BEREA, OHIO -- Baldwin Wallace University graduate Harrison Dillard '49 visited campus today (Thursday, August 7, 2008) before departing for Beijing, China to attend the 2008 Summer Olympic Games.

The Games will be Dillard's first overseas Olympics as a spectator since he earned two gold medals in the 1948 Summer Games in London, England.

Dillard, 85, had the opportunity to meet with various media outlets as well as have lunch with BW President Dick Durst and Athletic Director Kris Diaz and film an interview to be posted on the BW athletics website at a later date.

Dillard was a four-time Olympic gold champion. He earned gold in the 100-meter dash and as a member of the 4x100-meter relay team in London in 1948 and then won gold in the the 110-meter high hurdles and as a member of the 400 relay squad at the 1952 Olympic Games Helsinki, Finland.  His first Olympic triumphs occured while he was still a student-athlete at BW under track and field coach Eddie Finnigan.

Dillard is a charter member of the Olympic Hall of Fame and also a member of the BW Lettermen's, National Track and Field, United States Track and Field, Black Athletic and Greater Cleveland Sports Commission halls of fame. Overall, Dillard is a member of nine or 10 halls of fame.

Following graduation from the College in 1949, Dillard worked in a number of various capacities before finding a home and having a 27-year career in the business department at the Cleveland Board of Education and then rising to the Business Manager before retiring in 1993.

FOR MORE INFORMATION, please contact sports information director Kevin Ruple at (440) 826-2327, via fax at (440) 826-2329, or by e-mail at kruple@bw.edu.