Edward Gourdin

Edward Gourdin ( Edward Orval " Ned " Gourdin, born August 10, 1897 in Jacksonville, Florida, † June 21, 1966 in Quincy, Massachusetts) was an American athlete and jurist.

On July 23, 1921 Edward Gourdin won when comparing battle between U.S. (Harvard and Yale ) and UK universities (Oxford and Cambridge ) in Cambridge, Massachusetts in both the sprint and the long jump against the Englishman Harold Abrahams. In the long jump Gourdin it came to 7.69 meters, which he improved a 20 -year-old world record of Irishman Peter O'Connor to eight inches.

1921 Gourdin master of AAU in the long jump and pentathlon in 1922 he won the title in the pentathlon again. In time for the 1924 Olympics came Gourdin back into shape and was 7.27 meters second behind his compatriot DeHart Hubbard.

Gourdin devoted himself after his profession as a lawyer. In 1925 he was admitted to the Massachusetts and 1931 at the federal courthouse. 1936 Gourdin was prosecutor; In 1958 he was appointed by Governor Foster Furcolo as the first African American judge in the Superior Court of Massachusetts, where he remained until his death in 1966.