Ken Carpenter

Who was Ken Carpenter?

William Kenneth Carpenter was the USC's first two-time NCAA champion in a weight event. In 1936, Carpenter captured the gold medal in the discus throw at the 1936 Summer Olympics with a toss of 50.48 meters. Between 1936 and 1940, he held the American record in discus and won the NCAA national title with a toss of 157 feet.

Carpenter graduated from Compton High School, where he was a track and field star. After attending USC, Carpenter went on to serve in the Navy and then began his career as a coach and teacher at the College of the Sequoias and Compton Community College.

Carpenter appears in Leni Riefenstahl's film of the 1936 Olympic Games, Olympia. He died at the age of 70 in 1984.

On May 26, 2012 Carpenter was inducted into the Compton Community College Athletics Hall of Fame, under the category of Track & Field/Cross Country.