Kevin Young (1999) - Hall of Fame

Kevin Young

Induction:
1999

Young came to UCLA as a freshman walk-on competing in track and field and left four years later with four NCAA individual championships, three Pac-10 individual championships and 2 NCAA team championships (1987, 1988). At the 1987 NCAA’s, Young won the 400m hurdles and ran the second leg of the victorious 1600m relay team setting a then collegiate record of 3.00.55. In 1988, Young defended the 400m hurdle crown running a NCAA record 47.85. He also ran the second leg of UCLA’s winning 1600m relay breaking the school record while becoming the very first collegiate team to break 3 minutes (2:59.91), a record that lasted until 2005. At the conclusion of his senior track season, he was given the Jumbo Elliot Award as the outstanding intercollegiate Male Track and Field Athlete of the Year and made the 1988 U.S. Olympic team. After graduating, Young continued to excel internationally in the 400m hurdles, becoming a two-time Olympian. In 1992 he had one of the greatest individual track and field seasons in the history of the sport. While in Barcelona at the 1992 Olympic Games, Young won the gold medal in the 400m hurdles, breaking fellow UCLA alum Andre Phillips' Olympic record of 47.19 in a world record-breaking time of 46.78. He also became the first man to run the event in under 47 seconds. His 1992 individual honors included IAAF Male Athlete of the Year, Track and Field News Male Athlete of the Year, IAAF Grand Prix champion, Jesse Owens Award Winner, and winning the inaugural ESPY Award in track & field. Young graduated from David Starr Jordan High School in Watts, the same high school as UCLA alum Florence Griffith-Joyner.

* Accomplishments listed above were at the time of induction.