March 16, 2021
From 1978-1982, Renaldo “Skeets” Nehemiah single-handedly pushed the 110m high hurdles into a new era, setting new standards that are still difficult for even the world’s best hurdlers to achieve. When Nehemiah entered the University of Maryland at the age of 18, the world record in the 110’s was 13.21, set by Alejandro Casanas of Cuba in 1977. By the time Nehemiah left track and field to play professional football in 1982, he had broken the world record three times, bringing it all the way down under the magical 13.00 mark, to 12.93 in August of 1981, at the Weltklasse meet in Zurich, Switzerland.
I began working on a biography of Nehemiah in 2019, and am about two-thirds of the way through the first draft. In gathering research for the book, I was able to reconnect with a track fanatic who lives in England, named George Matthews, who helped me before, when I was writing a biography on 1972 Olympic champion Rodney Milburn. So I reached out to George again, and he was able to put together a collage of Nehemiah’s races that he had recorded that spanned Nehemiah’s glory years of 1978-82. Besides the outdoor world records, Nehemiah also broke indoor records of multiple distances (55 yards, 60 yards, 50 yards, 55 meters) multiple times. In his battles with rival Greg Foster of UCLA, Nehemiah brought an electricity and excitement to the event that it has not seen since. With those two going at it, the 110 hurdles were the marquee event in track and field for four years. Unfortunately, however, due to the 1980 Olympic Boycott led by US President Jimmy Carter, Nehemiah never had the opportunity to show his skills on the world’s biggest stage.
The YouTube video at the top of this page features many of Nehemiah’s races from this era. Recently, I converted the dvd that Matthews sent me into an mp4, and uploaded the mp4 onto my YouTube channel. So check out the video above and take a look at some very hard-to-find footage of one of the greatest hurdlers who ever lived.
What: Zoom Call with hurdling legend Renaldo Nehemiah
When: Sunday April 11th from 3 pm – 4:30 pm.
Cost: $15
To Register: Send payment via PayPal to@smcgillhh, or via Cash App to $StevenMcGill. Upon receipt of payment, I will send the Zoom call link to the email address you used to pay. (If I don’t send it until later in the day, that’s because I’m probably teaching or coaching. If you don’t receive the link within 24 hours of payment, then email me at smcgill@hurdlesfirst.com).
