KU’s Cunningham Captures 1500/Mile Twice

Glenn Cunningham of Kansas was considered the best American miler of all-time in the 1930s.

It’s only right that Cunningham became the first athlete to win a pair of 1500/mile titles at the NCAA Outdoor Track & Field Championships in 1932 and 1933, both in meet (and American) record times: 3:53.0 in 1932 (1500) and 4:09.8 in 1933 (mile).

He followed up his 1933 NCAA mile win with a share of the 880-yard world record, finishing a same-time second to Chuck Hornbostel of Indiana in the closest anyone had yet come to double victories in the two middle-distance events. In fact, the first 880-mile double wasn’t accomplished until Ross Hume of Michigan did so 12 years later.

Cunningham’s bid for a third NCAA 1500/mile crown in 1934 looked to be in fabulous shape — when a week before the meet, he set a world record in the mile of 4:06.8 by almost one second to win the Princeton Invitational (It would remain the world record for more than three years). While Princeton star Bill Bonthron was a well-beaten second in that race, he made the Tigers’ first visit to the NCAA Championships special that same year with a memorable mile race – “one of the most sensational episodes of the day,” as reported by Brian Bell of the Associated Press.

Bonthron stuck with Cunningham until, on the last turn, he overtook him with a blazing sprint to win by nearly two seconds – 4:08.9 to 4:10.6. Bonthron’s last lap of 58.8 was impressive, especially considering the world mile record at the time was 4:06.8, which averages out to a 61.7 lap.

Cunningham would continue on to more glory, including Olympic silver in 1936 at 1500 meters. The native of Atlanta, Kansas, grew up in Elkhart — which is on the border with Colorado and Oklahoma and just 42 miles from Texas. The men’s mile race at the Kansas Relays is named after him.

Rollins Rewrites Hurdling History

Collegiate hurdling records learned to live in fear very quickly when Brianna Rollins (now Rollins-McNeal) stepped on the track in 2013.

After all, her very first final of the year at The Tiger Challenge in early January resulted in the still-standing collegiate record of 7.78 in the 60 Meter Hurdles. And before the 2013 outdoor season ended, Rollins had each of the three fastest indoor marks in collegiate history and each of the two fastest outdoor marks in the 100 Meter Hurdles, both of which were set in a dynamo performance at the 2013 NCAA Division I Outdoor Track & Field Championships at Historic Hayward Field.

Rollins entered the NCAA outdoor meet that year with her eyes fixated on completing an undefeated senior year in the sprint hurdles and etching her name atop the collegiate outdoor record book a few more times.

It didn’t take long for Rollins to do either: Try a grand total of 24.86 seconds.

On Thursday, Rollins won her semifinal heat in 12.47 (+1.2) and bettered the seven-year-old collegiate standard set by Ginnie Powell of Southern California by the slimmest of margins – 0.01 seconds (Powell ran 12.48 to win the NCAA title in 2006). That also marked a 0.07-second PR for Rollins, who had clocked a slightly wind-aided 12.54 to win the event at the Texas Relays earlier that year.

Then, on Saturday, Rollins blitzed the final and left no doubt that she was the unquestioned queen of the sprint hurdles. Rollins lowered her PR and collegiate record to 12.39 (+1.7) and won by 0.40 seconds over Kori Carter of Stanford, who had set a collegiate record of her own in the 400 Meter Hurdles the day before. That also tied Rollins with Gillian Russell of Miami (Fla.) for the largest margin of victory in meet history.

Rollins didn’t stop there, though. After the collegiate season, the future winner of The Bowerman set the American record at 12.26 to win the U.S. title and then staged an epic come-from-behind victory to win the gold medal at the 2013 IAAF World Championships in Moscow.

Oregon’s Eaton Stood Alone In The Decathlon

Domination.

That’s the only way to describe Ashton Eaton’s final decathlon for Oregon.

In 2010, Eaton set a meet record of 8457 points and won by a whopping 656 points to become the first man in meet history to win three consecutive decathlon titles (Tito Steiner of BYU won three career titles, but they weren’t consecutive). The next largest winning margin in meet history is more than 300 points less!

Eaton’s senior year was filled with incredible achievements.

At the Pac-10 Championships, he scored 39¼ points by himself to lead the Ducks to the team title. Eaton won three events (the decathlon, plus the 110 Hurdles and long jump), finished runner-up in the 100 and was a member of the fourth-place 4×100 relay team.

Indoors, the native of Bend, Oregon, smashed the world record in the heptathlon with his winning 6499-point total at the NCAA Indoor Championships. Eaton won that multi by a meet-record 513 points (The next largest winning margin is also more than 300 points fewer).

He won The Bowerman in 2010 and remains the lone combined events winner.

“There’s no words for me to use to describe Ashton Eaton,” then-Oregon head coach Vin Lananna told Gary Horowitz of The Statesmen Journal in Salem, Oregon. “He’s everything you could ever want as a student, as an athlete, as an ambassador for the program.”

Eaton, of course, enjoyed a wonderful post-collegiate career, setting a since-broken decathlon world record of 9045 points and winning two Olympic gold medals.

Texas Tech’s Kipyego Redefined Success

Very few athletes crafted a collegiate legacy like Sally Kipyego.

From 2005 to 2009, Kipyego left others in a wake that consistently rewrote the record book and redefined what it meant to be a championship-caliber competitor. Between stints at South Plains College (NJCAA) and Texas Tech (NCAA Division I), Kipyego won 16 combined national titles in cross country, indoor track & field and outdoor track & field and clocked marks that still reside in the all-time collegiate top-10. In fact, after steamrolling through the NJCAA ranks for seven national titles in three semesters, she took less than three years to tie Suzy Favor’s high-water mark for NCAA DI crowns by an individual female athlete with nine.

