“Marvelous Mal” Whitfield Stars Over Two Laps

Mal Whitfield of Ohio State didn’t win every time he ran – just enough to earn the nickname “Marvelous Mal.”

Whitfield won back-to-back NCAA 800-meter/880-yard titles in 1948 and 1949, the last of which equaled the 880-yard meet record of 1:50.3 established by Pittsburgh’s John Woodruff in 1937. Whitfield’s first NCAA final came as a freshman in 1946, when he finished second.

In the summer between his NCAA wins, Whitfield remarkably won three medals at the 1948 London Olympics – gold in both the 800 and 4×400 relay, plus bronze in the 400 – and earned the nickname “Marvelous Mal” from his teammates.

While a student at Ohio State (a school recommended to him by Jesse Owens), Whitfield doubled as a staff sergeant in the U.S. Army Air Forces, for whom he served after graduating from Jefferson High School in Los Angeles in 1943 and became a member of the Tuskegee Airmen, a segregated group of black military pilots during World War II.

Whitfield was called back into military action shortly after the 1949 season ended. Somehow during the Korean War – among 27 combat missions as a tail gunner with the newly created U.S. Air Force (now integrated) – he managed to train enough to defend his Olympic 800-meter title, winning gold in Helsinki.

“In Korea, he once trained for the Games between bombing missions, running on runways at night with a .45-caliber automatic strapped to his side,” wrote Frank Litsky of the New York Times in Whitfield’s 2015 obituary (He died that year on November 19 at age 91).

Whitfield’s post-competition career saw him spend almost 50 years as a goodwill ambassador of athletics, primarily in Africa. The mayor of Nairobi, Kenya, told Time magazine in 1955 that Whitfield was “something like a Billy Graham of the sports world.” One of Whitfield’s protégés was Kip Keino, a two-time Olympic 1500 gold medalist for Kenya (1968 and 1972), who described him as “the father of organized athletics in Africa.”

Ewen Was A True Triple Threat At NCAAs

Maggie Ewen of Arizona State is the only woman in the storied history of the NCAA Division I Outdoor Track & Field Championships to win national titles in three different throwing events.

Here’s the kicker: Ewen nearly accomplished that feat in a single year.

Ewen entered the 2018 campaign with an already impressive resume from 2017. In addition to winning the national title in the hammer with a then-collegiate-record-setting heave of 73.32m (240-7), Ewen placed runner-up in the discus and sixth in the shot to lead all scorers that year.

READ MORE: Arizona State’s Maggie Ewen Leaves Her Mark

Well, after winning the indoor national title in the shot and notching the fourth best mark in collegiate history of 19.20m (63-0) earlier in the season, Ewen asserted herself as the odds-on favorite to win that event outdoors. Ewen only cemented that fact in late April at the Desert Heat Classic when she broke Raven Saunders’ two-year-old collegiate outdoor record by more than five inches at 19.46m (63-10¼) and posted six other all-time top-10 marks during the year.

Winning the discus would present the toughest challenge with defending champion Shadae Lawrence of Kansas State standing in the way. Lawrence, who captured the 2017 crown with only the eighth winning mark of more than 200 feet since 1984, qualified first out of the West Preliminary Round the year with a heave of 62.10m (203-9) that made her the sixth best performer in NCAA Championships history at the time.

As it turns out, for better or worse, Ewen only needed to focus on the discus and shot in Eugene, Oregon. That’s because, even though she dominated the hammer during the regular season and bettered her collegiate record to 74.53m (244-6) – among five other all-time top-10 marks – Ewen failed to advance out of the West Preliminary Round after recording three fouls.

Nothing flustered Ewen at Hayward Field, however, as she took command of the leaderboard early in the shot and came from behind to win the discus. Ewen could have won the shot with her opening salvo of 18.74m (61-5¾), but bettered that to 19.17m (62-10¾) for the second best mark in meet history behind Saunders’ former collegiate record. Then it was in the discus where Ewen fell to third place after Lawrence’s sixth attempt, yet proved resolute and launched the implement 60.48m (198-5) through the rain on her final throw to complete the first double in those events since 2000.

Ewen was a two-time finalist for The Bowerman, once in 2017 and then again in 2018.

Wanamaker Wins Inaugural Decathlon Title

It was hard to miss Rick Wanamaker at the 1970 NCAA Division I Outdoor Track & Field Championships.

At 6-8, the Drake star looked more like a basketball player – and he was! Wanamaker was the center on the Bulldogs basketball team that nearly upset eventual national champion UCLA in the Final Four a year earlier in a surprisingly close game (85-82). While Drake lost to the Bruins, Wanamaker scored nine points, grabbed seven rebounds and famously blocked a shot attempt by 7-0 Lew Alcindor, who would soon become Kareem Abdul-Jabbar.

Wanamaker, a native of Marengo, Iowa, also stood out as the only hometown athlete – Drake Stadium was hosting the NCAA meet for the first time – given a chance to become the third Bulldog to win an NCAA title (The other two were Linn Philson in the 1936 high jump and Jim Ford in the 1952 200-meter dash).

And, of all events, it was the decathlon – the historic first held at the NCAA Championships.

Halfway through the two-day event, Wanamaker trailed favored Jorma Vesala of Cal State Los Angeles by 36 points, but a solid second day gave Wanamaker the victory with 7406 points. It was a 207-point victory for Wanamaker and a PR by 203 points.

Wanamaker’s performance was so good that it gave him cause to reconsider a pro basketball career (He had been drafted by the Cleveland Cavaliers – a franchise that would be playing its first season in the NBA the following year – and had until noon the next day to accept the offer). “I’d made up my mind to go yesterday, but I’m not sure I will now,” he told the media afterwards. “It’s a tough decision and I’m sure I’ll be thinking about it all night.”

