The Tribune

By BRENT STUBBS

Chief Sports Editor

bstubbs@tribunemedia.net

‘GOLDEN girl’ Pauline Davis, the first female athlete in the Caribbean to win an individual and relay gold medal at the same Olympic Games, will be rewarded with her introduction into the Bob Hayes 25th Hall of Fame.

The ceremony is slated to take place on Thursday in the Potter’s House International Ministries, 5119 Normandy Boulevard in Jacksonville, Florida.

“The organisers from the Bob Hayes committee came to the Bahamas and they saw me, spoke to Minister of Sports Mario Bowleg and they announced that “I will be elected to the Hall of Fame.

“They were impressed that I came from such a small island nation and that I was able to garner two Olympic gold medals and that ascended to the board of World Athletics and now I am a lifetime member of the organisation.”

When Davis, now a 58-year-old consultant at the Ministry of Sports, got the news, she said she couldn’t believe it.

“I was shocked. I didn’t know how to react. I was literally in shock,” she said. “What it really said is that you just have to be diligent, you have to be honest, you have to be reliable and you just have to work hard.

“At one time, I was offered a lot to leave my country and run for another country. I was even offered a rich husband to leave the Bahamas. But I couldn’t leave Bain Town because Bain Town gave me so much love and support.” Davis, a product from the LW Young Junior High School, Government High and the University of Alabama, said it meant a lot to her not to be a dollar figure on what it meant for her to be a Bahamian.

“I chose to stay and now I’m, getting another huge international award,” said Davis, who in 2022 produced her award-winning book “Running Sideways: The Olympic Champion Who Made Track and Field History.”

“It just shows that God rewards you when you are faithful. He rewards you when you are doing things the right way. I just felt that I would become an Olympic champion and so I decided to work on it and I wanted to do it as a Bahamian.”

Hayes, known as ‘Bullet,’ held the title on World’s Fastest Human after winning two gold medals at the Tokyo 1964 Olympic Games.

But as fast as Hayes was, he might be best known for exploits on the football field, where he played 10 of his 11 seasons in the NFL with the Dallas Cowboys. 

Hayes was an explosive wide receiver and kick returner, leading the NFL in touchdown catches his first two seasons in the league. Hayes eventually earned induction to the Pro Football Hall of Fame.

Hayes, who died at the age of 58 in 2002 of kidney failure, was the only person ever to win an Olympic gold medal and a Super Bowl championship ring.

Davis, an Austin Sealy Trophy winner as the Most Outstanding Athlete of the prestigious CARIFTA Games in 1984 at home, won a gold medal in both the 200 metres and as a member of the Bahamas women’s 4 x 100m relay team of Sevatheda Fynes, Chandra Sturrup, Debbie Ferguson and Eldece Clarke at the 2000 Summer Olympics in Sydney. 

She originally finished in second place in the women’s 200m behind Marion Jones, but on 5 October 2007, Jones admitted to taking performance-enhancing steroids and was stripped of the title and on December 9, 2009, Davis was awarded the 200m gold medal.