Oldest living Olympic medalist Herb Douglas returns home to celebrate 100th birthday

What better way to celebrate a 100th birthday than a trip across the commonwealth?

For legendary native son Herb Douglas, a century of life meant a journey from a residence in Philadelphia back to his hometown.

“Oh, Pittsburgh, that city is part of my health,” Douglas said by phone Tuesday, the final day of his 90s. “It’s what has kept me going all this time.”

If Pittsburgh helped fuel Douglas, it powered 100 years of accomplishment in an amazing life that shows few signs it will end any time soon. The oldest living U.S. Olympic medalist — he earned bronze in the long jump at the 1948 London Games — Douglas said he still was regularly swimming between an eighth- and a quarter-mile three times weekly until a few months ago, when he needed valve-replacement heart surgery.

That won’t stop him from a pair of private gatherings in his honor Thursday and Saturday nights in Pittsburgh, both close to where he grew up in Hazelwood. Thursday’s dinner is at the Wyndham hotel, downtown. On Saturday, an event is planned for the Senator John Heinz History Center in the Strip District.

Douglas has celebrated previous birthdays at the venue, where a track uniform and jacket are on permanent display in the Western Pennsylvania Sports Museum portion of the facility.

“We will always tell his story,” Heinz History Center director of marketing and communications Brady Smith said. “We are happy he’s turning 100. It’s quite an achievement in itself, for a guy who’s had a lifetime of amazing achievements.”

Herbert “Herb” Paul Douglas Jr. was Allderdice High School’s first Black basketball player and among a group of Pitt’s first Black football players. But it was in track and field where he excelled most.

Douglas won Pennsylvania state track championships in the 100 and 220 runs and the long jump. After winning four college championships in the long jump and another in the 100-yard dash at Pitt, Douglas earned his way onto the Olympic team at age 26 (the 1940 and ’44 Games were canceled because of World War II).

He would finish third in the long jump behind U.S. teammate Willie Steele and one centimeter behind Theodore Bruce of Australia to earn a bronze.

“My mother, she was an Olympic nut. That’s what I’d tell her,” said Douglas, who said his mother would wear an Olympic medallion around her neck throughout her life and that Douglas made sure she had it on after she died.

“Because any time she would talk to someone, she would tell them her son was an Olympic medalist. She was very, extremely proud of it,” Douglas said.

“My dad, what he was most proud of was that I went to the University of Pittsburgh.”

That’s just one of the ways Douglas’ love and ties to his native city have endured for a century, even if he has spent most of his adult life in the Philadelphia area with his wife, Minerva, who turns 99 next month.

Douglas said ensuring his wife’s health and safety is part of what keeps him young and alert. Still sharp, it’s clear Douglas was blessed with strong genes. Not only did they give him the body of an Olympian, they passed along a tendency to live long: each of Douglas’ parents lived into their 90s.

“Staying in shape has been my secret,” Douglas said. “Physical and mental shape. You need to keep your body going, but you also need to keep your mental capacity going. You should have an agenda every day.”

Regardless of the other triumphs and successes Douglas has had in a life well lived, making it to 100 is an achievement in itself. And unlike his proud mother, Douglas tends to downplay his Olympic medal. He looks at the totality of a century worth celebrating.

“Each day was an accomplishment,” he said. “I’ve just lived every day. That’s all.

“Did I think about making it to 100? I did and I didn’t. I just worked, day by day.”