Hall of Fame Induction Brings Johnson Bailes' Achievements Back Into The Light

By Doug Binder, DyeStat Editor

When the phone rang in Oakland, Calif., Margaret Johnson Bailes took the call and had immediate reservations.

She listened for a moment and tried to process the words.

A Hall of Fame … for high school?

Johnson Bailes was skeptical.

Standing a few feet away, her daughter, Felicia, almost spoke up to say ‘Hang up.’

“First of all, I thought it was a joke,” Johnson Bailes said, recalling the moment that Tracy Sundlun from the National Scholastic Athletics Foundation informed her that she had been selected for induction into the second class of the High School Track and Field Hall of Fame.

“Because, you don’t hear about a Hall of Fame for high school. I said ‘Are you serious? Yeah? How come I’ve never heard of it before?’”

Sundlun carefully explained that it was only the second year of the Hall of Fame program.

He had becomed accustomed to surprised reactions since making the first calls to members of the inaugural class in 2018.

“It’s just one of those special moments in life,” Sundlun said of the initial calls. “And (the reactions) are a window into these people.”

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Chandra Cheeseborough, a member of the 2018 class, shouted out loud and began what she called ‘a happy dance’ all around her office.

Kathy McMillan, also from the first class, a 1976 Olympic long jumper who became a preacher, responded with exultations. Hallelujah! Hallelujah! Hallelujah!

Even Jim Ryun, for all of his fame and stature as a sports icon and member of Congress, listened to Sundlun’s words and lingered a moment to let them sink in.

“There was a lengthy pause,” Sundlun recalled. “And then, ‘Thank you so very, very, very much. It’s such an honor!’”

Two female distance runners who were inducted, one far more well-known than the other, had identical reactions.

“Long, long, long pauses,” Sundlun said. “And then, this little squeak, and ‘They still remember me?’”

Those were the nearly identical reactions of both Lynn Bjorklund and Mary Decker (Slaney).

These first responses, from former high school track and field legends, or their surviving family members, are unanimously met with gratitude. The NSAF, with a renowned team of track and field historians, has weighed the merits of some of the greatest high school athletes in U.S. history spanning a century.

To be remembered, and enshrined, stirs pride and a sense of identity that has sometimes been set aside for decades.

In the case of Johnson Bailes, the recognition was especially poignant.

As a 17-year old from Churchill High in Eugene, Ore., she won a gold medal on a world-record setting 4x100-meter relay in Mexico City. If she hadn’t been struck ill the previous week, she might have added additional medals in the 100 and 200 meters. She was a finalist in both events after a bout of pneumonia.

She came home to a hero’s welcome at the Eugene airport, but she never ran in another track meet.

Johnson Bailes was already married by that time and when she came home from Mexico City, her husband told her that she was done with track and field. Within a year, she would move away from Eugene and give birth to her only daughter, Felicia.

In the pre-Title IX days, there were few opportunities for female athletes. Most states still didn't have organized high school track, let alone college programs. For Johnson Bailes to press on would have meant going against the cultural grain.

Still, in Oregon, her name remains legendary.

She tied the world record in the 100 meters when she ran 11.1 (hand-timed) on Aug. 18, 1968.

She set 12 national high school records.

Twenty-eight American high school girls have run faster than her adjusted automatic time of 11.30 over the past 50 years, half of them in the last 10 years.

She remains No. 20 on the all-time 200-meter list.

In Oregon, her records are 50 years old and could last another 50. She is the second athlete to be inducted into the National Track and Field Hall of Fame from the state, following 2018 inductee Steve Prefontaine. (She was born two days before him, in 1951). 

And yet, because of all of her racing was completed just two months into her senior year, there is no telling how much faster she might have gone.

Middle school and high school track comprised the extent of her career. By 1969 she had all but disappeared from the sport. As a result, the word ‘forgotten’ has sometimes been linked with her name. As in, the Forgotten Olympian, or the Forgotten Champion.

About 10 years ago, the track at her former Eugene middle school was dedicated in her honor, with a plaque.

When the phone rang a few months ago, and Sundlun explained a bit more of the how, and why, she was chosen for the Hall of Fame, Johnson Bailes’ fears were eased.

Finally, she began to laugh.

“I said, ‘Well this is great!’” she said.

Johnson Bailes was inducted at a ceremony at the New York Athletic Club, along with 16 other individuals, on March 12.

“She was sincerely shocked to get that phone call,” Felicia Bailes said. “Any time something like this comes about it reminds her of what she accomplished. It’s one of those things she doesn’t talk about every day.”

Felicia said even some of her cousins don’t know her mother’s story.

The trip to New York, where she was inducted at the same time as three additional 1968 Olympians, added to the thrill of being remembered. (She also attended a 1968 Olympic team reunion in Columbus, Ohio last fall).

“Honestly, I think it was huge for her,” Felicia said. “At the beginning of that (first) call, she was waiting for the joke, or for it to be a crank call, or some weird scam. That’s how little recognition through the years she’s gotten. It’s not in the forefront of our minds that much.”