Clyde Jeffrey, 88; Sprinter Competed in Riverside, at Stanford

Clyde Jeffrey, 88, who had a brief but brilliant track career in Riverside and at Stanford University from 1938 to 1940, died of cancer Monday at his Riverside home.

One of seven children of a Methodist minister and his wife, Jeffrey was born in 1918 in Long Beach and moved with his family to Riverside as a teenager.

He started out as a high jumper at Riverside Poly High School but found success when he switched to running sprints.

After graduating in 1937, Jeffrey went on to what is now Riverside Community College. He tied the national junior college record in the 100-yard dash at 9.6 seconds and set the 220-yard record with a time of 20.5 seconds.

He won a scholarship to Stanford and had his best season in 1939. He dominated the Pacific Coast Conference and won the 220-yard dash at the National Collegiate Athletic Assn. championships, where he came in second to Tuskegee University’s Mozelle Ellerbe in the 100-yard dash in a photo finish.

At the Amateur Athletic Union national championships, he tied Jesse Owens’ world record in winning the 100 meters with a wind-aided time of 10.2 seconds.

The next year Jeffrey pulled a hamstring in the 100-meter final of the NCAA championships, his last competitive race. He had been a favorite to represent the United States in the sprints at the 1940 Summer Olympics in Tokyo, but the Games were canceled because of World War II and his injury would have kept him from competing.

He recovered enough to play football but didn’t earn a letter in the 1940 season, when Stanford went 10-0 and beat the University of Nebraska in the Rose Bowl.

After graduating in 1941, Jeffrey served in the Navy and then worked for the Riverside County Probation Department. He retired in 1982.