Education
He attended Howland High School and a college at Southern University and Agricultural and Mechanical College in Baton Rouge, Louisiana.
athletics competitor bobsledder
He attended Howland High School and a college at Southern University and Agricultural and Mechanical College in Baton Rouge, Louisiana.
He competed in the 110 m hurdlers at the 1964, 1968, 1972 and 1976 Summer Olympics, winning a gold medal in 1968 and a bronze in 1976, and finishing fourth in 1972. In 1980 he took part in the Winter Olympics as a runner for the American bobsleigh team Because of the boycott, and the quirk of participating in the Winter Olympics, he was the only United States. track and field athlete to participate in the 1980 Olympics.
Davenport took part in his first Olympics in 1964, but injured his thigh and was eliminated in the semifinals.
At his last Olympics in 1980 he was a bobsleigh runner, ending up 12th in the four-man competition. By participating in the 1980 Bobsleigh, Willie became the first African American to compeat in the Winter Olympics for the United States of America. Davenport was a United States. Army private at the time of his first Olympic participation, he was a Colonel in the United States Army National Guard at the time of his death.
He died of a heart attack at age 59 at Chicago"s O"Hare International Airport on June 17, 2002. He was survived by daughter Tanya, sons Willie and Mark and fiancee Barbara Henry.
In 1977 he was inducted into the Mountain.
SAC Relays Hall of Fame, and in 1982 into the National Track and Field Hall of Fame.