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ALMA MATER
In the Mississippi Valley,
In the Crescent Bend
Stands our loved and noble Xavier,
Far her praises send.
Refrain:
Wave her colors bear them onward
Gold and white so true
Hail to thee, all hail, dear Xavier
Hail, all hail, X.U.!
Xavier, ever be our guide
And lead us on the way,
Through life's journey, onward, upward
To the eternal day. (Refrain)
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more on Ralph Metcalfe from 2008
Penn Relays will honor
Metcalfe, XU champions
April 19, 2010
NEW ORLEANS — Ralph Metcalfe was serving his
country in World War II when Xavier University of Louisiana made
history at the 1942 Penn Relays Carnival. This weekend the former Xavier coach
and the relay team he assembled will be honored at the 116th running of
the United States' oldest annual track and field event.
This is the 100th anniversary of the birth of Metcalfe,
known as the "World's Fastest Human" in the early 1930s and a four-time
Olympic medalist before coaching Xavier's men's track and field teams from
the fall of 1936 through December 1941.
Metcalfe resigned from Xavier and joined the U.S. Army
soon after the Japanese invasion of Pearl Harbor on Dec. 7, 1941.
Giles Wright, an XU assistant coach, replaced Metcalfe, and the relay team Metcalfe
recruited — sophomores Herbert Douglas, William Morton and Clarence Doak
and senior Howard Mitchell — didn't miss a step.
That quartet's time of 41.7 seconds in the 440-yard relay made Xavier the first HBCU (historically black
college or university) to win a relay at the Penn Relays.
Metcalfe died in 1978 at age 68 after being elected four
times to the U.S. House of Representatives as a Democrat from Illinois' first
congressional district. Douglas — the only surviving member of the relay team
and a member of the Board of the Friends of the Penn Relays —
Xavier President Dr. Norman C. Francis and Metcalfe's son, Ralph Metcalfe Jr.,
will be at Franklin Field in Philadelphia on Saturday for a ceremony to honor
the '42 XU relay team and the Metcalfe Centennial.
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photo from Xavier Herald newspaper archives
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Xavier's Howard Mitchell beat Pittsburgh's Harold Stickel to the tape
to win the 440-yard relay at the 1942 Penn Relays Carnival.
According to a Penn Relays news release, "The
Metcalfe
Centennial will be celebrated on Relays Saturday, at 1:25 p.m. (EDT) during the
running of the 4x100-meter Relay Championship of America. This stop on the
Metcalfe Centennial is sponsored by Joe Cosgrove and Pentec Health, Inc."
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