David Benjamin BOLEN

Dave Bolen started in sports as a basketball player at Louisiana Normal High School, but was soon recruited to the track team when his speed was evident. He first attended Southern University, but dropped out to enlist in the Army in 1943, serving in World War II and being discharged in 1946. He then enrolled at the University of Colorado. At Colorado he was runner-up in the 440 yards to Jamaican star Herb McKenley in both 1946 and 1947. Bole won the AAU indoor 600 yard champion in 1948-49. Outdoors, his best finish at the AAU meet was second in the 400 in 1947. Bolen’s career was in foreign relations and he went on to become ambassador to Botswana, Lesotho and Swaziland in 1974 and the German Democratic Republic in 1977. In September 2000, Bolen was inducted into the University of Colorado Athletic Hall of Fame.

Personal Bests: 440y – 46.7 (1947); 400H – 53.0 (1948).