Editor's Note: Today is the second edition of a 9-day celebration of this year's Colorado Athletic Hall of Fame induction here at CUBuffs.com, profiling each of this year's inductees, leading up to Saturday's football game against Kansas State. Today, we look at the career of the "Colorado Comet," Don Campbell. This year’s Hall of Fame festivities begin Friday, October 17, with the induction ceremonies at the Omni Interlocken Hotel & Resort (5:30 p.m. reception, with induction ceremony at 7 p.m.). The honorees will be introduced publicly at halftime of Saturday's game.
Legendary CU track coach Frank Potts said of Don Campbell, “He is without question the greatest sprinter to ever come out of the University of Colorado. Not only that, but he is the greatest sprinter ever to come out of the Rocky Mountain Region.”
Campbell, nicknamed the Colorado Comet, certainly has the credentials to support that claim. He was a two-time Mountain States Conference champion in the 100- and 220-yard dashes (1946 and 1947) as well as the Big 7 Conference champion in both in 1949. He also was an All-American in the 100-yard dash in 1948 and earned the Russell Memorial Award as the region’s top amateur athlete in 1949.
Campbell’s goal, however, was to be able to see the world through his running. A Sterling, Colo. Native, Campbell was the state high school champion in the 100 and 220 as both a junior and a senior. He also was the national 220 junior champion. At a meet in Denver during his senior year of high school, Campbell’s efforts impressed Phil Cope, a graduate of Denver South High School and All-American hurdler from the University of Southern California. Cope spoke to Campbell and gave him a message that had an inspirational effect. “He told me, ?You may not be the world’s best, but you can be among the world’s best and you’ll have an opportunity to run all around the world.’ So that became my goal.”
Don Campbell won the Russell
Memorial Award as the region's
top amateur athlete in 1948. |
Then, World War II intervened and appeared to ruin that dream. In May of 1945, Campbell was wounded in the upper right thigh in the jungles at Luzon in the Philippines and was later awarded a Purple Heart. When he was discharged from the hospital and the service in October of 1945, Campbell was told he would never run again. “I asked the doctor, ?Will it hurt me to try?’” Campbell recalls. “He told me, ?No it won’t hurt to try.’ So that was my goal, to run again.” Campbell would run again, and at record speeds for CU.
While hospitalized in the Philippines, Campbell was able to get up and walk around the ward. At the other end of the ward, Campbell befriended a half-miler from the University of Montana who was unable to walk. In May of 1946, at Campbell’s first track meet for CU, held at the University of Denver, he ran the fastest time in his life up to that point. After his race Campbell heard a commotion from the stands and spotted this half-miler. His presence meant the world to Campbell who said, “From then on, things went very great for me at CU.”
Despite his numerous achievements at CU, Campbell is most proud of being the teammate of some outstanding people. Particularly fellow CU Athletic Hall of Famer David Bolen. Campbell and Bolen remain good friends to this day.
Campbell’s running prowess allowed him to represent the United States in sponsored tours to New Zealand, Norway, Finland, and South Africa, as well as the Pan American Games in Buenos Aires, Argentina, and Santiago, Chile. The Colorado Comet achieved his goal of running around the world and had many memorable experiences on these foreign trips. Campbell was just short of advancing to the 1948 London Olympics, finishing fifth in the 100 meters at the Olympic Trials. Only the top four advanced.
Campbell retired from competition in 1952 and entered the investment business. He is now retired and living in Santa Fe, N.M. where he remains an avid golfer.
“I loved to run fast,” Campbell recalls. “My goal was to be able to run fast enough to travel around the world, and by golly I could.” Indeed he could, one of the region’s all-time best sprinters.