Wanamaker ended up declining the basketball offer to pursue his Olympic dreams. In 1971, he improved his PR to 7989 points and was the top American – but was unfortunately injured the week of the 1972 Olympic Trials and didn’t make the U.S. team.

SMU’s Connor Bounds To Triple Jump Greatness

It’s been 38 years and still no one has broken the meet record Keith Connor of SMU set in the triple jump at the 1982 NCAA Division I Outdoor Track & Field Championships in Provo, Utah. The only field event meet record that is older was achieved with an implement no longer in use.

Connor’s high-altitude mark – 17.57m (57-7¾) – broke the previous meet record by more than a foot and was the second-longest ever in the world at the time. He won the meet by a then-record margin of 76 centimeters (2-5¾”) and also notched the eighth best performance in world history of 17.29m (56-8¾).

It wasn’t the first NCAA title for Connor, a British native born in Caribbean islands of Anguilla. His previous absolute best came a year earlier when he claimed the NCAA Indoor title with a world indoor best of 17.31m (56-9½).

“I thought I could jump 57-5,” Connor said in the interview tent afterwards. “But now that I’ve hit a big jump, I want to improve my consistency. I’m reaching a good plateau in my progress. I’m sorting myself out now; I’m not record hungry. Last year I did well early indoors and then I peaked out and had a bad outdoor season. This year I’m not hitting a peak early. I’m working through the outdoor season.”

Connor repeated as NCAA Outdoor champion in 1983 with a jump of 17.26m (56-7½) – which was the best in meet history at low altitude – over Al Joyner (Arkansas State) and Michael Conley (Arkansas), a talented duo that would be Olympic gold and silver medalists in 1984.

Those first-place points Connor earned in 1983, which would be his final time competing in an SMU uniform, buoyed the Mustangs to their first of two national crowns in track & field. SMU topped Tennessee by two points, in what would be the closest 1-2 finish for the men’s team title in meet history since 1968.

Hail Lorenzo! Daniel Sprints To 200-Meter Records

Lorenzo Daniel of Mississippi State saved his best for last.

In becoming just the second man in the history of the NCAA Division I Outdoor Track & Field Championships to make four 200-meter finals, Daniel won his only NCAA crown in 1988 with a meet and collegiate record of 19.87. It wasn’t even close: Daniel won by 0.33 seconds, tying the second largest margin of victory in meet history since 1948 (UCLA’s Greg Foster also won by 0.33 seconds in 1979).

The ink on the old 200 CR had barely dried, having been set less than three weeks earlier by – you guessed it – Daniel, himself, in 19.93, a mark that he used to win a record fourth-straight crown at the SEC Outdoor Championships. The old NCAA meet record of 20.16, set by Clancy Edwards of Southern California in 1978, was comparably ancient.

Daniel’s all-time standards lasted a bit longer than those he struck down. While his collegiate record would later be tied (Florida’s John Capel, 1999) and eventually broken (Tennessee’s Justin Gatlin went 19.86 in 2002 at the SEC Championships, coincidentally held on Mississippi State’s campus in Starkville), Daniel’s meet record held strong until 2019. That’s when The Bowerman finalist Divine Oduduru of Texas Tech clocked 19.73 to complete the fourth sweep of the 100-200 since the turn of the decade (Capel had also equaled the 19.87 MR in 1999).

Victory in the 200 was a long time coming for Daniel, who joined Indiana’s Charlie Peters from 1947-50 as the only men in meet history with four-straight final appearances. Daniel had been frustrated with his performances in the previous three years, which included a pair of eighth-place finishes in 1986 and 1987.

“Each year I came in with the fastest time and I disappointed everybody, including myself,” Daniel explained to Joe Illuzzi of UPI. “It was mostly because I was thinking about what the other guys were going to do. This year I forgot about that. I just felt like I was going to run a good time and not worry about anyone else.”

One of those fastest times he referred to was a 20.07 as a 19-year-old freshman at Mississippi State in 1985. It was a world U20 record that lasted 19 years until Usain Bolt ran 19.93 in 2004. It still survives as the best by an American at that age.

Talented Twins Dominate Pole Vault Podium

Don’t worry, collegiate track & field fans: You weren’t seeing double.

From 2016 to 2019, twin sisters Lexi Jacobus and Tori Hoggard (both formerly Weeks) starred in the pole vault for Arkansas, finishing on the same podium five times in eight seasons at the conclusion of the NCAA Indoor or Outdoor Track & Field Championships, including each of the four indoor seasons in which they competed.

While this series concentrates on the near 100-year history of the NCAA Outdoor Championships, we would be remiss to gloss over the staggering success the talented twins had under a roof.

• Lexi, who ended her career as the second best performer with the second best performance in collegiate indoor history at 4.68m (15-4¼), is the only woman in NCAA DI history with three indoor titles.
• Tori, who is the fifth best performer in collegiate indoor history at 4.61m (15-1½), scored every single year at the NCAA meet, including two top-3 finishes in 2018 and 2019.
• When Lexi won her second of three crowns in 2018, Tori was on the podium right next to her as the runner-up. That was actually the best pole vault duel in meet history: Lexi had to break her own meet record to win; Tori PR’d and matched the second best clearance in meet history at the time.

Shifting the focus back outdoors, Lexi and Tori did something no other female twins had accomplished in meet history: They both won individual NCAA titles, albeit in different years.

