As current and former Aggie students and staff prepare to compete at the 2024 Summer Olympic Games in Paris, we thought it would be fun to look back into Aggie history at some of the outstanding Texas A&M University athletes who have competed.
The First Aggie Olympian
Jack Mahan ’21 studied animal husbandry at what was then the Agricultural and Mechanical College of Texas (AMC). He was class president all four years, a star fullback and captain of the school’s football team, part of the 1919 team that went undefeated and unscored-upon.
Mahan, from Gainesville, Texas, competed in track and field at the sixth Olympic Games in Antwerp, Belgium, where he threw the javelin, becoming the first Aggie Olympian in history. He went on to officiate football in the Southwest Conference, ran a farm in Oklahoma and worked as an agricultural teacher.
During his college years, his fellow cadets nicknamed him “Harvard Eddie” and “Stumpy.”
They wrote of him in the 1921 yearbook, “You have been in the very center of college activities and life since your Fish days, and your contributions to their betterment have indeed been great. Your class has considered you one of the strongest members by electing you their president and leader time and again in the four years of association. The state has picked you as one of the most brilliant and cleanest fullbacks in the history of Texas football. The nation has sent you to represent the Stars and Stripes in the Olympic games. We are proud of you for all these lofty achievements and we glory in the success you have had.”
Art Harnden ’45 earned a gold medal with the 1600-meter relay team in track at the 14th Olympic Games in London. A Yoakum, Texas native, Harnden earned a bachelor’s in agricultural administration in 1949, subsequently joining the Army Air Force, flying 23 missions over Germany in WWII. He came back to the university to finish his degree after the war, and competed in track and field for the Aggies. He led a successful career working for Texaco for more than four decades and after his retirement, spent another 21 years working for Walmart.
The 1952 Olympics in Helsinki, Finland resulted in three Aggie medalists: competing for Team USA, Walt “Buddy” Davis ’52 won gold in the high jump; claiming a bronze medal in swimming the 1,500-meter freestyle for Brazil was Tetsuo Okamato ’58; and Darrow Hooper ’53 won a silver medal for Team USA, in shot put.
As a high jumper, it could be said Davis was all-in on training — photos of him were featured in LIFE magazine, “seeking better body control” at ballet school.
He overcame childhood polio, and went on to study animal husbandry at A&M where he lettered in track and field and basketball. He won several titles as a college athlete, including being named the NCAA high jump champion and earning SWC honors in basketball and high jump. He was drafted to play professional basketball, but declined so he could participate in the Olympics, which only allowed amateurs to compete at the time. In Helsinki, he set a new high jump record and later set a new world high jump record. Following his time as an athlete, Davis led a successful career in banking.
Okamoto was born in Brazil to Japanese parents and swam for the university from 1956-58, earning four Southwest Conference (SWC) titles. He won Brazil’s first-ever Olympic swimming medal, gold medals at the Pan-American Games and several other international titles. He received his BBA from Texas A&M in 1959 and started a company drilling artesian wells.
Hooper studied civil engineering at A&M, lettered in football and was a track star, winning SWC championships in shot put and discus. After graduation in 1954, he joined the Air Force and later opened an engineering firm, which he led for 22 years. He was an avid supporter of Texas A&M, making a number of generous gifts to support engineering.
It was Mexico City in 1968 where Randy Matson ’67 earned a silver medal for the USA in shot put.
He earned a bachelor’s in marketing from Texas A&M and was the first person ever to throw a shot put over 70 feet, which happened at Kyle Field. He lettered in both track and basketball, and set several world records and earned numerous titles including NCAA and SWC champion in shot put and discus. In 1972, Matson, who is from Kilgore, Texas, began a long career of fundraising for his alma mater, first with The Association of Former Students, where he served as executive director for 20 years. Then in 2003, he joined the Texas A&M Foundation, eventually serving as senior philanthropic officer until his retirement in 2007.
Trailblazer
Linda Cornelius Waltman ’79 was the first female athlete at Texas A&M to receive a full athletic scholarship. She was a pioneer in the Title IX movement to provide equal access to women in higher education, including the ability to compete in college athletics. Waltman, a Fort Worth native, earned her bachelor’s physical education, lettered in track and field all four years, and was the first female student athlete inducted into the Texas A&M Athletics Hall of Fame.
In 1999, she told the Fort Worth Star Telegram, “We went off instinct. We had no education. …When I felt like I had really done something was 1985 when I was the first woman inducted into the A&M Hall of Fame. John David Crow was reading my accomplishments, and he said, ‘If this woman doesn’t deserve to be in the Hall of Fame, then neither do I.’” She qualified for Team USA Track and Field for the 1980 Moscow Olympics, but was never able to compete, nor were any of the athletes, as the U.S. boycotted to protest the Russian invasion of Afghanistan.
Following her years as an athlete, Waltman led a career in parks and recreation, including as superintendent of College Station Parks & Rec.