But what Kipyego did over four days at the 2008 NCAA Division I Outdoor Track & Field Championships at Drake Stadium in Des Moines, Iowa, remains one of the most outstanding performances in meet history by any athlete in any year.

Kipyego entered the meet as the collegiate record holder at 10,000 Meters with a time of 31:24.45 that she set the previous month at the Payton Jordan Invitational and as the second fastest woman in collegiate history over 5000 Meters with her 15:11.88 at the Mt. SAC Relays.

However, Kipyego chose not to contest the 10K and instead focused on the 1500-5000 double, one that she easily handled at the NJCAA level (along with the 10,000 for a triple-double as a one-semester freshman and full-time sophomore). After easily making it through to the finals of both, Kipyego got to work.

On Friday, Kipyego won the 5000-meter crown in a still-standing meet record of 15:15.08. Not only that, but she also ran virtually unopposed, winning by 31 seconds for what remains the second largest margin of victory in meet history (Kim Smith of Providence won by 36.04 seconds in 2004; Lisa Koll would win by 30.13 seconds in 2010).

Then on Saturday, Kipyego doubled back and finished runner-up to Hannah England of Florida State in the fastest women’s 1500 race in collegiate history. England pulled ahead of Kipyego down the homestretch as they clocked the No. 1 and No. 2 all-time collegiate marks at 4:06.19 and 4:06.67, respectively.

Those 18 combined points for Kipyego were the most by a female athlete in meet history attempting that configuration of events to that point. Only Sheila Reid of Villanova has topped her with her historic 1500-5000 double three years later.

Also, in winning the 5000, Kipyego became the first athlete in NCAA DI history to complete the individual Triple Crown twice with national titles in cross country, indoor track & field and outdoor track & field during the same academic year. She also captured national titles in all three sports the previous year and was well on her way the following year after becoming the only woman in NCAA DI history to win three consecutive cross country titles and nabbing the indoor 5K crown.

Kipyego, who became a U.S. citizen in 2017, continues to have a standout athletic career, which includes an Olympic silver medal from the 2012 London Games in the 10K and a silver medal from the 2011 IAAF World Championships in the same event while competing for her native Kenya. She made the move up to the marathon and finished third in the U.S. Olympic Team Trials this past February and will represent Team USA in Tokyo.

“Heavenly Twins” Reach New Heights In Pole Vault

The first pair of pole vaulters to earn the nickname “Heavenly Twins” was Bill Sefton and Earle Meadows of Southern California.

“Any higher, it was felt, and they’d need angels’ wings,” longtime Los Angeles Times sports editor Jim Murray wrote in 1982.

The Heavenly Twins were at their best in 1937, when the two Trojans – who tied for NCAA titles in 1935 & 1936 – entered the NCAA as favorites to do so again after trading/sharing world records multiple times. They were already Olympic veterans: Sefton taking gold and Meadows fourth in Berlin the previous summer.

Sefton, a Los Angeles native and a year older than Meadows, claimed the WR in April at 14-7¼ (4.45m). Then Meadows – a Mississippi native who grew up in Fort Worth, Texas – went even higher in early May at 14-8½ (4.48m), only to be tied by Sefton in the same meet.

At the Pacific Coast Conference Championships the Heavenly Twins did it again, this time Sefton first over a WR 14-11 (4.54m) with Meadows matching minutes later. The competition ended there as the standards could not be raised any higher.

The NCAA meet added unanticipated excitement with Oregon sophomore George Varoff – world record holder as the 1937 season began at 14-6 (4.43m) – coming back from a leg injury. Varoff split the Twins, taking second on misses over third-place Meadows at 14-4¾ (4.39m). Sefton was the only one able to clear 14-8¾ (4.49m), becoming the first vaulter to win at least a share of three NCAA titles in the event.

The Heavenly Twins led NCAA pole vault history in another way, too, as USC’s dominance in the event from 1935 to 1937 is unmatched. The Trojans tallied more than 18 points all three years on 6-place scoring, the only such occurrences. Their totals are the highest also when converting to the current 8-place system.

Thomas Gives NCAA Meet First 7-Footer

No contest.

John Thomas of Boston U. was such a dominant high jumper that his winning the individual title in the event at the 1960 NCAA Championships was a practically a foregone conclusion. The meet’s first 7-foot (2.14m) clearance seemed like a slam dunk as well.

In 1960, Thomas was a sophomore and finally eligible to compete in the NCAA. He was the world record holder and unbeaten since becoming the first athlete to clear 7-0 indoors a year earlier as a freshman. Upon entering his first NCAA meet, he had run his count of indoor world bests to eight with his highest clearance at 7-2½ (2.20m) with two WRs outdoors. His best mark outdoors, at the time, was 7-1¾ (2.17m), more than an inch better than the next best.

There would be little drama in Berkeley, California.

The NCAA meet was over at 6-10 (2.08m), which only Thomas could clear. He followed with the NCAA meet’s first 7-footer, but could go no higher, winning by three inches. Tied for third was Charles Dumas of USC, the reigning Olympic gold medalist from 1956, who was also the world’s first to clear 7 feet outdoors.

Thomas later revealed he knew his real high jump competition. “The bar is the thing you have to beat,” he told the Boston Globe in 1967. “That is also the thing that defeats you.”

Two weeks after the NCAA meet, Thomas would twice again raise the world record and later in the summer take bronze at the Rome Olympics, despite competing with a sports hernia. He added Olympic silver in 1964.

A Boston native, he became the first black member of the Boston Athletic Association. One of BU’s top indoor meets – the John Thomas Terrier Classic – is named after him.

