Walker Nominated to Be First Black USOC President

LeRoy Walker, former chancellor of North Carolina Central University and now a vice president of Atlanta’s organizing committee for the 1996 Summer Olympics, has been recommended by a nominating committee to become the U.S. Olympic Committee’s next president.

If Walker is elected by the board of directors during a session in October, he will become the USOC’s first black president.

Also recommended by the nominating committee were George Steinbrenner of Tampa, Fla.; Michael Lenard of Los Angeles and Ralph Hale of Honolulu for the three vice president positions; Chuck Foster of Duxbury, Mass., for secretary, and Sandra Baldwin of Phoenix for treasurer. Steinbrenner, Lenard and Foster are incumbents.

Others have until Aug. 11 to declare their candidacies, but the board of directors rarely rejects the nominating committee’s recommendations.

“I’m just absolutely elated that my peers would think enough of me to nominate me,” said Walker, 73, a former president of the U.S. governing body for track and field and currently the USOC treasurer.

“I don’t believe that this was an emotional type thing based on my color. I think it was a decision based on the fact that I have served well in various capacities. At the same time, I would hope that I can be a role model to other Afro-Americans.”

Walker would replace William Hybl of Colorado Springs, Colo., who chose not to seek re-election.

The committee also nominated six new members of the board of directors from the public sector, including former tennis player Arthur Ashe of Richmond, Va.; former Atlanta Mayor Andrew Young; movie producer Frank Marshall of Los Angeles; Sandy Knapp of Austin, Tex., a former president of the Indianapolis Sports Corp.; Tom Welch of Salt Lake City, the president of the Salt Lake City Winter Olympics bid committee, and Frank McKinney of Indianapolis.