After
Margaret Matthews-Wilburn won the bronze medal in the 1956 Olympic Games in
Melbourne, Australia, for the 4x100-meter relay, she was swept up in euphoria.
That
glorious moment in Melbourne would turn to sadness decades later when Matthews-Wilburn
discovered her bronze medal missing after speaking to students and showing them
her prized medal during a school assembly.
“I
didn’t know for several weeks that it was missing,” she said.
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| Front row (l to r): Dr. Rochelle Stevens, Margaret Matthews-Wilburn and the Rev. Beatrice Holloway. Back row: Donavan Ellison and Martin A. Truitt. (Courtesy photos) |
The
bronze medal had vanished. But Matthews-Wilburn’s stupendous achievement and
coveted bronze medal would not be lost to the ages, thanks to her goddaughter, Dr.
Rochelle Stevens, a two-time Olympic gold and silver medalist.
“I
was devastated to hear what had happened. I was like, ‘You never told me,’”
said Stevens, who learned that Matthews-Wilburn’s bronze medal was missing when
the two Olympians were interviewed for a television show.
On
Dec. 23, Stevens surprised the legendary track star with a replacement bronze
medal that arrived in time for a surprised medal ceremony at Word of Life
Healing Ministry, where the Rev. Beatrice Holloway is senior pastor.
Holloway
is Stevens’ mother and her former Olympic coach.
“Thirty
years is a long time to be without my medal. It is so precious to me now,” said
Matthews-Wilburn, who sprinted to a third-place finish in the 4x100-meter relay
with teammates Mae Faggs, Wilma Rudolph and Isabelle Daniels.
Stevens
knew how important the bronze medal had been to Matthews-Wilburn, who was 21
when that special moment in Melbourne was indelibly etched in the history books.
That’s
why Stevens contacted Cindy Stinger of the United States Olympic Committee and
the International Olympic Committee in Switzerland. While the glory days in
track and field are gone, the bronze medal had been a source of pride for
Matthews-Wilburn, a member of the famed Tigerbelle Sports Club at Tennessee
State University.
“She’d
never requested another medal or reported it missing,” said Stevens, compelled
to do something without tipping off Matthews-Wilburn. “She said, ‘If I could
get a duplicate…it doesn’t have to be the real thing, I would be happy.’”
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| Presenting the bronze medal to Margaret Matthews-Wilburn. |
Stevens
requested a replacement medal in January. “They told us that it would take six
to 12 weeks,” she said.
After
an 11-month investigation, IOC voted to replace the bronze medal. The United
Parcel Services delivered the replacement medal in December.
“We got it back and I thank God for Rochelle. It took a lot of effort,” said Matthews-Wilburn, choosing to rave about
Stevens’ exploits on and off the field rather than talk about her on.
“Rochelle
is a special person,” she said.
While
it seems Matthews-Wilburn is downplaying her achievements, Rudolph spoke highly
of her teammate’s athletic prowess on the field in a 1988 Sports Illustrated story that Ralph Wiley wrote entitled “Born to
be a Champion.”
Wiley
captured the heart and soul of the formidable Wilburns, a family of athletes:
Barry Wilburn, cornerback for the Washington Redskins’ 1988 Super Bowl team;
Kelvin Wilburn, who played cornerback for one year at TSU; their father, Jesse
Wilburn, a star running back for TSU; and, of course, Matthews-Wilburn, a
sprinter and the first American woman to leap a record 20 feet in the broad
jump in 1957.
Rudolph
spoke highly about Matthews-Wilburn’s athleticism in Wiley’s story: “She could
beat anybody on a given day, and she let you know the day might be today.”
A
native of Griffin, Ga., Matthews-Wilburn was inducted into the Georgia Sports
Hall of Fame in 1997 and the Tennessee Sports Hall of Fame in 1998. She is a
retired educator in Memphis.
After returning home from the ceremony, Matthews-Wilburn found herself at peace. “I
slept with it [bronze medal] on my pillow,” she said.