Lindgren Had No Peer In NCAA

Before Gerry Lindgren ever ran for Washington State varsity, he had set a world record, competed in the Olympics and left more than 50,000 fans roaring him to victory – all as a teenager.

Lindgren followed that with a Cougar career that made him the winningest NCAA athlete with 11 combined NCAA titles between cross country, indoor track & field and outdoor track & field. Today, he ranks No. 3 on that list and the two ahead of him (Edward Cheserek of Oregon and Suleiman Nyambui of UTEP) had four years of eligibility, while Lindgren only had three.

Collegiately, Lindgren had no peer in any sport. His six victories at the NCAA Outdoor Track & Field Championships – three straight doubles between 1966 and 1968 comprised of the 3-mile/5000 and 6-mile/10,000 – were by an average margin of more than 10 seconds. Indoors, he lost just once – to Jim Ryun in the 2-mile, relatively short for the long-distance wizard that was Lindgren. In cross country, he had one career loss, to a freshman from Oregon named Steve Prefontaine; he avenged it twice.

His dominance was nothing new.

Track & Field News called Lindgren “the 18-year-old baby of the team” in its report of the 1964 U.S. dual meet against the Soviet Union, held in front of more than 50,000 spectators in the Los Angeles Memorial Coliseum. “He stole the hearts of the sun-drenched spectators.” He won by over a homestretch in just his second attempt at the 10K distance.

The prodigy from Spokane, Washington, was finally able to attend Washington State in the spring of 1965, but rules then did not allow freshmen to compete in the NCAA. His biggest race that year came against Billy Mills – his gold-medal winning teammate at the 1964 Tokyo Olympics – as both set the same world record of 27:11.6 in a thrilling 6-mile race at the AAU national championships (Mills was first to cross the finish line at Balboa Stadium).

UCLA’s Acuff Ascends To Record Heights

Happy birthday to Amy Acuff!

The former UCLA star won her first NCAA Outdoor high jump title in 1995 at 1.96m (6-5). While the height remains untouched as the meet record, Acuff wasn’t satisfied, even after winning a competition by equaling the largest margin of victory yet of more than two inches.

“I was glad to be able to get certain key heights on my first attempt,” Acuff explained afterwards. “But I wasn’t thrilled with the final height.”

That’s because, a month earlier, Acuff had raised the collegiate record to 1.98m (6-6) at the Pac-10 Championships. Two years later – after showing disappointment when becoming the first woman to win four consecutive Pac-10 titles in any event – she offered more insight to Dick Rockne of the Seattle Times.

“Because I’m never satisfied,” Acuff said. “It’s easy for me to be unsatisfied with my jumps.”

The native of Port Arthur, Texas, finished her collegiate career with a combined five NCAA DI titles, the most for a high jumper until Brigetta Barrett of Arizona compiled six.

Acuff’s post-collegiate career saw her compete on five Olympic track & field teams, joining Willye White and Gail Devers as the only Americans with as many.

“Invincible” Randy Matson Dominates The Throws

Randy Matson of Texas A&M was once described as “invincible.”

That was when he was a sophomore and had just broken the world record in the shot put by almost three feet with the largest improvement the event has seen before or since. The performance was 70-7¼ (21.52m), the first effort over 70 feet (21.34m). Matson had bettered the record twice before, but neither was ratified due to technicalities.

He would end up never losing to a collegian in the shot put. Though injury forced him to miss the 1965 NCAA championships (after his huge WR), he swept the ‘66 and ’67 shot and discus titles to become the first athlete (and still only man) with two such NCAA doubles.

Matson was so beloved in College Station that Texas A&M named his final home meet in 1967 “Randy Matson Day.” He made it special for the 4,000+ fans by improving his own world record a final time, 71-5½ (21.78m), a mark that would last until 1973.

“I’ve been trying to get 71 feet for about a month,” Matson told Bob Jones of the Bryan Daily Eagle. “I was pretty nervous, more nervous than I’ve been this season.”

The native of Pampa, Texas, was drafted by both pro football teams and pro basketball teams after graduating in 1967, but stayed with the shot put, winning Olympic gold in 1968 – an improvement from his silver in 1964, when freshmen weren’t allowed to compete for varsity.

Texas’ Reid Unrivaled At 400 Meters

Did someone say 400?

Suziann Reid of Texas is the most successful 400-meter runner in NCAA outdoor history – the only athlete in any division with three wins in the 400 and four as a member of a champion 4×400 relay team. In fact, all 10 of her combined indoor/outdoor NCAA titles involve the 400 or the 4×400.

Reid was at her best in her final two years, anchoring the 4×400 with matching 50.6 splits for the clinching points as Texas won the team championships in 1998 and 1999.

In 1999, she won the 400 for a record third time and flashed a huge smile. “I was happy, you know,” she told Randy Riggs of the Austin American-Statesman. “They say I’m dominant in this event, so I wanted to finish with a bang.”

In her final race as a Longhorn, she held off UCLA and Southern California for the deciding points in a tight team battle: Texas won the team title with 62 points over the Bruins (60) and the Women of Troy (58).

“I had it under control,” Reid said when asked about being challenged halfway through the last lap by UCLA’s Michelle Perry. “She wasn’t going to pass me. I knew nobody was going to pass me.”

It was a perfect ending to Reid’s collegiate career as not only did the Longhorns win the team crown, but the 4×400 squad set a collegiate record of 3:27.08, breaking the mark of 3:27.50 established by the Longhorns in 1996 when Reid was a freshman. That same year she led a 1-2-3 Texas finish, the only such sweep in the event (men or women).

For The Helds, The Javelin Is A Family Affair

Bud Held of Stanford was a brilliant javelin thrower. But his true genius was sharing a design with his brother who would become the world’s foremost maker of javelins.

