The fastest kid in the South

His blazing speed went unremarked during his freshman year at Eunice High School, even though he won the 440-yard run and half mile run in the 1912 parish meet. But by his junior year, people were beginning to pay attention. That year he led Eunice to the state championship by winning four events—the 100- and 220-yard sprints, the 440-yard run, and broad jump.

Two weeks after that 1914 state meet, he won the 440 in a high school meet hosted by Tulane with a time faster than the winner in the college-level Southern Intercollegiate Athletic Association meet held the same weekend.

That caused the St. Landry Clarion to report that "the fleet footed school boy of Eunice bids fair to become one of the greatest athletes in the south. … Jenkins was pronounced at the Tulane … meet one of the most phenomenal athletes … seen on the track for many years."

Jenkins returned to the state meet his senior year, but under the strange rules that were in effect in 1915 no athlete could compete in an event he had already won. He couldn't run in his best events, but still entered six others. He won all of them, including a half-mile race during which he stopped twice because of a rock in his shoe. He finally kicked off the shoe and won the race running with one bare foot.

By then some newspapers were calling him "the most promising high school athlete in the South."

He lived up to that reputation at that year's New Orleans Southern Amateur Association meet, taking first in the 220 and  defeating college champion Donald Scott of Mississippi A&M in the 440. He was second in the 100-yard dash by the margin of just one inch, and would have won it easily had he not been penalized for a false start and required to start three feet behind the rest of the racers.

The St. Tammany Leader reported that "the feature of the … meet was the defeat of Donald Scott … a phenomenal runner … by Dana Jenkins of the Eunice High School. … Scott had shortly before this event won the half mile run … [which] undoubtedly took away some of [his] speed and stamina, but too much credit cannot be given to Jenkins, who ran a remarkable race and would have probably defeated Scott even if the latter had been fresh.

"This boy Jenkins is undoubtedly the marvel of Southern athletics. Ten minutes after winning the 440 he ran the 220 in 22 1-5 seconds, which equals the Southern record. It is the consensus of opinion among athletic experts, that this boy is at present the equal, if not the superior, of any athlete in the country."

That August, Jenkins went to the nationals in San Francisco, coming out second in the 220 to R.E. McBride of the Rocky Mountain Athletic Association by only ten inches. "In order to defeat Jenkins, McBride had to beat the world's record," according to the press account.

In May 1916, a Clarion headline proclaimed: "Dana Jenkins Is Now Hailed As The Greatest Track Man That The South  Has Ever Produced." A month later it reported that "the idol of Southern track fans … had no difficulty in defeating other Southern champions in the 100, 200 and 440 yard dashes, at [a] meet held in New Orleans. … [coming] within one-fifth of a second of equaling the world's record. 

The pundits said Jenkins would surely set a world record one day, if he could run against someone who would challenge him. "In the New Orleans meet he crossed the tape so far ahead of the next fellow that he could stop … and smile ...  at his opponents," according to one press account.

As a freshman, he led LSU to the 1916 Southern championship, setting meet records in the 220 and 440. LSU coach Frank "Tad" Gormley, called him "the greatest all-around sprinter this state has ever produced." Then, just as he was poised for true greatness , he was called into military service.           

He didn't go back to school or compete after he was discharged from the National Guard in 1917. Instead, he went home and married his high school sweetheart, Annie Bloodsworth. The 1920 census lists him as a farmer in Acadia Parish but he didn't stay on the farm. In 1930 he was power plant engineer in Washington and in 1940 he is listed as an engineer living in Eunice. By then his family included five daughters and three sons.

He died on June 10, 1966, and is buried in Mount Calvary cemetery in Eunice. He was posthumously inducted into the Louisiana Sports Hall of Fame two years after his death.

 

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You can contact Jim Bradshaw at jimbradshaw4321@gmail.com or P.O. Box 1121, Washington LA 70589.