Meet Salutes Milburn, Paxton
BOBBY ARDOIN
St. Landry Now.com Editor
The intertwined track careers of Opelousas Olympian gold medal hurdler Rodney Milburn and his longtime coach Claude Paxton were saluted on Friday with an inaugural Donald Gardner Stadium outdoor track meet that featured both their names.
“I think if my father was here to see this, he would be totally elated and excited that all his visions and his dreams were being recognized,” said Nichelle Milburn, the daughter of Rodney Milburn.
The first annual Milburn-Paxton Memorial Relays also celebrated the municipal vision of redesigning the 67-year-old stadium into a municipal track complex that now includes an outdoor track surface and a turfed football field.
Accompanied by daughter Kylie Bolden, Nichelle Milburn, now employed as a social worker in Lafayette, left the stadium with a key to the city and a proclamation, as athletes from three Opelousas area schools – Opelousas High, Opelousas Catholic and Westminster Christian — and others from North Central, Beau Chene and West St. Mary competed at a stadium where Rodney Milburn never was never allowed to participate.
Milburn, who set or tied world records in the 110-meter hurdles five times, won the Olympic gold medal at the 1972 Munich Games, died in a commercial accident at Port Hudson in 1997.
Paxton, the hardnosed coach who guided the career of Milburn at J.S. Clark High and later at Southern University, taught his young hurdler the successful technique of aiming a foot at a dime that was left while placed on a hurdle.
Nicknamed “Dice,” perhaps due to his success at playing that street game, Milburn was apparently the best high school hurdler in the nation when he graduated from J.S. Clark in 1969.
St. Landry Parish School Board vice-president Joyce Hayne, who graduated from J.S. Clark a year before Milburn, said it was appropriate that city officials were recognizing Milburn and Paxton.
“Both of them left a legacy that we are now realizing,” Haynes said.
“Coach Paxton (who died in 1995) had the type of voice that you respected and that if you weren’t going to get it done, then you had to get out of the way. Rodney was well-respected by and he was liked by everyone,” said Haynes.
Milburn, said Haynes, lived near J.S. Clark, which later became East Junior High and is now occupied by students at the Magnet Academy Of The Cultural Arts.
“Rodney lived somewhere around Leo (Street) or Melancon. However he did get around. I would see him sometimes around North Market, where he would visit a special girl,” Haynes recalled.
Opelousas Mayor Julius Alsandor called Milburn a trailblazer who, along with his coach,put the city on the national map during the late 1960’s.
Lena Charles, executive director of the Opelousas Downtown Development District, said the idea of an outdoor track at the stadium was first envisioned five years ago in order to help revitalize a community.
Charles pointed out that with the encouragement of Paxton, Milburn fulfilled a goal that she said was supported by a community.
The city and ODD, Charles said, had the same thing in mind when contemplating the stadium reconfiguration.
“We think the best way for our community to support our youths is to give them the tools they need to achieve,” Charles said during a dedication ceremony that preceded the running events.
Haynes said that Paxton, a New Jersey native who was part of an all-Black tank combat unit in World War II before coming to work at Clark a year after Milburn was born, paved the way for many young men in Opelousas.
“We must follow that example (of Paxton), which shows that we must guide and develop our young people like (Paxton) was able to do at J.S. Clark,” Haynes added.
Paxton and Milburn, said Alsandor, proved that “by diligence and commitment we are able to do anything in life.”