In 1950, Held became the first of only two three-time NCAA javelin champions (Patrik Boden, who competed at Texas and holds the current collegiate record in the event, was the other from 1989 to 1991). Shortly after graduating, Held began making his own javelins. The only catch was he couldn’t sell them, due to amateur rules at the time.

That’s when older brother Dick, also a Stanford grad, became involved, and the implement has never been the same. Bud threw one of his brother’s new inventions in 1953 and surpassed the 80-meter (262-5) mark for the first time to become the first American to set a world record in the event.

In fact, over the next 25 years, each and every world record javelin throw was made with a javelin created by the Held family.

Even the landscape of the NCAA javelin changed: By 1955, none of Bud’s winning throws would even score as the Held javelins were in prime usage.

Dick Held was also instrumental in the 1986 redesign of the men’s javelin. “The IAAF rule makers tried for several years, without much success, to modify the javelin specifications so as to lessen the danger,” Bud said. “Though Dick smiled with satisfaction at their failure, he eventually explained to them how to change the specifications to make the javelin a safer sport.”

The 440-220 Double Is So Nice, McKenley Did It Twice

The 440 yards-220 yards or 400 meters-200 meters double at the NCAA Outdoor Track & Field Championships is so tough that it has only been completed three times in meet history. It requires an athlete to win the 440/400 and then double back to win the 220/200 less than one hour later.

Herb McKenley of Illinois was so good that he did that double twice – once in 1946 and then again in 1947. George Rhoden of Morgan State is the only other athlete to accomplish said feat in NCAA history four years later. That’s not the only similarity that McKenley and Rhoden share: They’re also both Jamaican.

McKenley made history each year he stepped on the track at the NCAA Championships with the Illini. When he won the 1946 440 for his first NCAA title, he also became the first athlete from any Caribbean nation to win an NCAA title. Then in 1947, he tied his own world record in the 440 of 46.2.

The Illini won the national team title in each of those years that McKenley, the team’s top scorer at the meet, completed the difficult double. Those were the program’s third and fourth official titles at the meet, as they also won in 1921 and 1944 (It should be mentioned that they earned the title of “unofficial champion” from the NCAA in 1927).

Illinois was not McKenley’s first destination in the U.S., though. He began his collegiate career at Boston College in 1943, then the first Jamaican to earn a track & field scholarship to a U.S. institution. He was second in the NCAA 440 as a sophomore in 1944 before transferring to Illinois. After sitting out the 1945 collegiate season, he won the AAU national championship that summer before his doubles in 1946 and 1947.

McKenley showed even more range at the 1948 and 1952 Olympics, becoming the only athlete to make Olympic finals in the 100, 200 and 400, although not in the same year. He would later coach at Calabar High School (his alma mater), the Jamaican national team for 20 years and serve 12 years as president of the Jamaican Amateur Athletic Association.

McKenley was born on this day in 1922. He died in 2007 at age 85.

Davis Rolls To Collegiate Record In 1989

Happy birthday to Pauline Davis!

In 1989, the Alabama senior found a new event, which led to her first NCAA outdoor title and a collegiate record that wouldn’t be broken for 16 years. Davis took up the 400 meters in her final year with the Crimson Tide and romped to a record-setting 50.18 to win the crown at the 1989 NCAA Division I Outdoor Track & Field Championships in Provo, Utah.

Davis finished her collegiate career scoring in every NCAA individual event she entered, 14 including indoors. She totaled 56¾ career points at the NCAA Outdoor Championships, which put her 10th on the all-time scoring chart as of 2019.

Her post-collegiate career found her important in many ways, too. Athletically, she was among the Golden Girls of the Bahamas who struck Olympic gold in 2000, anchoring the 4×100 relay in her final race. She was later awarded a gold medal in the 200 after a drug disqualification.

In 2007, she was the first woman from the Caribbean elected to the IAAF (now World Athletics) Council and last year completed her third four-year term. Upon her retirement, she was named an Honorary Life Person Member of WA.

Dillard Hurdles To NCAA, World Glory

Jesse Owens gave Harrison Dillard a pair of track spikes.

Owens also gave Dillard some advice: Try the hurdles.

Dillard would end up being the best hurdler in the world – and a legend in the sport, just like Owens, who matriculated through Cleveland’s East Technical High School 10 years earlier.

Due to service in World War II, in which he served in the all-black 92nd Infantry Division known as the Buffalo Soldiers, Dillard did not enter college until 1945. He certainly made up for lost time, though, as a member of the Baldwin Wallace track & field team.

Dillard swept the 1946 and 1947 NCAA 120-yard and 220-yard hurdles – the last athlete with such a double-double – and his four titles remain the only ones in this meet won by an athlete from Baldwin Wallace, which now competes at the NCAA Division III level. When Dillard won the 220H title in 1947, he set a world record, American record and meet record of 22.3.

He was on track for more NCAA glory in 1948 when his focus shifted to the upcoming London Olympics, where he won gold – not in the high hurdles, but the 100. The change in events came most unexpectedly as he missed making the U.S. team in the 110H, ending an 82-race winning streak that included various sprints and hurdles (Only Edwin Moses would later record a longer streak, albeit in one event).

Affectionately known as “Bones” because of his slight weight, Dillard won gold in the London 100 and four years later captured the Olympic title in the 110 hurdles at Helsinki. He remains the only man to win Olympic golds in a sprint and hurdles event.

Dillard was born on this day in 1923. He passed away last November at age 96.

Simpson Sprints To All-Time Mark In 1929

George Simpson of Ohio State was ahead of his time.

