Current Nominees

• Athlete

Lillian Greene excelled in the 400 and 800 in the mid to late '50s as a teenager competing for the NYC PAL. She was of HS age, 17, when in 1958 as a Hunter College sophomore, she won the first AAU 880 staged since 1928. She graduated HS at 15 because she was a brilliant student. That summer of '58, at 17, Greene competed abroad for the US team in several intl. dual meets. In the first US-Soviet meet ever, in Moscow, Greene took 3rd in the 800 in a US record 2:19.4. In the next competition against Poland in Warsaw, she took 3rd in a US record 2:18.8. Against Hungary in Budapest, 3rd again in another US record, 2:18.6. She also ran the 400, winning in a US record 58.4. Against Greece in Athens, she capped her summer tour with an easy 2:25.7 800 victory. Greene went on as a pioneer in her many her pursuits, starting with integrating the U-Colorado track squad. She would earn two masters' degrees, a Ph.D from Fordham, become an international renowned educator and, among other honors, become the first woman and first American appointed director of the UNESCO Physical Education and Sport Program, with headquarters in Paris.