Hall of Fame
Harold Keith was born in Lambert in 1903 and attended Northwestern in the early 1920’s before transferring to the University of Oklahoma. He ran track at Northwestern as a distance runner under legendary coach Frank Wyatt. He was an award-winning trickster at OU before earning fame as the pioneering and long-time sports publicist at OU from 1930-69. He founded the College Sports Information Directors of America organization and was inducted into the Oklahoma Sports Hall of Fame in 1987.
He authored 16 books, mostly for children, and won the coveted Newberry Award in 1958 for “Rifles for Watie”. He was inducted into the Oklahoma Writers Hall of Fame in 1991.
Keith’s other interests included singing in a barbershop quartet named the OU Field House Four and was a jogger long before it became popular. He was the 1928 Peen Relays steeplechase winner and continued to run well into his 90’s. In 1973, he broke the U.S. Masters national records for men 70 and over in the two and three mile runs and bettered the 10,000-meter record in the same age group in 1974.
Keith died on Feb. 24, 1998, at the age of 94.