In 1929, Simpson used starting blocks – then a recent innovation – in the final of the 100 yards at the NCAA Track & Field Championships. To wit, the starting blocks hadn’t be around all that long, as the invention was credited to Australian Charlie Booth and his father earlier that year.

Simpson, then a junior for the Buckeyes, scorched the cinder in 9.4 seconds to not only win one of his three career NCAA titles, but set an apparent world record in the process. And while the NCAA allowed the use of starting blocks, the world and U.S. governing bodies did not at the time. Therefore, his 9.4 was never ratified as a world record (It was eventually recognized as the American record 15 years later in 1944).

The final field of the 100 yards was loaded, featuring four men who had equaled the existing world record of 9.5. The others, in order of finish: defending champ Claude Bracey of Rice, Eddie Tolan of Michigan and Cy Leland of TCU. Tolan and Simpson, in fact, equaled the 9.5 WR in prelims.

Simpson was a double winner in 1929, adding a 220-yard victory to help lead Ohio State to its first (and still only) team title at this meet. The Buckeyes won the meet with just four athletes – the smallest winning team until USC (1943) and Arkansas (1996) would match them. Amazingly, Ohio State could have won with just three athletes as the trio of Simpson (20 points), hurdler Richard Rockaway (18) and discus thrower Pete Rasmus (10) accounted for 48 of the Buckeyes’ 50 points (Runner-up Washington had 42).

Ritchie Doubles Down In The Throws

Happy birthday to Meg Ritchie!

The last woman to own concurrent collegiate records in both the shot put and discus was the first woman to win any two events in the same year at the NCAA Division I Outdoor Track & Field Championships, doing so in 1982, the first year women were included in the meet.

Ritchie was in a league of her own as a collegian.

In 1981, Ritchie set the still-standing collegiate record – and British record – in the discus with a heave of 67.48m (221-5) at the Mt. SAC Relays. The native of Kirkcaldy, Fife, Scotland, also owns five other current all-time top-10 marks on the collegiate chart, including Nos. 2, 4, 5, 7 and 10.

Ritchie seemingly slowed down during her 1982 campaign, compared to the incredibly high standards to which she set for herself in the previous years. And after Ritchie improved her collegiate record in the shot put to 17.47m (57-3¾), her coach revealed that they were bringing her along slowly.

“That’s not to say we’re ignoring her collegiate season,” Arizona coach Dave Murray told Lee Shappell of The Arizona Republic. “But we respect her as one of the elite throwers in the world, and we want to work with her so that she is at her best in the biggest meets.”

Ritchie added that she had just come off heavy weight training (“I’m feeling more springy now”) and was paying attention to a sore shoulder. “I don’t want people to think I’m making excuses, but I’ve been awfully sensible with my shoulder,” she told Shappell. “It’s just now coming along nicely – in time for nationals.”

It’s safe to say that plan worked as Ritchie had an incredible summer. After sweeping the NCAA discus and shot put crowns by winning margins of 8 feet, 11 inches and 11 inches, respectively, Ritchie would turn her attention to the Commonwealth Games, where she won the discus title there as well.

Ritchie never improved her collegiate record in the discus, but added more than five feet to her shot put standard the following year that would remain the all-time best until Raven Saunders came along in 2016.

Now 68 and known as Meg Stone, the former Arizona star is the Director of the Center of Excellence for Sport Science and Coach Education as well as the Director of the Olympic Training Site at East Tennessee State.

Three-For-Three: Woodruff Made It Look Easy

The half-mile or 800 meters is a beautifully chaotic race.

Just about anything can – and just might – happen during a two-lap race of an outdoor track, especially at the highest level of competition, such as the NCAA Division I Track & Field Championships. Go ahead and multiply that by infinity when it comes four laps of a 200-meter indoor track.

In the near 100 years since the first NCAA Track & Field Championships were established in 1921, there have only been three men who won three consecutive outdoor titles: Charles Hornbostel of Indiana from 1932 to 1934, John Woodruff of Pittsburgh from 1937 to 1939 and Jose Parrilla of Tennessee from 1992 to 1994.

Woodruff was already quite accomplished by the time he won his first NCAA title in 1937. As a freshman with the Panthers in 1936, Woodruff won the U.S. title with a world record of 1:49.8 and then came from behind to capture the Olympic gold medal later that summer, even after being boxed in so severely by other runners that he had to slow to a moderate jog to correct his path.

When Woodruff returned to the collegiate scene the following season, he left no doubt that he was the best to come through those ranks in a long time. After all, his first NCAA victory in 1937 resulted in a meet record of 1:50.3 that wasn’t broken for 15 years.

By the time he graduated from Pittsburgh in 1939, Woodruff added two more 880-yard titles to his ledger, including a full-second victory to cap his undefeated collegiate career against collegians in that event outdoors. That wasn’t just in the 880, either: According to track & field historian Dave Johnson of the Penn Relays, Woodruff never lost an outdoor race in collegiate competition in the 800/880 or 400/440.

Woodruff had high hopes for the future, which he thought would include a title defense at the 1940 Olympic Games. World War II broke out in 1941 and soon after graduating from New York University with a master’s degree in sociology, Woodruff enlisted in the military as a second lieutenant and was discharged as a captain in 1945. He re-joined the military to serve during the Korean War and left in 1957 as a lieutenant colonel.

The Tie Goes To The Runner(s)

A dead heat.

On Independence Day, we recognize two service academies – Army and Air Force – that captured their first (and still only) victories by male athletes in this meet 56 years ago. It happened in a thrilling finish in the Men’s 5000 Meters, resulting in the first unintentional* tie for first in a running event in the history of the NCAA Track & Field Championships.

