver on the CPHS football team as a sophomore. Wilkins moved to Oregon, where he was state discus champion at Beaverton High School, and he burst onto the national scene at the University of Oregon, graduating from that school in 1973. At Oregon, Wilkins won NCAA discus championships in 1972 and 1973 and he was also a 1973 All-American in the shot put.
He holds the world record in the track and field throwing events with the following lifetime bests: 232-10 in the discus, 69-1 ¼ in the shot put, 208-10 in the hammer throw and 257-4 in the javelin. Wilkins was nationally ranked in the first three events but made his biggest mark in the discus. He set the world discus record four times and the America record five times in that event. In 1976, Wilkins broke the discus world record on three consecutive throws.
At the 1976 Olympic Games in Montreal, he won the gold medal in the discus, setting an Olympic record of 224-0 in the preliminary round. He also earned the silver medal at the 1984 Olympics in Los Angeles and placed fifth in the event at the 1988 Olympics.
He was the world’s top-ranked discus thrower in 1976 and 1980 and won eight national championships in the event, including six straight times from 1976-82. He was voted by the USA Track & Field team to carry the flag at the 1983 World Championships and at the 1988 Olympic Games in Seoul, Korea.
Most recently Wilkins accepted the position of throwing coach at Concordia University in Portland.