Godbold, Lucile, 1900-1981

Lucile Ellerbe Godbold (May 31, 1900 – April 5, 1981)[3] was an American track and field athlete. She competed in the long jump and several running and throwing events at the 1922 Women's World Games, also known as the First International Games for Women, and won a gold medal in the shot put and a bronze in the javelin throw; she finished fourth in the 300 m and 1000 m races.[1][4][5]

In 1922 Godbold graduated in physical education from the Winthrop College and in September of that year she began a 58-year teaching career at Columbia College in Columbia, South Carolina. During her time at the college, 'Miss Ludy' as she was affectionately known, became a local legend; in time, an annual touch football game was begun by the students in her honor and was named the 'Ludy Bowl.' Although the exact date is uncertain, it is believed the first Ludy Bowl took place on the campus of the college somewhere between 1952 and 1955 and is still played today during the college's Homecoming Weekend. In 1961, Godbold became the first woman to be inducted into the South Carolina Sports Hall of Fame.[6] In 1971 Columbia College's new physical education center was named in her honor.[4]

Lucile Ellerbe “Miss Ludy” Godbold
BIRTH 31 May 1900
Marion, Marion County, South Carolina, USA
DEATH 5 Apr 1981 (aged 80)
Columbia, Richland County, South Carolina, USA
BURIAL
Lawtonville Cemetery
Estill, Hampton County, South Carolina, USA

The State newspaper
Columbia. South Carolina
Tuesday, April 7, 1981
Services Today for Miss Godbold
Services for Miss Lucile Ellerbe Godbold will be held at 11 a.m. today at College Place United Methodist Church, conducted by the Rev. Dr. Harris Parker and the Rev. Charles G. Pfeiffer. Burial will be at 4:30 p.m. in Lawtonville Cemetery at Estill, conducted by the Rev. Bill Childs.
Ms. Godbold, 80, who won six Olympic medals in Paris in 1922, died Sunday at Forest Hills Nursing Center.
Born in Marion, she was the daughter of William Asa and Lucie Ellerbe Godbold.
She was a graduate of Winthrop College, where she broke three American records in track and field events and qualified to go to Mamaroneck, N. Y., for an event which would soon be tabbed the first modern Olympic Games.
The names of “Ms. Ludy” and her late sister, Miss Sarah Ellerbe Godbold, who died September 13, 1979, have been synonymous with youth and athletics for over a half-century.
Miss Godbold assumed the position as physical education professor at Columbia College in September 1922. In an interview in 1979, she said that she had enjoyed every minute of it. “I think I'm a better teacher every year I teach.”
She said she had taught every physical education course offered at Columbia College with the exception of dance and golf. She never missed a class in 53 years because of sickness.
Although she did not teach football, the college's annual powder puff football game was named the “Ludy Bowl” in her honor.
She was instrumental in getting a physical education major started in 1976. She considers her greatest honor to be the dedication of the physical education center at Columbia College, “Godbold Center" in her honor.
Among her other honors was the first woman elected to South Carolina's Athletic Hall of Fame, she was chosen for Who's Who in American Sports and she was included in the first edition of Who's Who of American women.
She once said that her philosophy of life was “You plan your best and then if you win or lose, it doesn't matter. We don't stop playing because we grow old, we grow old because we stop playing.”
The family suggests that those who wish they make memorials to the Ludy Godbold Scholarship Fund at Columbia College.