Henry Rono, Washington State: Collegiate Athlete Hall of Fame, Class of 2022

A fictional Phileas Fogg took 80 days to go around the world, but during that time in 1978 Henry Rono broke four world records in four events, clocking times that even Jules Verne couldn’t have imagined.

Rono had earned two NCAA cross country titles, as well as an indoor 2-mile crown, before his glorious stretch of record breaking began in the spring of 1978 – shockingly setting his first WR of 13:08.4 in the 5000 in a collegiate triangular meet. A week later he set a CR in the steeplechase, which he demolished in mid-May with a WR of 8:05.4 – still the CR to this day.

Rono didn’t set any WRs at the 1978 NCAA Championships, where he became the first – and still only – athlete to set multiple meet records in distance events on the same day (8:18.6 steeple and 13:21.8 in the 5000 – both in preliminary heats!). A sore foot caused him to scratch the 10k final and limited him to just one final total that year, taking the steeple in 8:12.39 – still the meet record.

Rono finished June 1978 with his final two WRs in Europe – 27:22.4 in the 10k, 7:32.1 in the 3k. The 10k mark lasted as an all-dates CR until 2010, while the 3000 time is still the all-dates best.

He added NCAA titles in cross country and the steeplechase in 1979, bringing his career total in each to three and two, respectively, for a grand total of six in all events.