This was 1964, long before technology would make judging close finishes much less time consuming than this one took – several minutes and even then it was only pending until photo negatives could be developed hours later in a trackside room. The final result was a tie between Bill Straub of Army and Jim Murphy of Air Force, both in a meet record time of 14:12.3.

Both Straub, a senior and recently commissioned second lieutenant, and Murphy, a sophomore, were among a select few runners who weren’t doubling back from the 10,000-meter final the day before. The freshness in their legs would become valuable as the race turned into a mad dash on the final homestretch.

Murphy had led for the previous four laps before being passed by Straub and Central Connecticut State’s Jim Keefe going into the last turn. Straub then grabbed the homestretch lead with Murphy finding a second gear. At the finish, Murphy leaned and Straub lunged, tripping over Murphy’s leg.

“I stuck my head out,” Murphy was quoted by United Press International. “I have a habit of doing that in a close race. Sometimes they go on that.”

The Associated Press noted Straub, who tumbled to the ground at the finish, “…needed help off the track, his legs rubbery and his eyes glazed.” Straub later told the AP, “I’m usually sick after a fast last quarter, but not like this.”

Ironically, the very next day the meet had another dead heat in the 400 meters. There has not been a tie for first in any event since at the NCAA DI Outdoor Championships.

Fun fact: Finishing fourth in this race at Hayward Field was an Oregon sophomore named Ken Moore. The Eugene native would become much famous later as Kenny Moore, a two-time Olympic marathoner and the longtime track & field writer for Sports Illustrated. He authored the seminal biography on Bill Bowerman (Bowerman and the Men of Oregon).

*The only other tie for first in this meet in a running event before then came in the 1944 mile, when Michigan twins Robert and Ross Hume intentionally tied. They attempted to do the same in 1945, but Ross was given the win over Robert, both with the same time.

Ottey’s Audacious Quadruple In 1983

Most sprinters attempt a triple with the 100 and 200, plus a relay.

Merlene Ottey of Nebraska wasn’t like most sprinters.

At the 1983 NCAA Division I Outdoor Track & Field Championships in Houston, Ottey tried to collect an audacious quartet of titles with the 100, 200, 400 and 4×100 relay on her ledger. Ottey nearly won all of them with victories in the 100 and 200, a runner-up finish in the 4×100 relay and a third-place finish in the 400 (To this day, she is the only man or woman in meet history to score in the 100, 200 and 400 at the same NCAA Division I Outdoor Track & Field Championships).

Her odyssey was known early on, as Nebraska coach Gary Pepin scaled back Ottey’s racing schedule – even redshirting his star during the indoor season. Ottey’s absence indoors didn’t hurt the potent Cornhuskers as they still won the national title at the inaugural NCAA Division I Women’s Indoor Track & Field Championships (It certainly could have helped break the meet open a little bit as they only won by three points over Tennessee).

“At first, I didn’t want to do it,” Ottey explained to media of the schedule. “If I had my choice I’d run only one event, the 200. But this is a team championship.”

The 200 final would be the last of Ottey’s eight races in Houston. She had completed half of them by the time of her first final on Friday, which would be the 100. Overcoming a slow start, she defended her title by just 0.01 seconds to become the first of five women in NCAA DI history to win back-to-back 100-meter crowns.

“Tomorrow will be a tough day,” she said as her final three races would come in the span of about two hours.

Saturday began with a duel in the 4×100 relay against Florida State. It would be a rematch from the previous year when Ottey anchored the Cornhuskers to victory. Ottey fought to a runner-up finish as both teams broke the existing collegiate record: FSU winning 42.94 to 43.44.

Just 40 minutes later, Ottey took third in a 400 in which the first three athletes across the finish line recorded the NCAA’s fastest ever, led by a 50.94 by UCLA’s Florence Griffith (Ottey ran a PR 51.12, right behind Easter Gabriel of Prairie View A&M in 50.99).

Griffith, in her pre-Flo-Jo days, was already a rival of Ottey. A year earlier, the Bruin won her first national title in the 200, upsetting Ottey. This rematch showed both at their best: Griffith storming the curve for a big lead that Ottey overcame near the finish for a win by just 0.03 seconds in 22.39 (That would be the slimmest margin of victory in the event until 2005 when Sheri-Ann Brooks of Florida International won by just 0.01 seconds).

“I have longer legs and was able to lean farther forward,” Ottey told Virgil Parker of the Lincoln Journal and Star. “I also had to come from behind in the 100. I guess I just wanted the victories more than anybody else. I really wanted to finish my senior season on a high note. And I did. But that’s a lot of races for one meet. I’m glad it’s over. It was a long week.”

Nebraska finished third in the team standings thanks to Ottey’s 45 points (The NCAA scored the meet 12 athletes deep from 1982 to 1984 – 15-12-10-9-8-7-6-5-4-3-2-1). The Cornhusker women matched that placing four more times over the years in 1989, 1991, 1992 and lastly, 2004.

He’s Great: LSU’s Davis Soars To History

Happy birthday to Walter Davis!

Now 41, Davis was 22 when he completed a remarkable feat at the 2002 NCAA Division I Outdoor Track & Field Championships to lead LSU to the men’s team title on its home track at Bernie Moore Stadium.

Davis contributed 22¼ points in a way that no man had ever compiled in meet history. Not only did he become just the sixth male athlete in NCAA DI history to sweep the outdoor horizontal jumps, but he also ran a leg on the winning 4×100 relay team. In fact, no other outdoor triple jump champion had – or has – ever also been part of a national champion outdoor sprint relay squad.

“To get a chance to compete in your last college meet at home is real special,” Davis told reporters afterwards. “I wanted to leave LSU big. Maybe tomorrow it will really hit me how well my college career went.”

It’s safe to say Davis couldn’t go any bigger 18 years ago.

