Dallas Long smashes his world shot put record at the West Coast Relays in Fresno on May 10, 1964. Long heaved the shot 66 feet, 7.5 inches, far exceeding his pending record of 65-11.5 set five weeks earlier. (Wiki Commons)
- Long dominated shot put in the 1960s, winning three NCAA titles and setting 11 world records between 1959 and 1965.
- He earned gold at the 1964 Tokyo Olympics with a record-breaking throw and bronze at the 1960 Rome Games.
- After his athletic career, Long pursued medicine, becoming a dentist and emergency physician.
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LOS ANGELES — Dallas Long, a three-time NCAA shot put champion who won a gold medal at the 1964 Tokyo Olympics, has died. He was 84.
He died of natural causes Sunday in Whitefish, Montana, USC said Tuesday after being informed by a family member. No further details were provided.
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Dominating the Shot Put in the 1960s
Long ruled the shot put in the 1960s, winning three consecutive NCAA titles from 1960-62.
His gold-medal performance in Tokyo included a then-Olympic record throw of 66 feet, 8.50 inches. He earned a bronze medal at the 1960 Rome Games behind fellow Americans Bill Nieder and Parry O’Brien.
Long set the shot put world record 11 times from 1959 to 1965 and was ranked No. 1 in the world three times. His best effort was 67-10.25.
One of Long’s record-breaking efforts came on May 10, 1964, at the West Coast Relays in Fresno.
“The way to set a world’s record is to stay up all night and don’t bother training,” Long told reporters about his record heave at Ratcliffe Stadium.
On his second attempt at the West Coast Relays that year, he sent the 16-pound ball a distance of 66 feet-7.5 to shatter his old accepted mark of 65 feet-10.5.
Long said he hadn’t trained for 10 days because he had dropped a 200‐pound weight on his foot. And he had been up the previous night because his wife had just given birth to their second child and brought them home from the hospital.
“She is a doll,” he said. “But she kept me up all night.”
A Legacy at USC and Beyond
He was a member of USC’s 1961 NCAA championship team. His throw of 65-10.50 set in 1962 still ranks sixth on USC’s all-time list. His freshman mark of 63-7 set in 1959 stood until 2015.
Long was inducted into the National Track and Field Hall of Fame in 1996, as well as the Arizona Hall of Fame in 1964, the National High School Sports Hall of Fame in 1993 and the USC Athletics Hall of Fame in 2003.
From Athlete to Medical Professional
Born Dallas Crutcher Long on June 13, 1940, in Pine Bluff, Arkansas, he first came to national prominence in the event as a senior at North High in Phoenix, Arizona, where he set a national prep record in the shot put.
Long earned a dental degree from USC and a doctor of medicine degree from Washington University in St. Louis. He worked as a dentist and then practiced emergency medicine.
He served as a defense witness in the Rodney King trial against Los Angeles Police Department officers Laurence Powell and Stacey Koon in early 1993. Long did not treat King, whose beating by officers was captured on videotape in 1991.
He is survived by children Kristen Long, Kelly Nordell, Karin Grandsire and Ian Long, nine grandchildren and two great grandchildren. He was twice divorced.
(GV Wire contributed to this article.)
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