Lexi led the way in 2016 when she completed the indoor-outdoor sweep. In addition to being only the second freshman to top the podium in meet history, Lexi also posted the largest margin of victory to date. Lexi cleared 4.50m (14-9) to win, some 20 centimeters (8¾ inches) ahead of the next closest competitor, which happened to be a tie between Alysha Newman of Miami (Fla.) and Morgann LeLeux of Louisiana at 4.29m (14-1¼).

Tori capped her collegiate career in style three years later, grabbing the national title in 2019 with the second best winning clearance in meet history of 4.56m (14-11½). It had been a long time coming for Tori, who only finished on the podium once in the previous three years (That would be in 2017, when she ended up sixth. Lexi was second).

Lexi and Tori didn’t just stand out athletically, though. The duo earned five total NCAA Elite 90 awards, including a clean sweep from 2017 to 2018, given out to the student-athlete with the highest cumulative GPA who reached competition at the final site for each of the NCAA’s 90 men’s and women’s championships across each of the three divisions. Lexi earned three of those honors; Tori brought home two.

Blozis Was A “Giant” In The Shot

“Giant” was a term often used to describe Al Blozis of Georgetown.

That could have been because of his massive size – about 6 foot, 6 inches and 250 pounds – or perhaps his dominance in the shot put ring.

For three years (1940-42), Blozis had no peer in the shot put. He had margins of victory of more than two feet in all three of his wins at the NCAA Championships (1940-42), the best collection by any of the seven men to accumulate three titles in this event (No one has yet to win four).

Amazingly, those were some of the closest victories in his major meets. He added three consecutive AAU and IC4A titles during the same stretch by even larger margins (His closest in a national competition was 2-4¼” (71 cm) at the 1942 NCAA Championships).

Blozis was clearly the best in the world between 1940-42, according to track & field historian Dave Johnson. His best mark – 57-0¾ (17.39m) – was a close second only to the world record of 57-1 (17.40m), set by LSU’s Jack Torrance in 1934.

Blozis, who grew up in Jersey City, New Jersey, missed a likely gold medal at the canceled 1940 Olympics due to World War II and never competed in track & field after the 1942 season. After graduating from Georgetown, Blozis became an All-Pro tackle for the New York Giants in the National Football League (NFL). That career was also cut short when he enlisted in the U.S. Army, finally being accepted in December 1943 after an exemption for his size, since the military had previously considered him too big.

The website HoyaSaxa.com has a chapter of Georgetown football history especially for Blozis – “The Greatest Hoya of Them All.” It reports, among the many accomplishments of Blozis’ career, of his untimely death on his first patrol during WWII in the Vosges Mountains of France during the Battle of the Bulge in the winter of 1945.

Cameron Came Close To Standing Alone

Two one-hundredths of a second.

That’s what separated Bert Cameron from standing alone in NCAA history.

Cameron, who competed collegiately for UTEP and hails from Spanish Town, Saint Catherine Parish, Jamaica, won back-to-back 400-meter titles at the NCAA Division I Outdoor Track & Field Championships in 1980 and 1981 as well as a third crown in 1983. His victory in 1981 set a meet record of 44.58, which would stand for five years and marked just the third time someone cracked the 45-second barrier in that event in meet history.

Those three titles also made Cameron only the third man in meet history to earn three career titles in the event, joining Hermon Phillips of Butler (1925-1927) and George Rhoden of Morgan State (1950-1952). Look across each NCAA division and that total blossoms to seven men as Larance Jones of Truman (1972-1974) and Myles Pringle (2017-2019) did so at the NCAA DII level and Mike Spangler of Susquehanna (1986 to 1988) and Bobby Young of Lincoln (Pa.) (2005 to 2007) accomplished the feat on the NCAA DIII ranks.

No man ever strung four together – but Cameron came awfully close. In fact, Amber James of NCAA DIII Wheaton (Ma.) is the only athlete in NCAA history with four career outdoor quarter-mile titles to their credit (She also completed the four-year sweep indoors).

The year was 1982 and Cameron entered the NCAA Championships in Provo, Utah, as the two-time defending champion. Also in the race was Kasheef Hassan of Oregon State, a fifth-year senior at the time, who won the title in 1979 and redshirted in 1980. Cameron and Hassan raced against each other in the NCAA final the previous year, where the former established the meet record (Hassan ended up a distant third in 45.31).

“Many fans had predicted the 400 duel between Hassan and Cameron would approach a record, but the strong wind prevented a fast time,” Reid English wrote in the Salem Statesman Journal on June 6, 1982. “It didn’t stop the duel, as the two ran the last 100 meters almost head-to-head. A lunge at the tape earned Hassan the victory.”

The final result read: Kasheef Hassan, Oregon State – 45.47; Bert Cameron, UTEP – 45.49.

Cameron got the last laugh, though; his 12 points helped UTEP win its fifth national team title in a row, a feat that hadn’t been done since Southern California won seven in a row from 1949 to 1955. That would be the Miners’ last outdoor national title and best finish in the past 38 years.

Post-collegiately, Cameron won 400-meter gold at the 1983 World Championships in Helsinki, Finland, and represented Jamaica at three consecutive editions of the Summer Olympics. He carried the Jamaican flag at the opening ceremony of the 1984 Los Angeles Olympic Games and left many at a loss for words with his incredible finish in the 400-meter semifinal that year.

Cameron now coaches Jamaica’s 400-meter runners for its national team.

UCLA’s Vickers Ruled The 400 Hurdles

While Janeene Vickers of UCLA was the first woman to win multiple NCAA DI titles in the 400 Meter Hurdles, each and every single one of those victories came down to the finish off the last hurdle, also known as the “run-in.”

That was Vickers’ territory.

