Bill Toomey (2004) - CU Athletic Hall of Fame - University of Colorado Athletics

Bill Toomey

Induction:
2004
Class:
1961

Two-Time Track All-American
1966 Amateur Athlete of the Year
Gold Medalist, Decathlon, 1968 Summer Olympics
Colorado Sports Hall of Fame Member

A two-time All-American in the pentathlon (1960, 1961), Bill Toomey is the only CU athlete to win a gold medal as an individual in the Olympics. In winning the decathlon at the 1968 summer games in Mexico City, he set a record at the time by scoring 8,193 points. At CU, he was considered one of the nation’s top five intermediate hurdlers and won numerous AAU national titles in both the pentathlon and decathlon. As a senior in 1961, he received the Alumni “C” Award for academic and scholastic achievement, graduating with a degree in advertising; he went on to earn his master’s in education from Stanford. He was the national Amateur Athlete of the Year for 1966, when he was the U.S.decathlon champion. In fact, Toomey won that event four straight years prior to his Olympic gold. A member of the Colorado Sports Hall of Fame, he was the fourth with CU ties when inducted in 1971.
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