After winning the long jump in 8.08m (26-4¼) on Wednesday, Davis had a tall order ahead of himself on Friday. He would contest both the 4×100 final and the triple jump final, but wouldn’t have much time between them. In fact, he would need to rush over from the relay to the runway in order to get in his most important attempts of the competition, in which he was the defending national champion.

Davis made it look easy, though.

The native of Leonville, Louisiana, led off the winning 4×100 relay with a stellar effort that put the Tigers into an early lead. He could just watch from the sideline as his teammates continued pushing the pace, winning by 0.34 seconds (38.48 to 38.82) for the largest margin of victory in the event since 1991. Just a few days earlier, LSU cooked a time of 38.32 in the preliminary heats for what was the third fastest mark in collegiate history.

Davis then raced over to the triple jump and took over the top of the leaderboard for good on his third attempt, which resulted in a mark of 17.25m (56-7¼). He kept pouring it on as he eventually bounded to a stadium record 17.34m (56-10¾) to close things out and win his second event title in a row at the national meet.

“This is my house. This is my house,” Davis chanted after landing his sixth attempt. “That’s what I’m talking about.”

Scott Neilson Is NCAA T&F’s Mr. Canada

O Canada!

In recognition of Canada Day, today’s moment highlights the Canadian male athlete with the most titles at the NCAA Division I Outdoor Championships: Scott Neilson of Washington.

The native of New Westminster, British Columbia, dominated the hammer throw with four consecutive wins from 1976-79, a four-peat that only Steve Prefontaine (3-mile/5000) had achieved at the time in any event. Neilson picked up the indoor weight throw as a sophomore and won the NCAA title in that event three times, bringing his overall total to seven, which ties him for the most combined NCAA titles by a thrower, male or female.

Neilson set the collegiate record in the hammer at 72.72m (238-7) in a dual meet in April 1978. A couple of months later, he challenged it when he twice raised the meet record at the NCAA DI Outdoor Championships, ultimately to 72.36m (237-5) for a victory by more than 25 feet, which remained the largest margin of victory in the event for 18 years. (DID YOU KNOW: The event, held at Hayward Field, was moved outside the stadium due to safety reasons – a few warmup tosses had landed close to the track.)

“It would be nice to have spectators, but the outside ring was faster,” Neilson told Dave Kayfes of The Register-Guard in Eugene. “And when I’m outside, I say this is the meet here. Who cares about those guys (in the stadium).”

Neilson finished his collegiate career undefeated, but he had one close call.

Washington’s 1979 dual meet against Washington State was held in heavy rain and wind – Henry Rono of WSU said “Never in my life have I run in such bad weather” – and Neilson entered the last round behind the Cougars’ Paul Buxton. Neilson came through with a winning heave on his final attempt to win by a little more than one foot – 69.90m (229-4) to 69.58m (228-3).

Neilson was also tough in the classroom. With his 3.69 GPA in chemistry and pre-med, he was chosen as a Pac-10 Medalist in 1979, as well as being named one of the NCAA’s Top V student-athletes. Both honors require a combination of excellence in athletics, academics and leadership.

A Crowning Moment For Rogers In 2017

In a collegiate career filled with incredible, awe-inspiring moments, it would be hard to pick just one that defined Raevyn Rogers’ time at Oregon. So why not pick an entire day?

Let’s rewind three years and 20 days to Saturday, June 10, 2017.

It was on that day that Rogers not only became the first woman in the history of the NCAA Division I Outdoor Track & Field Championships to win three 800-meter titles – but she also anchored the Ducks to a victory in the 4×400 relay that set a collegiate record, clinched the first Triple Crown by a women’s program in NCAA DI history and sent the home crowd at Hayward Field into absolute hysterics.

Rogers started the afternoon with a sensational effort in the 800. After a 58.34 opening lap where she sat right off the lead, Rogers turned on the jets to close in 61.68. Her final time of 2:00.02 sits sixth on the all-time collegiate chart, one of her three all-time top-10 marks outdoors (She also holds the collegiate record at 1:59.10 and the No. 5 time at 1:59.71).

One hour later, Rogers hopped on the track to take the hand-off from Elexis Guster with history in the balance.

Before the day began, Oregon had zero points to its credit in the team standings. That quickly changed as they put up 31 points in the sprints and hurdles alone and sat second with 54 points entering that fateful 4×400, 8.20 points behind the first-place Georgia Bulldogs. That meant in order to win the outdoor title and complete the Triple Crown, the Ducks had to win. Rogers had to be first across the finish line.

Oregon’s opposition was impressive, led by a stout quartet from Southern California. Just a few months earlier, the Women of Troy defeated the Ducks in the 4×400 at the NCAA Division I Indoor Track & Field Championships by 0.04 seconds, which produced two of the fastest times in collegiate history (3:27.03 for USC at No. 1; 3:27.07 for Oregon at No. 2).

“The 4×400 is all about heart,” Rogers would later tell Chris Hansen of The Register-Guard, Eugene’s local newspaper. “All of us are tired – it’s all about who has the most heart at the end of the day.”

pic.twitter.com/ROiEIFiqIS

— NCAA Track & Field (@NCAATrackField) June 30, 2020

The fascinating race was on record pace from the start, stoked by a stellar 50.8 second leg by Oregon’s Deajah Stevens, who earlier had fallen before the end of the 200 while leading and was DQ’d for illegal assistance (The winner, Florida’s Kyra Jefferson, broke the collegiate record with her time of 22.02).

Oregon held a slim lead as the anchor legs – Rogers and USC’s Kendall Ellis – prepared to repeat their indoor duel, but this time on Rogers’ home track.

