Tom Courtney, a Fordham University graduate who with a homestretch surge and a lunge at the tape won a furious 800-meter run by inches in the 1956 Melbourne Olympics, capturing the gold medal for the United States, died on Tuesday at an assisted living facility in Naples, Fla. He was 90.
The cause was amyloidosis, his son, Tom Jr., said.
Courtney, a 23-year-old Army private at the time, was not the favorite going into the 1956 Games; that distinction belonged to a fellow American, Arnie Sowell, a University of Pittsburgh senior who had repeatedly defeated Courtney throughout their college careers, even though Courtney had a string of triumphs of his own at Fordham.