The native of Pomona, California, was an age-group runner since age 6 and had a background that was familiar with end-of-the-race struggles.

“I ran the open 400 before I started to run the hurdles so I know the pain coming home and know how to deal with it,” she told Jed Goldfried of Track & Field News after her 1990 win in 55.40 by a scant 0.05 seconds over Florida State’s Kim Batten. This was the then-unknown Kim Batten who PR’d in the race by two seconds, well before she set a 400H world record of 52.61 at the 1995 World Championships in Gothenburg, Sweden.

Vickers’ first win in 1989 came by 0.11 seconds over 1987 NCAA champ Linetta Wilson of Nebraska and her 1991 victory, which made her the first woman to win three in a row, was by 0.56 seconds (a margin accomplished all on the run-in) over Tonya Lee of Tennessee. Her 1989 winning time of 55.27 remained her collegiate best and was fifth on the all-time list.

Don’t forget about the two times that Vickers scored in the 100 Meter Hurdles, both times in fourth place. That’s just one spot lower than UCLA’s best finish in that event at the NCAA meet (third). Four of the five Bruins who achieved that went on to become individual Olympic gold medalists (albeit sometimes in other events): Jackie Joyner, Gail Devers, Joanna Hayes and Dawn Harper. The fifth, Sheena Johnson, took Olympic silver. Vickers earned Olympic bronze in the 1992 400H.

Wykoff Wins Stacked NCAA 100 Final

Six world record holders in one race?

It happened in the 100-yard final at the 1930 NCAA Outdoor Track & Field Championships.

That wonderful collection built upon a stacked final the previous year, when George Simpson of Ohio State ran the first 9.4 to win over a field with four others who had equaled the existing world record (then 9.5).

READ MORE: Simpson Sprints To All-Time Mark In 1929

All four returned for the 1930 season, which added two more names to the record books – Frank Wykoff of Southern California and Hubie Meier of Iowa State, who both equaled the 9.4 Simpson had run to win in 1929.

Wykoff was the new star – at least on the NCAA scene. Born in Des Moines, Iowa, he grew up in Glendale, California, and set multiple high school records before finishing the summer leading off the U.S. Olympic 4×100 relay team that won gold in 1928.

The field of six world record holders also included 1928 NCAA champ Claude Bracey of Rice, Eddie Tolan of Michigan and Cy Leland of TCU. Tolan, the eventual 1932 Olympic 100-meter gold medalist, was also already a claimant to the 100-meter WR of 10.4.

The race lived up to its exciting billing, with Wykoff equaling his 9.4 WR. As Charles W. Dunkley of the Associated Press reported: “Wykoff’s achievement in cracking the world mark for the century was a thriller. He was away winging, first out of his holes, and led every foot of the race, with Simpson snapping at his heels after the first 30 yards. With a mighty drive at the tape, Wykoff’s chest broke the white string a full eighteen inches ahead of Simpson. The Buckeye flyer, defeated for the first time outdoors this year, made one of the worst starts of his career and was last of the eight sprinters off his mark. He overhauled them all except Wykoff, who raced on to victory with the speed of a frightened deer.”

After Simpson was surprise third-place finisher Emmett Toppino of Loyola of New Orleans, followed by Tolan, Bracey and Leland; Meier was eighth.

Wykoff was one of just two individual champs that year for the Trojans, who won their first official team title (USC was credited with an unofficial team title by the NCAA in 1926). He repeated as champion in 1931 (again leading the Trojans to victory) and added two more Olympic gold medals on the 1932 and 1936 4×100 relay teams.

Nehemiah Cruises To All-Time World Best In 1979

Renaldo Nehemiah of Maryland was already the world record holder when he won his only NCAA title in the 110 Meter Hurdles at the 1979 NCAA Division I Outdoor Track & Field Championships by a record margin of 0.64 seconds in a wind-aided 12.91, merely the fastest mark ever recorded under any conditions in world history.

Nehemiah was the clear favorite – having twice broken the world record earlier in the spring, lowering it to an eventual 13.00 – but the winning margin wasn’t supposed to be as large as what occurred. That’s because the race was a rematch of the thrilling NCAA 110H final from the previous year, where UCLA’s Greg Foster set a then-American record of 13.22 to edge a freshman Nehemiah, who clocked a world U20 record of 13.27.

In 1979, though a stiff, aiding wind (+3.5 m/s) gave the hurdlers issues as it pushed them close to the barriers. Nehemiah led by inches when disaster struck Foster, who crashed the sixth crossbar hard enough to break it. Foster eventually had to stop as Nehemiah cruised to an unexpectedly easy win in 12.91 (Ohio State’s Dan Oliver finished second in 13.55).

“I was not aggressive over the last three hurdles because of the wind,” said Nehemiah, a native of Scotch Plains, New Jersey. “I was afraid of it making me fall. It can throw you off and cause you to lose it.”

As Jim Dunaway of Track & Field News reported, the wind affected both stars. “I felt good over the first five hurdles,” Foster said. “Coming off 5, the wind pushed me a little and I got too close.”

P.S. – Renaldo Nehemiah’s 110H collegiate record of 13.00 lasted 40 years until Florida’s Grant Holloway broke it last year with a blistering 12.98 at the 2019 NCAA Division I Outdoor Track & Field Championships.

Liquori Is Mr. Sub-4 At NCAAs

Marty Liquori of Villanova beat a legend for his first victory at the NCAA Division I Outdoor Track & Field Championships.

He was just a sophomore then and followed with two more NCAA mile wins to become the only miler with three sub-4 efforts in this meet. No one else had more than one.

