Education
University of Southern California.
University of Southern California.
Born in Richton, Mississippi, as the ninth of ten children to a sportive family. Cochran played football and was a one-man track team in the high school. Commodore later became also his coach.
After winning the Amateur Athletic Union championships in 400 m hurdles in 1939, Cochran was selected to the 1940 United States Olympic team to run 400 m flat, 400 m hurdles and 4x400 m relay race.
But when the 1940 Summer Olympics were cancelled due to the World World War II, Cochran entered the V-7 Navy officer training course in 1942, and went to Miami for training in the Navy"s Sub Chaser Training School. He served in the Pacific during the war and attended the University of Southern California in pursuit of graduate degrees in physiology after the war.
In the Olympic final Duncan White from Ceylon went off at a terrific pace, but by half distance Cochran was ahead. In 2010 he joined the National Track and Field Hall of Fame.