Track: Olympic gold medalist Ronnie Ray Smith dies at 64
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Ronnie Ray Smith, a 1967 graduate of Manual Arts High who won a gold medal as a member of the 400-meter relay team that set a world record at the 1968 Olympic Games in Mexico City, died on Sunday at a hospice in Los Angeles, former Manual Arts basketball Coach Reggie Morris Sr. said. He was 64.
Smith ran the third leg on the relay that included Charles Greene, Mel Pender and Jim Hines. The final time was 38.24 seconds, a world record.
He once held the world record in the 100-meter dash at 9.9 seconds.
He finished third in the 220 at the state high school track championships in 1966.
He went on to run at San Jose State.
[For the Record, 8:46 a.m. April 3: An earlier version of this online post incorrectly reported that Ronnie Ray Smith once held a world record of 9.9 seconds in the 100-yard dash. The record time was for 100 meters.]
-- Eric Sondheimer