Biography and Background

Highlights as of June 2011

1992 IronMan Age Group Winners Podium• Competed in 119 triathlons
• Competed in 6 and completed 4 IronMan competitions in Hawaii, finishing 1st for USA and 3rd in the world (1992-97)
• Inducted into the East Carolina University Athletic Hall of Fame (1993)
Multi-Year member of the USA Triathlon All-American team (since 1993)
• Member of the age 60 and over mile relay team that broke the world age group record (4:43) (1982)
• Selected by the Mary Brogan Museum of Art and Science and featured in the Wisdom of the Ages exhibit as one of 27 senior citizens outstanding in their field (2005)
• Official ITU world age group champion for Olympic distance (2001 Edmonton & 2005 Honolulu)
• Oldest Person to Finish a USA Triathlon-sanctioned Duathlon and Triathlon (May and June 2011 at age 90)

An Active Life of Accomplishments

• Born August 9, 1920 in Tuscaloosa, Alabama.1942 Baseball Uniform at East Carolina University
• Raised in Greenville, NC.
• Elected president of the Varsity Club at East Carolina Teachers College in Greenville (now East Carolina University).
• Captain of the Baseball Team at East Carolina – batted .404 during his senior year.
• Graduated East Carolina Teachers College in Greenville (now E.C. University) June 1, 1942.
• Entered U.S. Air Force June 2, 1942. Served 45 months active duty as a physical training instructor at Bainbridge, GA airbase. Discharged December 1945.
• Attended the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill 1946. Played on the varsity baseball team. 
• Left school to play professional baseball in the Coastal Plain League. 
• Began high school coaching in Laurel, MD in 1947. 
• Coached all major sports (including soccer, a sport he had never played!). 
• Started high school football at Laurel High School in 1949 (there was no H.S. football prior to this). His football teams did very well. His 1955 football team was undefeated and ranked 7th amongst all high schools in the Washington, D.C. area.
• Retired from senior high school coaching in 1958. Began a career of classroom teaching in US history and government in junior high school (equivalent to middle schools in Texas). Continued to teach boys physical education. Charlie with Exercise Machine 1980's
Sylvester StalloneNote: One of Charlie’s students at Montgomery Hills Junior High School was Sylvester Stallone in 8th grade history and Physical Education. He was 13 years old, and was a tremendous athlete even then. He later of course, went on to fame as Rocky, then Rambo, and many other movie characters.
• Pursued and obtained a Master’s Degree in Education from Univ. of Maryland in 1962. Held highest available teaching certificate from state of Maryland’s Department of Education.
• When Charlie retired from teaching in 1976, he weighed 226 lbs.
• Took up jogging in 1978, with a pair of $3 shoes bought on a bargain table at a discount warehouse. He made it almost all the way around the block on his first jog. This was the beginning of his running career.
• In 1980, he ran his first road race, a 5K run (3.1 miles) in Safety Harbor, FL. He surprised himself by actually finishing the race.
• Since 1980, he has competed in over 400 road races of varying distances. From 5Ks (3.1 miles) to marathon Florida Festival Marathon finish photodistances (26.2 miles). Most races have been 10Ks (6.2 miles). He has competed against many famous runners, such as Boston’s John Kelly, who ran in over 50 Boston Marathons, and Jim Ryun (pronounced as “run”), who is well known for being the first high schooler to break the 4-minute mile (not to be confused with Roger Bannister, a 25-year-old British medical student, who became the first man to run a mile in less than four minutes).
• In 1982, Charlie was a member of a mile relay team of athletes age 60 and over. They broke the world record for that age group in a time of 4 minutes 43 seconds flat (4:43:00). In that event, they were competing against the Men’s 50 and Older Puerto Rico National Team. 
• For many years, he trained in the mountains of western North Carolina near Asheville with Lynn Edwards, one of the top senior female athletes in the world, and with Jim Ward in Florida, also considered a top senior triathlete in the world. 
• Jim Ward got Charlie interested in doing triathlons in 1985, when he was 65 years old. 
Over the years, Charlie has competed in many prestigious triathlons around the US.
• In 1992, Charlie entered his first World Championship IronMan® event in Kona, Hawaii. 
• In his first IronMan® race, Charlie finished 3rd in the world for his age group, and 1st from the US. The two 1994 Gatorade IronMan Medal Photofellows who beat him then were from Germany and from Australia. 
• In 1994’s IronMan®, Charlie was 3rd in the world again. 
• Charlie competed in 6 consecutive IronMans 1992-1997. He completed 3 official races, and one unofficial one. 
• Charlie has competed in other IronMan® distances in the US since then. 
• He won the world championship Olympic distance (1 mile swim, 25 mile bike race, and a 10K run) for his age group in Edmonton, Alberta, Canada in 2001 when he was 81 years old. 
• In 2005, he won the ITU (International Triathlon Union) world championship in Honolulu, HI for his age group when he was 85. 
• Over his racing career, Charlie has been on many All-America teams named by USA Triathlon, the governing body for triathlons in the US, and by Inside Triathlon magazine. 
• In 1993, Charlie was inducted in the East Carolina University Athletic Hall of Fame
• In 1999, Charlie moved from Brevard, NC to The Villages in central Florida. 
• In 2005, Charlie was selected by the Mary Brogan Museum of Art and Science in Tallahassee, FL, as one of the 27 senior citizens age 80 or over, who were outstanding in their field (Charlie’s was athletics), to be featured in the Wisdom of the Ages exhibit, sponsored by the Florida Department of Elder Affairs. This exhibit was on loan to museums around the US, and was being considered for loan to the Smithsonian Institute in Washington, DC.
• In 2006, Charlie was ranked #1 in his age group by USA Triathlon.
• Charlie has been featured in several magazines and newspaper features as a top senior triathlete. M2011 Clermont Florida Triathlon Series Finish Lineedia features have appeared in the Orlando Sentinel, Tampa Tribune, St. Petersburg Times, Honolulu Star Bulletin, Highlands Today, and many others. More ...
• In April 2007, Charlie competed in his 17th St. Anthony’s Olympic Distance Triathlon in St. Petersburg, FL. 
• Charlie won 12 medals in the 2011 Florida Senior Games, qualifying for the National Senior Games in Houston, TX in the 500 Freestyle, the 50 Backstroke, and the 200 Freestyle. He set a Florida Senior Games record in the 500 yard freestyle swim for men 90 and over.
• On May 14, 2011, Charlie became the first person over 90 years old to complete a USA-Triathlon sanctioned Duathlon with a time of 2:09:07 at the Central Florida Duathlon Series in Clermont, Florida.
• On June 11, 2011, Charlie became the oldest person to ever complete an officially sanctioned Triathlon at the Central Florida Triathlon Series in Clermont, Florida, with a time of 2:18:38.
• Charlie was married to his very supportive wife, Peggy since 1946. They celebrated their 62 years of marriage on November 9, 2008, before she passed away at age 93 in January 2009.

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