Professional Sprinter
Moulton developed a reputation as a foot racer while living on the frontier, and later became a professional sprinter. It was while working in the west as a scout that Moulton's talent as a sprinter was discovered. One published story recounts the circumstance as follows:
One morning ... a young buffalo was sighted and because the horses were all picketed, the plainsmen were forced to give chase on foot. Moulton outdistanced them all, gained two hundred yards on the buffalo, no doubt very tired from trailing its herd, and succeeded in shooting it down. Thereafter, his name was a by-word on the plains. He did not lose a race that year.
Moulton was considered the American sprinting champion from 1872 to 1878. According to one account, he won 303 consecutive races. According to another account, he lost only four of 306 contests in which he entered.
Read more about this topic: Edward Moulton
Famous quotes containing the word professional:
“Smoking ... is downright dangerous. Most people who smoke will eventually contract a fatal disease and die. But they don’t brag about it, do they? Most people who ski, play professional football or drive race cars, will not die—at least not in the act—and yet they are the ones with the glamorous images, the expensive equipment and the mythic proportions. Why this should be I cannot say, unless it is simply that the average American does not know a daredevil when he sees one.”
—Fran Lebowitz (b. 1950)