ARLINGTON, Texas – On Thursday afternoon, members of the UTA men's and women's track and field teams had the opportunity to meet United States' gold medalist Earl Young, who was on the UT Arlington campus encouraging people to register to become potential bone marrow donors.
 
Young, a member of the 1960 Olympic gold medal-winning and world-record-setting 4x400m U.S. relay team, spoke to members of the Mavericks with his gold medal on hand. In 1960, Young was just a 19-year-old sophomore at Abilene Christian University when he became the Olympic Games' youngest ever track and field gold medalist.
 
Over his career, he was a part of four world records, including the 4x400m time of 3:02.2 in the finals of the 1960 Olympic Games in Rome. Individually, he placed sixth in the 400 meters at the 1960 Olympics with a time of 45.9.
 
Young ultimately appeared on the Sports Illustrated cover in June of 1961 and won two gold medals at the 1963 Pan Am Games. He was inducted into the Texas Track and Field Coaches Hall of Fame in 2015.
 
In 2011, Young was diagnosed with acute myeloid leukemia, and the bleak prognosis demanded an immediate bone marrow transplant. Since winning his battle against leukemia, his mission has been simple ­– to give more blood cancer patients the second chance at life that he was so grateful to receive.
 
His organization, Earl Young's Team, partners with DKMS, an international nonprofit organization dedicated to the fight against blood cancer and blood disorders, to raise awareness for the need for more marrow donors in the U.S. by holding registration drives at universities and at large companies. To date, his efforts have helped add nearly 10,000 new potential lifesavers to the bone marrow registry.

To register as a donor, visit DKMS.org/register.
 
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