Ellis edged ahead on the backstretch, but Rogers took control going into the final curve and held on for an astonishing finish that saw both teams go under the previous collegiate record of 3:23.75 set 13 years earlier. The Ducks won in 3:23.13 with Rogers clocking a 49.77 anchor, while the Women of Troy crossed in 3:23.35 with Ellis blistering a 49.63 split.

“I was hoping they didn’t catch me because my legs were going all over the place,” Rogers said. “I was just trying to get to the finish line.”

Later that year, Rogers won The Bowerman, collegiate track & field’s highest honor.

Robinson Brothers Make NCAA T&F History

Can you name the first set of siblings to win NCAA track & field titles?

We’ll give you a hint: Their last name is Robinson.

Jackie Robinson and older brother Mack went to different colleges in different years: Jackie to UCLA in 1939; Mack several years earlier to Oregon. Both topped the podium at the NCAA Outdoor Track & Field Championships, coincidentally at the same location (University of Minnesota’s campus in Minneapolis).

Mack – a nickname for Matthew – gave the Robinson family its first NCAA title in 1938 when he won the 220-yard dash in a meet-record 21.3, breaking the mark of 21.5 formerly held by Jesse Owens from 1936. While Mack wasn’t in that 1936 NCAA final, he did compete later that year at the Berlin Olympics, earning the silver medal behind Owens in the 200 meters.

Jackie, four-and-a-half years younger than Mack, added another NCAA crown to the Robinson family trophy case two years later in 1940 when he won the long jump in 24-10¼ (7.57m). He was in second place entering the final round of the event before uncorking his winning attempt. Just a few weeks earlier, Jackie opened his season at the Pacific Coast Conference Championships with a world-leading 25-0 (7.62m).

Many know Jackie for famously breaking the color barrier in Major League Baseball in 1947 with the Brooklyn Dodgers. Baseball was one of four sports in which Jackie excelled while at UCLA, alongside basketball (led the conference in scoring), football (led the nation in punt return average) and, of course, track & field. He remains the only athlete in UCLA history to letter in four sports.

Jackie and Mack were honored by the city of Pasadena in 1997 with nine-foot-tall bronze sculptures of their heads outside of City Hall.

UTEP’s Nyambui Goes 7-For-7 Outdoors

7-for-7.

Suleiman Nyambui of UTEP racked up NCAA titles like clockwork. He never lost a race at the NCAA Division I Outdoor Track & Field Championships, winning four consecutive at 10,000 meters from 1979 to 1982, plus three consecutive at 5000 meters from 1980 to 1982.

When Nyambui won his fourth title in a row at 10,000 meters in 1982, he was smiling with four fingers held high as he crossed the finish line. And three years earlier, he set the still-standing meet record of 28:01.30 in a race where three men went sub-28:10.00 (No other final had that much depth since, but there are several which had two men under that barrier).

The Tanzanian was as dominant as his team.

The Miners won team titles all four years Nyambui was on campus and completed the rare Triple Crown three years in a row, having won NCAA team titles indoors and during the cross country season. The only year that UTEP didn’t win the Triple Crown with Nyambui on its roster was in 1979 when it lost by one point to Villanova.

Indoors he also won seven titles and is a four-time mile champion (only Jim Ryun has as many as three). Add in a cross country win and his 15 individual NCAA D1 titles is the most (Edward Cheserek later tied that and has the overall best with 17).

Nyambui was cognizant of criticism that he was older (29 as a senior) and more experienced than much of his competition. He told Jon Hendershott of Track & Field News: “I have to say that I don’t think it is especially good for a young American kid to have to come out of high school, to college, and have to compete against me. But we also have to understand that this is a chance for everyone to learn, in the race and out. The American guys will learn from competing against me and other Africans and they will get better, too.”

Oxy’s Gutowski Vaults To Record Heights

His nickname was Guts and he broke a legend’s world record.

Bob Gutowski of Occidental entered the 1957 NCAA Championships as defending co-champion in the pole vault as well as the Olympic silver medalist from the previous fall in Melbourne. But he was more famous for earlier in the season having broken the world record set by Dutch Warmerdam 15 years earlier – the only older record at the time was Jesse Owens’ long jump.

The new world record – 15-8¼ (4.78m) – was in jeopardy after Gutowski cleared meet records of 15-1¾ (4.62m) and 15-5 (4.70m), the latter deposing 1955 NCAA champ Don Bragg of Villanova, who would eventually win gold at the 1960 Olympics.

As Bert Nelson wrote in Track & Field News – which he co-founded with this brother Cordner: “Chances for a new record looked excellent. And the quietly eager fans didn’t have long to wait.” Nelson had covered Gutowski’s earlier record, along with Warmerdam’s previous one among the nearly 300 he would eventually witness.

But there was a short delay for Gutowski and the fans in attendance at Memorial Stadium in Austin, Texas, as the bar was raised to 15-10¼ (4.83m): Gutowski made his way to the podium to receive his medal for placing fifth in the long jump earlier in the day, which was the last time an NCAA pole vault champion scored in another event in the same meet.

When Gutowski returned to the runway, it didn’t take long for him to lock in.

His first attempt was good, detailed as “a beautifully clean clearance, with some two inches to spare.” A re-measurement – required for records in those days – put it at 15-9¾ (4.82m). The effort never was ratified as a world record, though, because of a technicality no longer in effect – his pole had crossed the plane.

“I was a little surprised that I did as well as I did, because I thought I was going downhill,” Gutowski told reporters after the meet. “But Coach Chuck Coker told me to punch my knees up and drive up. I was able to do it.”

Gutowski’s life ended tragically. Less than a month after not making the 1960 Olympic team, he was killed in a two-vehicle automobile accident while serving in the Marine Corps Reserves.