University of Minnesota Athletics

Fortune Gordien - M Club Hall of Fame

GordienFortune Gordien
Men’s Track & Field, 1946-48
HOF Class of 1991

After a two-year break in his education for World War II, Fortune Gordien returned to the University of Minnesota to become the state's premier track and field star of the era.
In 1948, he led the Gophers to their first-ever NCAA track and field national championship, the follow-up to their third-place finish the previous year. In the successful team-title campaign, Gordien won his third consecutive NCAA discus title.

The four-time All-American was a three-time Big Ten champion, a six-time AAU national champion, and a three-time Olympian (1948, 1952 and 1956). He won an Olympic bronze medal in 1948 and added a silver in 1956.

In 1953, in Pasadena, Calif., he set a world record discus throw of 194 feet, 6 inches that stood for more than a decade. Gordien was inducted to the Helms Hall of Fame in 1953, and into the USA Track & Field Hall of Fame in 1979. Retiring from athletic competition in the early 1960s, he became a high school teacher and coach.