"Crawford was first inflicted with ALS in 2001. He started to lose the use of his arms but tried to keep running by holding his arms close to his body with a sling. Eventually he had to quit running. He was also an enthusiastic artist, a talent that he also was forced to forfeit."
Second Glance: Walt Crawford, 1949-2006 By Mike Prizy October 2006 Chicago Athlete African American pioneer marathoner In the late 1960s, Walt Crawford, a slightly built black man from Hyde Park High School on Chicago's South Side, where basketball rules, enrolled at Eastern Illinois University and went out for the cross country team. The move was bold and uncommon--the American running boom happened a few years later, in the early 1970s, and spread first with white males. http://www.chicagoaa.com/features/oct06secondglance.html
