And you�ve probably never heard of her.

A pioneer of women�s track and field, Margaret Johnson Bailes was a 17-year-old senior at Churchill High School when she ran the second leg on the 4x100 meters relay team that set a world record at the 1968 Olympic Games in Mexico City.

She would later become the first black female inducted into the Oregon Sports Hall of Fame, in 1991.

Her personal bests in the 100 meters (11.29 seconds) and 200 meters (22.95) � as compiled by Track & Field News magazine � still rank 12th and 11th, respectively, on the all-time list among U.S. high school girls.

In fact, 40 years later, those times remain the best marks in Oregon prep history.

Johnson Bailes was elevated from local phenom to international prominenceduring the late summer and early fall of 1968 when her exploits on the track earned her the distinction of being the world�s fastest woman.

She tied the 100-meter world record of 11.1 seconds twice on the same day at the National AAU Women�s Track & Field Championships in Aurora, Colo., a meet where she toppled the reigning Olympic champion, Wyomia Tyus, for the first time.

"She had never heard of me," chuckled Johnson Bailes, 57, who now lives and works in San Diego as a contract manager for American Water Co. "She was wondering, �Who is this little girl from Oregon?�e_SEnS"

Johnson Bailes went on to earn a spot on the U.S. team that would compete at the Mexico City Olympics by winning the 200 and taking second in the 100 at the U.S. Women�s Olympic Track & Field Trials in Walnut, Calif.

However, she contracted pneumonia at a pre-Olympic training camp in Denver, which affected her performance in the Olympic Games. In her weakened state of health, she struggled to make the final in both sprints, settling for fifth in the 100 and seventh in the 200.

But she finally got her gold medal in the 4x100 relay as the U.S. team won with a world-record time of 42.8 seconds.

"Yes, I was disappointed, but the relay made up for it," Johnson Bailes said. "I would have won if I hadn�t been sick. I have no doubt about that."

When she flew home to Eugene in late October, early in her senior year, there were hundreds of well-wishers waiting to greet her at the airport. Festivities were planned in her honor: A downtown parade on Margaret Johnson Bailes Day, the presentation of the keys to the city, two billboards praising her efforts, and a special assembly at Churchill High School.

"I remember getting off the plane and it looked to me as if every person in Eugene was at the airport," Johnson Bailes said. "That surprised me, and when they gave me the keys to the city, I thought I could go to any store downtown and pick out what I wanted. That tells you how young I was."

One of those in the airport reception party was her husband, Eddie Bailes. They�d been married in the summer of 1967 when she was just 16.

Johnson Bailes spent the ensuing months of her senior year catching up on her homework and training for a summer tour on the European track circuit.

In May, however, she found out she was five months pregnant. Her husband had already moved to Oakland to pursue a job opportunity, and she would soon leave Churchill to join him.

"I was devastated," she said. "I never raced again."

�She oozed talent�

Johnson Bailes was born in the Bronx in 1951.

Her father, Albert "Duke" Johnson, was a bass player for Eddie Cole, the brother of Nat King Cole. During his travels to the West Coast, he once passed through Eugene and determined it would be a good place to raise his three daughters.

So, he uprooted his family and moved to Oregon when she was 5 years old.

One day, when Johnson Bailes was 9, she remembers walking past Hayward Field on her way to the movies with a friend. There were kids everywhere. Johnson Bailes and her friend wondered what all the commotion was about, and after discovering it was an all-comer�s track meet, they used their movie funds to enter a couple of events.

"It looked like fun," said Johnson Bailes, who won the 100 despite wearing a dress and regular shoes. "I didn�t know anything about track then, and this lady came up to me and asked me who my coach was. I said, �What�s that?� "

That lady turned out to be Wendy Jerome, the wife of famed UO sprinter Harry Jerome. At the time, she was a physical education teacher at Willamette High School, and also coached a local track club.

Jerome, a native of Canada, as was her husband, recalled watching this "tall, skinny black girl" wander across three lanes as she motored to the finish line.

"She oozed talent," said Jerome, who would soon become Johnson Bailes� coach. "Margaret had no style at all, but there was a strength and a determination about her. Most of her early training was teaching her how to run in one lane."

Three years later, Jerome founded the first girls� track club in Eugene � the Bethel Cinder-Ellas � and Johnson Bailes was her star pupil.

It could be a painful road because there were few opportunities for female athletes to compete, and when they did, they were often ridiculed. For Johnson Bailes, it didn�t help that she was a young black girl growing up in a nearly all-white environment during a time of social upheaval.

"We had some problems in Eugene when I was coming up," Johnson Bailes said. "I got called the �N� word walking down the street or going to school sometimes. ... There were only about four or five of us, and maybe that was their way of trying to get next to us. But I knew you were not supposed to say that, and we�d start fighting."

"It was hard for her," Jerome said. "It wasn�t just being black, it was being a girl involved in sports in Eugene. ... When I started the club, we were bad-mouthed by people who thought it was a terrible thing to have girls running and competing."

Soon, however, victories began piling up.