Liquori’s first NCAA mile crown came in 1969 against world record holder Jim Ryun, who was running his final race for Kansas. Ryun – who hadn’t lost an outdoor mile in four years – was a huge favorite. But Liquori – recovering from an intestinal virus six days earlier and nursing a foot injury for two weeks – ran with the leaders and took control on the last lap, in hopes of taking the sting out of Ryun’s feared kick.

On the homestretch, Ryun was on Liquori’s shoulder but with 30 yards left, dropped off. As Cordner Nelson of Track & Field News wrote, “Immediately, Liquori reacted with a pleasure never seen while a race was still on. He grinned. He looked at the sky. He shouted for joy. He waved his fists. His last lap of 54.2 gave him victory in 3:57.7, a new meet record.”

After repeating as NCAA champ in 1970, Liquori lowered the meet record to 3:57.6 in 1971 to become the fourth man to win three 1500/mile titles. Liquori joined Don Gehrmann of Wisconsin (1948-50), Ron Delaney of Villanova (1956-58) and Dyrol Burleson of Oregon (1960-62) in that regard. No man has done so since.

A month before the 1971 NCAA meet, Liquori ran his collegiate best of 3:54.6 in another memorable race against Ryun – now a post-collegian and in the first race known as the Dream Mile, principally because it reunited Liquori and Ryun. And just like their first race, Ryun was on Liquori’s shoulder down the homestretch and stayed there as both crossed the finish in the same time, Liquori a couple of inches ahead after a 54.6 last lap.

The 800 Is A Clark Family Affair

All in the family.

Their wins were separated by 14 years, but Joetta Clark of Tennessee and Hazel Clark of Florida are the first sisters to win titles at the NCAA Division I Outdoor Track & Field Championships. They were also the first in the history of the indoor meet.

Joetta, whose birthday is today, was the family’s first NCAA champion. After a runner-up finish in the 800 to Volunteer teammate Delisa Walton in 1982, Joetta won the 1983 and 1984 races to become the event’s first two-time winner. She then owned the two fastest times in meet history, plus the all-time best by a collegian during the season (CR 2:01.15 to win the 1984 SEC outdoor title).

Joetta was also a two-time winner at the NCAA Indoor Championships (1983 880 yards, 1984 1000 meters). Her career started in the pre-NCAA era and could add the 1982 AIAW Indoor 1000-yard crown to her tally as well.

Hazel is 15 years younger and also starred at Columbia High School in Maplewood, New Jersey. At Florida, where she was coached by brother J.J., she won the NCAA 1998 crown decisively, atoning for a fall in 1997 when she was one of the favorites. Hazel’s win by 1.50 seconds in 2:02.16 is the fastest by a Clark family member in this meet.

Hazel also won a pair of NCAA Indoor 800s – 1998 and 1999, the latter with a time of 2:01.77 that was then the second-best ever a collegian (she is now ninth).

Hazel led a unique Clark family “reunion” at the 2000 U.S. Olympic Trials when she won the 800 in 1:58.97. Finishing behind Hazel was Jearl Miles-Clark in second and Joetta in third. Jearl, wife of the aforementioned J.J., also made the U.S. team in the 400 and eventually earned a gold medal in the 4×400 relay. Joetta made her fourth U.S. team with a flying finish to nab the final spot by one one-hundredth of a second.

To wit: J.J. would later coach Tennessee to NCAA Indoor women’s team titles in 2005 and 2009. He is now the Franklin P. Johnson Director of Track & Field at Stanford University.

The Clark family is also known for the father, Joe Clark. He was portrayed by Morgan Freeman in the 1989 movie “Lean on Me,” where he is a bat-wielding principal of Eastside High School in Paterson, New Jersey.

Johnson Unrivaled In The Heptathlon

The first NCAA heptathlon title for Jacquelyn Johnson of Arizona State was the only one of her record four wins that was close.

In 2004, Johnson withstood a strong second day by defending champ Hyleas Fountain of Georgia to prevail by 22 points. That victory alone put her in rare territory, becoming only the second freshman to win the event, joining Sheila Tarr of UNLV in 1984.

Johnson finished her NCAA career by sweeping the 2006, 2007 and 2008 heptathlons (All by more than 100 points) in becoming one of just four women in meet history to record four victories in one event. Her collegiate PR of 6276* points came in a winning effort at the 2008 Pac-10 Championships and was then the third best all-time collegiately, behind only Diane Guthrie of George Mason and Jackie Joyner of UCLA (Johnson is now sixth).

“Things have been harder since the first time,” Johnson told Dan Zeiger of the East Valley Tribune in Mesa, Arizona. “The expectations grew. I won my freshman year, so the assumption is that if I’m a freshman winning, I should be a senior winning. It’s hard to have that weight on your shoulders.”

Johnson also won the NCAA Indoor pentathlon three times, losing only as a freshman in 2004 (She placed second to Fountain). Her victory in 2008 came with a then-collegiate record total of 4496 (That mark now sits 10th all-time).

The Yuma, Arizona, native was a leader of the ASU teams that in 2007 and 2008 registered the best team performances in Sun Devil history. ASU won the 2007 NCAA Outdoor team title and was second in 2008 – the two highest finishes for the program. Indoors, the Sun Devils won NCAA team titles in 2007 and 2008 for their only crowns in that meet.

Northrop Doubles Down In A Unique Way

Phil Northrop of Michigan was an uncommon javelin thrower.

The fact that he became the event’s first two-time winner at the NCAA Outdoor Track & Field Championships in 1926 and 1927 – with heaves of 201-11 and 200-10, respectively – while remarkable, wasn’t the most unique facet about him during his time with the Wolverines.

