The “Silver Streak” is gone.
Payton Jordan, the longtime Stanford track and field coach who led the 1968 U.S. Olympic team, died February 5 of cancer at his home in Laguna Hills, Calif. He was 91.
Jordan was born in 1917 in Whittier, Calif. He became a running star in his teens and, as a student, helped USC win two national team titles.
Before coming to Stanford in 1957 as a coach, Jordan turned the track program at tiny Occidental College into a powerhouse. During his 23 years on the Farm, his athletes racked up achievements including five world records, six NCAA individual titles and 29 All-America honors. Under his watch, the team had an NCAA runner-up finish. Jordan also was the mastermind behind the 1962 United States vs. U.S.S.R. meet on campus. (Read a 2005 story about the meet.)
In 1968, Jordan coached an Olympic track and field team that was one of the strongest ever. (His own Olympic opportunities were lost when the Games were cancelled during World War II.) The team won 24 medals—the most in Olympic track and field history—including an unprecedented 12 gold medals.
Jordan retired from Stanford in 1979. “As far as coaching goes, I feel I’ve done everything any man could ask for,” he said at the time. But Jordan continued to run. Nicknamed the Silver Streak, he continued to set masters records into his 80s.
Jordan’s fans may argue that his greatest accomplishments came off the field, in his influence on those around him. Eighteen of Jordan’s former athletes, teammates and colleagues named children after him. Champions for Life, by John “Jack” Scott, ’67, and Jim Ward, ’68, was written about Jordan’s career. In the book’s foreword, Chuck Cobb, ’58, MBA ’62, said, “There were many hundreds of us that attribute our life successes to his motivation and discipline.” Cobb, an All-American hurdler at Stanford, went on to become undersecretary of commerce for President Ronald Reagan.
The USA Track & Field Meet at Stanford, held each May, has been called the Payton Jordan U.S. Open since 2004.
Jordan’s wife of 66 years, Marge, died in 2006. He is survived by two daughters.