Claiming a silver medal for Jamaica at the 1988 Seoul, South Korea, Olympics was track and field runner Howard Davis ’92 of Houston for the 4×400 relay. Davis earned a master’s in mechanical engineering and went on to run a natural gas export company.
At the 1992 Olympics in Barcelona, Spain, Blinn College Track and Field Coach Steve Silvey ’87 was selected to coach the Zambian track team. Silvey, who earned a master’s in physical education at Texas A&M, continues to coach and has mentored more 17 Olympic medalists over the course of his distinguished career.
Not all Aggies were competing in the Olympics, but nevertheless had the drive to be there. For the Atlanta Olympics, around 50 Texas A&M bus drivers were tapped to carry spectators to and from the events.
A student driver at the time named Teresa Williams told The Battalion, “I was very excited to get chosen. It was the opportunity of a lifetime and I just couldn’t pass it up. I have the chance to meet and work with people from all over the nation and all over the world.”
Stacy Sykora ‘99 is a three-time Olympian and Silver Medalist for USA Volleyball. She lettered for four years at A&M and was the first Aggie ever to play on an Olympic volleyball team. From Burleson, Texas, Sykora was also the first Aggie athlete to compete in three Olympic Games. She credited A&M Coach Lori Corbelli for her giving her the motivation she needed to pursue her Olympic dreams, telling The Eagle newspaper in July 2000, “If it wasn’t for Laurie having the confidence in me and telling me that I could do this, I wouldn’t be in this position.” She even wore No. 5, the same number Corbelli herself wore when she earned a silver medal at the 1984 Olympics.
At the 2000 Games in Sydney, Australia, Jennifer McFalls ’94, a graduate in kinesiology from Alvarado, Texas, won gold as a member of the USA softball team. At the same games, Victor Wunderle ’98, a wildlife and fisheries sciences graduate from Mason City, Illinois, won a silver medal for Team USA in archery.
And in 2008, Christine Marshall ’09, who earned her bachelor’s in university studies, snagged a bronze medal at the Beijing Olympics for swimming the 800 free relay.
As a member of Team USA, Breeja Larson ’14 won a gold medal for swimming in the 400 medley at the 2012 Olympics relay. Larson earned her bachelors in psychology and master’s in sport management. Larson had an impressive college career, dominating SEC Championships and being named SEC Swimmer of the Meet for two straight years. From Mesa, Arizona, Larson has gone on to become a motivational speaker. Of her participation in the Olympics, Larson said, “It comes with a lot of responsibility because you will forever be known as an Olympian and everything you do past that point will be reflected on the Olympic committee, your town, your state and your family. However, I don’t think there’s a greater honor when representing the most powerful county in the world. It’s a selfless honor.” Larson spoke with the university in 2019.
At the 2012 Olympics in London, Jeneba Tarmoh ’12 with Team USA won the gold medal in the 4×100-meter relay in track. Tarmoh, a San Jose, California native, earned her bachelor’s in psychology at A&M and excelled as an athlete, setting numerous college, national and international records. Included too among the list of winners in London was Deon Lendore ’15 who scored a bronze medal for Trinidad/Tobago in the 4×400 relay.
In 2016, Team USA won the gold medal in basketball with the help of DeAndre Jordan ’11, from Houston, who was drafted into the NBA after one year at A&M.
The games in Rio brought a total of 27 current and former Aggies, 18 of them from track and field, more than any other NCAA track and field program in the country at the time. Head Coach Pat Henry told The Eaglein August 2016, “I think it tells a lot about our program. We’re about development, about young people being able to come in here and be a track athlete, but we’re also about the best in the world.”
Also in 2016, Simone Facey ’08 claimed a silver medal for Jamaica in the 4×100 relay. Facey helped our track team win the school’s first Big 12 women’s track and field championship in 2007 and again in 2008. She earned her bachelor’s in university studies in 2009.
Back For Gold
The 2020 Summer Games were delayed until 2021 due to the pandemic, so it made it all that much more exciting when Athing Mu ’24 scored two gold medals in Tokyo, competing in the women’s 800-meter and 4×400-meter relay events. Mu, from Trenton, New Jersey, was a general studies major at A&M and over the course of her track career, earned dozens of college, national and international titles and records. She spoke to Texas A&M Athletics in 2022 about her decision to become an Aggie, saying, “They have genuine people and I just felt more at home than I did at any university that I took a visit to.”
Texas A&M Track and Field’s Fred Kerley ’19 took home the silver from Tokyo in the 100-meter. From Taylor, Texas, Kerley is also competing in this summer’s Olympics in Paris. He is a three-time world champion, and said recently, “It’s absolutely my desire to be the fastest man alive.” Other winners in Toyko were Silver Medalists Bryce Deadmon ’19, ’21, Missouri City, Texas, track and field, for the mixed 4×400; and Sydney Pickrem ’19, a kinesiology graduate from Toronto who swam for Canada in the 4×100 medley relay.