The uncommon aspect is that he doubled both years in very different events: In 1925, he tied for the pole vault title at 12-5 (3.78m) and in 1926, he was second in long jump at 23-0 (7.01m). Neither double-scoring combination (javelin-pole vault or javelin-long jump) has ever otherwise been achieved in this meet.

Northrop, who was a sophomore in 1925 and a junior in 1926, entered the 1927 campaign as the presumptive favorite to win a third javelin crown. That coronation would not come to fruition as Northrop injured a tendon in his throwing elbow, “due to insufficient ‘warming up’ in the cold weather that prevailed,” prior to the first meet of the season, according to the Detroit Free Press. He later won the Penn Relays and had one effort at the Big Ten Championships, finishing third. Unfortunately Northrop never competed again on the national level.

Texas A&M’s Mills Set 440-Yard WR In 1969

“It was a helluva run.”

Those were the words of an aspiring journalism major at Texas A&M, named Curtis Mills, describing his own world record in winning the 1969 NCAA 440-yard title.

A record would not be a surprise, though.

After all, several of the men entered in that final had PRs superior to the existing world record of 44.8: Defending champion and 1968 Olympic 400-meter gold medalist Lee Evans of San Jose State went 43.86 (44.1 converted) in Mexico City the previous fall; Larry James of Villanova had run 43.97 (44.2 converted) to earn silver in that same Mexico City final. Mills wasn’t too far behind with his 440-yard best of 45.9.

Plus, Evans made his intentions clear, “I’m here to break the world record.”

But it wasn’t Evans’ record for the taking. Instead, that belonged to Mills.

As Dick Drake of Track & Field News wrote, “But Mills was keyed to win, and he told some people so. ‘There’s no pressure on me. I still haven’t seen my name in any papers. I’m in better position than Lee Evans and Larry James. You wait and see. My name will be in the headlines.’”

Halfway through the race James held a commanding lead with Evans, a fast finisher, in fifth; Mills was “in virtual last.” As they made the turn down the homestretch Evans was in control as James began to fade. “But then Mills, with the same instant speed Evans had used to discourage James, moved past Evans.”

The result was a WR 44.7 for Mills with Evans second in 45.1 (a PR for the 440) and James fifth (45.8). Drake called it “the most shocking performance of the 1969 track season.”

The little-known native of Lufkin, Texas, was now famous. His previous claim to fame was being the first Black athlete signed to an athletic scholarship in any sport at Texas A&M – a situation he spoke about years later.

“I don’t know about how other African-Americans felt about racial issues at that time, but it wasn’t a barrier at Texas A&M” he told Rusty Burson for The 12th Man Foundation in 2004. “In the process of learning how to “hump it” and do the yells and learn all the other traditions, I just felt like an Aggie. Not a black Aggie. You don’t have time to worry about who has what or how rich or poor you are, or whether you’re white or black. I just wanted to be an Aggie, and those students wanted me to be an Aggie.”

Crouser Family Rules NCAA Throwing Events

The first family of throwing.

Dean and Brian Crouser of Oregon made history in 1982, becoming the first siblings to win NCAA titles in different events at the same NCAA Outdoor Championships*.

That’s in any event – but this time it involves throwing that’s never been seen again.

Each of the Crouser’s victories were special (The two actually combined for three that year).

Dean, then a junior, was the first Crouser to win an NCAA title, claiming the discus crown on Friday at 63.22m (207-5). He was a favorite there, but not in the shot put on Saturday when he produced a victory in the closest competition in meet history – just 1 centimeter (one-quarter inch) separated him from Mike Lehman of Illinois at 20.84m (68-4½) to 20.83m (68-4¼).

Both of Dean’s winning marks in 1982 were the third best in meet history at the time.

“This is the happiest day of my life,” Dean told Dave Kayfes of the Eugene Register-Guard after his shot victory. “I still can’t believe it. I was so sure Lehman was going to come back on his last one.”

Brian, then a 19-year-old freshman, completed the sibling double – on Saturday before Dean’s shot win – by winning the javelin title and becoming the first freshman to do so. The younger Crouser had three marks that would have won. His best of 83.72m (274-8) was also the third best in meet history, just like his older brother in the discus and shot.

“I thought I could do it,” Brian told Kayfes, who noted that Brian turned to his headphones between efforts. “It (the radio) just took my mind off of it (the competition) and got me psyched up, too.”

A year later, Dean won the NCAA discus with a meet-record 65.88m (216-2). Then, two years later in 1985, Brian won a second NCAA javelin title, becoming the first freshman – man or woman – to also win the event as a senior.

The Crouser throwing tree had other branches, too. Dean’s son, Sam, won NCAA javelin titles in 2014 and 2015 at Oregon. Ryan Crouser – nephew to both Dean and Brian – won NCAA Outdoor shot titles in 2013 and 2014 at Texas, plus an Olympic gold in 2016.

Spoiler alert: There’s a Carter family in Texas that also has its own unique history that will be given its own special article in the future.

*You might remember the first pair of siblings were Mack and Jackie Robinson, but in different years (1938 and 1940) and for different programs (Oregon and UCLA).

Richardson Sprints To Record Day In 2019

How long does it take someone to blink an eye?

We’d be hard-pressed to say anything longer than 10.75 seconds.

Because as soon as Sha’Carri Richardson of LSU started the final of the 100 meters at the 2019 NCAA Division I Outdoor Track & Field Championships, she was gone.

