The success of current and recent Tar Heels in track and field who are near or actual Olympians brings to mind the Carolina men who ran, jumped and threw in the years immediately prior to the Second World War.

These were the students who never got the chance to compete for places on a U.S. Olympic team because the Nazi juggernaut and Japanese armies and navy never gave them a chance. Most of these student athletes entered the armed forces immediately following graduation, or shortly after. The opportunities for post-collegiate competition simply didn't exist. Yet, in my judgment, Carolina might well have been represented on an American Olympic team if they had had the opportunity to compete.

A quartet of Tar Heels who graduated from Carolina in 1939 and 1940 stand out from all the rest. Yes, Carolina had an Olympian, Harry Williamson, in the 1936 games, and he has been mentioned as among the great runners of his day. But the men I have in mind were overshadowed by the events that called many of them into the service of their country.

Bill Corpening, class of 1940, was perhaps the third-best high hurdler in the country in 1940. Fred Wolcott won five NCAA championships in his college career and set world records in the high and low hurdles during World War II. Corpening was right on Wolcott's heels, taking 3rd in the 1940 NCAA championships. He set a Southern Conference record in both the high and low hurdles that year. Following graduation, he entered medical school and was commissioned an officer in the Army Medical Corps upon receiving his medical degree. Following World War II he practiced medicine for his entire career and was an avid Tar Heel fan all his life. He never competed again.

James Davis, class of 1940, was the class of collegiate milers during his last two years at Carolina, having run the fastest collegiate indoor mile during that period. His conference indoor and outdoor records stood until 1957, when they were broken by Carolina's first sub-four-minute miler, Jim Beatty. Davis was not only a stellar runner, he served as student body president and was a member of Phi Beta Kappa. When the 1940 Olympic Games were cancelled, Jimmy went on to medical school, served as a commissioned officer in the Army, and returned to Durham to practice general surgery. A much honored alumnus, he also served as president of the American Medical Association. Davis never competed again.

Harry March, class of 1940, was called a "one-man track team," for he frequently competed in three or more events in a single meet, including the high hurdles, low hurdles, high jump, long jump and 400 meter hurdles. He also turned in a 9.8 100-yard dash. Immediately following graduation, Harry entered the U.S. Navy and became a flyer. Before shipping out to the South Pacific, he entered the National Pentathalon and won the event, just shy of a new world record. As a Navy pilot he became an ace, accounting for more than five downed Japanese planes. At the end of the war, as a lieutenant commander, he returned to Chapel Hill to compete in the Southern Indoor Games. Quite unexpectedly, he contracted a deadly virus one week before the meet and died in a few days. It was a great loss to his family, to the university and to track and field.

Bill Hendrix, class of 1939, was the class of half milers during the late '30s. He set a Southern Conference record in 1939 that stood until the mid-1950s. He was a member of a great two-mile relay team that won at the Millrose Games in New York City in 1939, setting a new meet record. His fastest time in the 880-yard run placed among the best American runners of his day. He placed third in the 800 meters at the 1938 National AAU Junior Championships.

Sadly, all four of these men have passed from the scene. They never had their chance to compete following graduation from college, as do some of our current and recent graduates. The cloud of war cancelled the Olympic Games and beckoned them all to service of country. They left a magnificent legacy of competitive excellence and, in their lives following college and the military, created models of leadership and service that we can all emulate today. Their achievements have never been adequately recognized, and it is, as Thomas Wolfe put it in his "Look Homeward Angel," they are "the phantom runners (who) thudded into oblivion."