August 4, 1984

Al Joyner of Jonesboro (Craighead County) won the gold medal in the triple jump event at the Olympic Games in Los Angeles, the first American in eight decades to win the event and the first African American ever to do so. He attended Arkansas State University (ASU), where he later returned as a coach, and was the winner of the prestigious Jim Thorpe award, honoring the best American field athlete at the Olympics. He also married track legend Florence Griffith, who came to be known as “Flo Jo” after her marriage to Joyner.