But how could you possibly forget this moment? pic.twitter.com/n91WHBdCty

— NCAA Track & Field (@NCAATrackField) August 14, 2019

Last year in Austin, Texas, Richardson shattered a 30-year-old collegiate record in the event with a swagger that only she knows. Richardson pulled away from a talented field that would comprise the fastest 100-meter final in meet history right after the midpoint, turned on the jets and put so much distance between herself and eventual runner-up Kayla White of North Carolina A&T that she began celebrating five meters from the finish line.

Richardson broke the tape in 10.75 (+1.6), bettering another former LSU great’s standard from 1989 by 0.03 seconds (Dawn Sowell, 10.78). And just like Sowell and 2018 NCAA champ Aleia Hobbs, who also starred for the Tigers, Richardson won by a landslide. Richardson posted the second largest margin of victory in the event since the turn of the century (0.20 seconds), slightly off Hobbs’ pace from the previous year (0.23 seconds). Sowell is still the standard bearer for single-race dominance with a 0.34-second victory.

Those in attendance for the final day of the NCAA Championships at Mike A. Myers Stadium saw Richardson’s meteoric rise one race at a time.

Richardson started things off by anchoring LSU’s 4×100 relay team to a runner-up finish and nearly carried them to victory. The Dallas native made up serious ground on Twanisha Terry of Southern California and helped the Tigers clock the best mark for a runner-up team in meet history of 42.29 seconds. That was also the eighth fastest performance in collegiate history.

Then after she broke the collegiate record in the 100, Richardson finished a close runner-up in the 200 meters with the fifth fastest performance in collegiate history of 22.17. If it weren’t for two-time champ Angie Annelus of Southern California, who won in 22.16 and is just the fourth woman in meet history to repeat in the event, Richardson could have become only the second freshman to complete the 100-200 double (Ariana Washington of Oregon was the first in 2016).

Later that year, Richardson took home The Bowerman, collegiate track & field’s highest honor.

Hornbostel Left Mark As A Hoosier

Which 880-yard NCAA victory by Chuck Hornbostel of Indiana is the best?

It could be his last race in a Hoosier jersey, winning the 1934 half-mile to become the first man to win the 800/880 three times. Held at the Los Angeles Memorial Coliseum – site of his first Olympics in 1932 (He was sixth) – and with a winning margin of 1.2 seconds, it certainly had to be satisfying.

Another likely selection would be the thriller in 1933, when he and mile star Glenn Cunningham of Kansas came across the line in matching world record times of 1:50.9. This one – the last NCAA held at Chicago’s Soldier Field – had some writers grasping for words.

“He and Cunningham came down the stretch stride for stride,” wrote Wilfrid Smith of the Chicago Tribune. “For more than a hundred yards the pair ran a dead heat, but in the last five yards Hornbostel gained an advantage of a foot.” The Associated Press, which called Hornbostel “the Indiana iron man,” put the margin as “about two inches.”

But the native of Evansville, Indiana, and Hoosier fans might just pick his first, winning the 1932 crown in a then-meet record 1:53.5. More importantly, his 10 team points helped Indiana win its first – and still only – NCAA team title in track & field, scoring 56 points to top Ohio State’s 49¾ points. The Hoosiers were paced by Henry Brocksmith, who contributed 16 points with runner-up finishes in the mile and 2-mile.

Hornbostel, who never lost a collegiate race in the 800/880, went on to make a second Olympic team, finishing fifth in the 1936 Berlin Games.

BYU’s Mann Set World Record In 440 Hurdles

In the near 100-year history of the NCAA Division I Outdoor Track & Field Championships, only four athletes — men or women — have won three consecutive titles in the 400-Meter or 440-Yard Hurdles.

Ralph Mann of BYU was the first from 1969 to 1971.

Mann would later be joined by Danny Harris of Iowa State (1984-1986), Janeene Vickers of UCLA (1989-1991) and most recently, Shamier Little of Texas A&M (2014-16).

In fact, counting all of the divisions together, only nine athletes have accomplished that feat in NCAA history: Brian Moorman of Pittsburg State (1997-99), Lana Jekabsone of Lewis (2000-2002) and Tia-Adana Belle of Saint Augustine’s (2015-17) did so in NCAA Division II; Derek Toshner of UW-La Crosse (2002-04) and Luke Campbell of Salisbury (2014-16) hold it down for NCAA Division III.

Mann, though, made his star 50 years ago.

It was at the 1970 NCAA Outdoor Championships in Des Moines, Iowa, where Mann thundered through wet conditions to shatter the world record in the 440H with his time of 48.8. Both Mann and runner-up Wayne Collett of UCLA dipped under the previous world record of 49.3 established by South Africa’s Gert Potgieter some 10 years earlier (Collett ran 49.2).

“That’s a fabulous track,” Mann said after the race. “I don’t know what I might have run if it hadn’t rained.”

Collett, who was reportedly undefeated against Mann dating back to their prep days in Southern California, jumped out to an early lead, but Mann reeled him in down the homestretch.

Mann continued to leave his mark on both the collegiate and international scene over the next few years as he completed the trifecta in 1971 and won the silver medal in the 400H at the 1972 Munich Olympic Games.

Auburn’s Goulbourne Makes Long Jump History

Elva Goulbourne of Auburn won every NCAA championship long jump she entered.

None of them were close.

Her first NCAA Outdoor title came in 2002 with a leap of 6.82m (22-4½), a mark that gave her the victory by more than one foot. A jump later, she followed with a 6.79m (22-3½) effort, which gave her two of the three longest legal jumps in meet history at the time.

