Cliff Cushman

Cliff Cushman was a remarkably versatile athlete whose talents ranged from a 4:11.6 mile to a sixth place in the 1959 NCAA triple jump. In 1959 he won a bronze medal at the Pan American Games 400 m hurdles. While attending the University of Kansas, Cushman won the 1960 NCAA 400 m hurdles and finished third in the Final Trials. At the Olympics he turned the tables on Dick Howard, who had beaten him at the trials, and took second place with a career best of 49.6. In 1961, Cushman won the AAU intermediate hurdles. In the finals of the 1964 US Olympic Trials, Cushman fell going over the fifth hurdle, which ended his chance of making a second Olympic team.

A career soldier and pilot, his plane was shot down in Vietnam in 1966. His body was never found and he was officially listed as MIA until he was declared dead in 1975. Several stories circulated about his death - that he died from a head wound sustained in the crash or that he was shot on the ground. The official North Vietnamese statement read, “Capt. Clifton E. Cushman, 28, died from his wounds, was buried, and his grave washed away in a flood.”

Personal Bests: 100y – 10.1 (1957); 220y -21.6s (1958); 440y – 47.7 (1960); 800 – 1:50.4 (1957); Mile – 4:11.6 (1957); 120yH – 14.6 (1959); 400H – 49.6 (1960); TJ – 45-9 (13.94) (1958).