GLORY YEARS

Track & Field at Excelsior – The Glory Years

Excelsior High School (XLCR) has had a long tradition of producing top flight scholar athletes, some of whom have gone on to represent Jamaica in Track and Field as well as to make remarkable contributions to the country’s development. Noteworthy scholar athletes are:

·       Dr Arthur Wint, Jamaica’s first Olympic Gold Medallist, later to become a surgeon & diplomat.

Sir Willard White

·       Sir Willard White, world renowned operatic virtuoso who was a member of the track & field team in the early sixties.

·       Neville Myton who broke the World Junior Record for the 800 metres while still at school, one of the first two schoolboys to represent Jamaica at the Olympics and the first Jamaican schoolboy to win an individual Penn Relay Championship.

·       Debbie Byfield the youngest athlete (14 yrs old) to represent Jamaica at the senior level (Cuba 1969).

·       Andrea Bruce – Youngest Olympic ('72) High Jump Finalist at 17 years.

During the sixties and seventies, XLCR:

• XLCR won the sprint Relay (4x110-YRDS) 1967,1968,1969 only the great KC done better 1963,1964,1965,1966.. This is unheard of these Days.
• Won the National Girls Athletic Championship 4 times (1970, 1971, 1972, and 1973) first school to accomplish this feat.
• Won the National Boys Athletic Championships (1960)
• Won the sprint relay for High School Boys University of Pennsylvania Relays in record time in 1967.
• Had ten athletes represent Jamaica at the Olympics, as well as others in several other international games.

XLCR’s continued successful in other sports, such as football, field hockey, softball and cricket is a matter of record. However, there had been a consistent decline in the success of the Track and Field programme at the school from the late eighties.