When Goulbourne arrived at the 2003 NCAA Outdoor Championships, the two-time defending indoor champion had a lot on her plate. In addition to the long jump, she would be tasked with being part of the Tigers’ 4×100 relay team and competing in the final of the 100. There was no doubt that she’d be up to the task: Goulbourne carried the baton third on Auburn’s fourth-place relay team, finished eighth in the 100 and between those events, spanned 6.76m (22-2¼) in her specialty to win by 23 centimeters (9 inches).

All told, Goulbourne wrapped up her collegiate career with three of the four longest legal jumps in meet history and became the first – and remains the only – woman to repeat as champion.

“It feels great to win again coming in as the defending champion,” Goulbourne was quoted by Jonas Hedman in Track & Field News. “Everything has worked out the way it was supposed to for me.”

Indoors, Goulbourne had another pair of dominant long jump victories at the NCAA Championships: 38 cm (1 foot, 3 inches) in 2002; 36 cm (1 foot, 2¼ inches) in 2003. In addition to winning the long jump in 2003, Goulbourne won the triple jump – in her first year contesting that event – and finished runner-up in the 60 to total 28 points, matching the closest any athlete has come to winning three NCAA DI individual indoor events in the same year.

Goulbourne still holds a share of the collegiate indoor record in the long jump at 6.91m (22-8), a mark she recorded in 2002. She sat alone atop the chart for 10 years until Whitney Gipson of TCU equaled her all-time best to win the 2012 NCAA title.

The native of St. Ann, Jamaica, began collegiately at Central Arizona College, where she twice won the NJCAA outdoor long jump by more than one foot and owns the NJCAA all-time best at 6.86m (22-6¼). After Auburn, she went on to set the still-standing Jamaican record of 7.16m (23-6) and competed at four World Championships for her homeland.

LoJo Breaks Barriers, Records In Pole Vault

“LoJo” was just one of the nicknames Lawrence Johnson garnered while pole vaulting at Tennessee.

His teammates also called him “Black-ba, as in the Black Bubka,” Merrell Noden wrote in Sports Illustrated, referring to then-world record holder Sergey Bubka.

In 1995, Johnson became the first Black pole vaulter to win the event at the NCAA Division I Outdoor Track & Field Championships. Then the following year, Johnson defended his title, a feat that has only happened eight times since 1960.

By any nickname, the native of Norfolk, Virginia, was a barrier- and record-breaking vaulter, whose 1996 NCAA title came with a meet record of 5.82m (19-1) that would last 22 years until Chris Nilsen of South Dakota broke it with a 5.83m (19-1½) clearance in 2018. The former Volunteer star’s margin of victory that year – 27 centimeters (10½ inches) – currently sits third all-time in meet history behind Nilsen (2019) and Bob Seagren (1969), who are tied at 28 cm (11 inches) each.

Johnson was the last male vaulter to set NCAA DI meet records both indoors and outdoors. He jumped 5.83m (19-1½) to win the NCAA title at the 1994 NCAA DI Indoor Championships prior to leaving his mark on the outdoor record book the following year. Johnson also previously owned both the indoor and outdoor collegiate records, the latter of which held strong for 23 years until Mondo Duplantis erased it last year.

As a prep athlete at Lake Taylor (Va.) High School, Johnson was steered toward the vault, because his team was loaded with hurdlers. Another story has it, though, that he was caught doing backflips off the bleachers in the gymnasium and the track coach at the time told him, “Boy! You are a pole vaulter if I ever saw one. I need you to come to the track today and try out this pole vault thing.”

Johnson did – and the rest was history.

“People kept saying, ‘He’s a Black pole vaulter. He won’t succeed,’” Johnson told Noden in that Sports Illustrated article. “I knew if I worked hard enough, I could do it. I watched ‘Rocky’ movies growing up.”

Johnson succeeded on the international stage as well. In 2000, Johnson earned Olympic silver at the Sydney Games to become the world’s first Black vaulter to reach the podium. A year later, Johnson won a world title at the World Indoor Championships in Lisbon, Portugal.

NOTE: Upon arriving at Tennessee, Johnson initially joined the Vols’ strong decathlon group and combined his initial love of hurdling, pole vaulting and eight other disciplines. True to form, Johnson excelled at that, winning the 1993 SEC title as a freshman with 7576 points, then the second best total by an American under the age of 20.

Smith Set Records That Will Last Forever

Karin Smith of Cal Poly set javelin records that will last forever.

Back in 1982 – the first year that the NCAA sponsored women’s track & field competition – Smith won titles at both the NCAA Division I Outdoor Track & Field Championships in Provo, Utah, and the NCAA Division II Outdoor Track & Field Championships in Sacramento, California, to become the first woman to win any championship at each level. She won the NCAA DII title at 58.24m (191-1) and then followed it up a week later with an effort of 63.02m (206-9) for the NCAA DI crown.

Neither meet record will ever be broken. About halfway through their 38-year existence as records – 2000 – the NCAA adopted the revised international style javelin, one intended chiefly to reduce flat throws by adjusting the implement’s center of gravity. Even combining marks with both implements, no thrower has beaten Smith’s pair of meet records (In fact, both women who hold the current meet records with the new javelin – Maggie Malone of Texas A&M at 62.19m (204-0) and Allison Updike of Azusa Pacific at 56.03m (183-10) – hit those marks in 2016).

Smith – born on a U.S. Air Force base in Germany – started off competition at the NCAA DI Outdoor Championships with the record heave on her first effort. “I was really cued to get a good throw off the bat,” she told Garry Hill of Track & Field News, who noted that she was sidelined by a midseason broken hand. “You want to pace them rather than be paced.”

Leading the competition was nothing new to Smith, as she set the all-time collegiate women’s best with the old-style javelin at 64.44 (211-5) – another record that won’t be broken – the previous year.