McDaniel, Mildred L.
Track and Field
b. Nov. 4, 1933, Atlanta, GA
McDaniel played basketball and was a high jumper at Tuskegee Institute from 1953 through 1956. She was the AAU outdoor high jump champion in 1953, and she won both the outdoor and the indoor championships in 1955 and 1956.
She won a gold medal at the 1955 Pan-American Games with a meet record jump of 5 feet, 61/2 inches. McDaniel set a world record of 5 feet, 7 inches in winning the 1956 Olympic high jump. She beat Iolanda Balas of Romania, the former world record holder. Later that year, McDaniel extended the record to a remarkable 5 feet, 8 3/4 inches.
After graduating from Tuskegee in 1957, McDaniel retired from competition and became a physical education teacher.