He competed in the men's 20 kilometres walk at the 1976 Summer Olympics.

[2] He competed on the track and field team at Lynchburg College in the 1960s, and graduated with a chemistry degree in 1970.

[3] He is a member of the University of Lynchburg Sports Hall of Fame.

[4] He was selected for the Olympic team in 1980, but the U.S. boycotted the games.

A 2014 alumni magazine of Virginia Tech, where he was a graduate student in 1980, described his disappointment: "You just spent four years making progress and improvement, and you end up not being able to use it.