by RBR Admin
This Day in Track & Field History, April 28, 2024
1928— From Sports Illustrated: “In 1928, Charley Paddock, who had won gold medals in the 100-meter dash and 400-meter relay at the 1920 Olympics, and silver medals in the 200 in 1920 and 1924, asked that a 175-yard dash be added to the (Penn Relays) schedule so that he would have a chance to break his own world record of 17[4/5] seconds. “I am not exactly a youngster anymore,” the 27-year-old Paddock said before the race, “but, you know, I have always wanted to run here. When I was in Southern California, the college would never let me come on for the Penn races.”
“Little did Paddock know that he would end up running for his life. Shortly after 4 p.m. on April 28, the 175-yard dash went off. Paddock was challenged by three Penn sprinters, Folwell Scull, Lamoine Boyle, and John Ball. It was a wet day, but a good crowd had turned out. Halfway through the race, a 25-foot section of the brick wall bordering the track collapsed under the weight of the straining spectators, about 100 of them spilling onto the track, directly in the path of the sprinters. Paddock, who was in the lane nearest the wall, veered to his left without breaking stride and finished the race in the inside lane, nevertheless lowering his world record.”
Georgia Tech’s Ed Hamm won the Long Jump(23-8 [7.21]) for the second year in a row and went on to win Olympic gold in Amsterdam later in the year (after setting a world record of 25-11 1/8 (7.90)). A two-time NCAA Champion (1927, 1928), he would win at Penn for the third time in 1930.
Yale’s Sabin Carr also won Olympic gold in Amsterdam after setting a relay record of 13-0 (3.96+) in the Pole Vault.
https://timesmachine.nytimes.com/timesmachine/1928/04/29/118338360.html?pageNumber=116
1928—Illinois ran 42.4 at the Drake Relays, tying the World Record in the 440y-Relay.
https://timesmachine.nytimes.com/timesmachine/1928/04/29/118338362.html?pageNumber=116
1931 – Program for women athletes approved for 1932 Olympics track & field
1934—Hall of Famer Glenn Cunningham won the Penn Relays Mile in 4:11.8. (He would win again in 1938.) In June, Cunningham set a World Record of 4:06.8.
https://timesmachine.nytimes.com/timesmachine/1934/04/29/94518856.html?pageNumber=119
1934—Fresno State’s Walter Marty cleared 6-9 1/8 (ratified as 2.06) in a dual meet against Stanford to break his own year-old World Record (6-8 5/8 [2.04]) in the High Jump.
Marty had set a U.S. High School Record of 6-4 ¼ (1.93) in 1929 as a senior at Fresno(CA) H.S.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Walter_Marty
1945—Complying with the Office of Defense Transportation, which began limiting large gatherings earlier in the year, 90% of invitations to this year’s Penn Relays went to teams within a 20-mile radius of the Penn campus.
The U.S. Coast Guard, with Eulace Peacock on the lead-off leg, won the 440y-Relay in 43.3, the 2nd-slowest winning time in Relays history. Army won 3 events– the 880y (1:28.6) and Mile(3:18.7) Relays, and the Shuttle Hurdles(1:03.6).
Michigan won the other four relays: the 2—mile relay (7:56.8), the 4-mile relay (17:44.9), the Sprint Medley (3:30.8), and the Distance Medley (10:35.2). Ross Hume ran on all four teams for the Wolverines, anchoring the SMR and DMR, while his twin brother Bob anchored the 4-mile Relay and ran the third leg on the 2-mile Relay.
Known as the “dead-heat twins”, the brothers often made every effort to cross the finish line together in races, sometimes hand-in-hand. They even tied for 1st place in the Mile at the 1944 NCAA Championships, but officials insisted on separating them when they tried the same thing at the 1945 NCAA meet, with the win going to Ross.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/H._Ross_Hume
https://timesmachine.nytimes.com/timesmachine/1945/04/29/113382083.html?pageNumber=80
1951—Three years before he made history by running the first sub-4-minute mile, Oxford’s Roger Bannister won the Penn Relays Mile in 4:08.3.
A Manhattan College foursome of John O’Connell, Joe Schatzle, Lindy Remigino, and Bob Carty swept the 440y (41.7) and 880y (1:25.5) Relays. Remigino would win gold medals in the 100 and 4×100 at the 1952 Olympics in Helsinki.
With Charlie Moore running a 47.6 3rd leg, Cornell set a relay record 3:13.1 in the Mile Relay. Moore was also on the winning Shuttle Hurdles team (59.5) and won his 3rd straight Penn title in the 400-meter hurdles (51.8). As noted in the 1949 report, he won the gold medal in the hurdles at the 1952 Olympics. Teammate Meredith Gourdine, who ran the lead-off leg on the Mile Relay, would win the silver medal in the Long Jump in 1952.
Another runner who went on to win Olympic gold (in the 200) in 1952 was Seton Hall’s Andy Stanfield, who won the 100-yard dash in 9.8 and the Long Jump for the 2nd year in a row with a relay record leap of 25-4 ½ (7.73).
With Don and Bill Ashenfelter handling the middle legs, Penn State won the 4-mile Relay (17:24.6) for the 4th time in 5 years.
Anchoring NYU’s winning team in the Sprint Medley (3:24.8/4th title in 5 years) was Larry Ellis, who became the head coach at Princeton for 22 years. He was the President of USATF from 1992-1996 and was the Head U.S. Men’s Coach at the 1984 Olympics.
Remigino: https://www.usatf.org/athlete-bios/lindy-remigino
Gourdine: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Meredith_Gourdine
Ellis: https://goprincetontigers.com/news/2018/7/26/mens-track-and-field-larry-ellis.aspx
https://www.nytimes.com/1998/11/06/sports/larry-ellis-olympic-coach-for-us-track-dies-at-70.html
1962—Willye White won the first women’s event held at the Penn Relays—the 100-yard dash (10.9). Finishing 5th was Louise Mead-Tricard, who would publish two comprehensive books on American Women’s Track & Field.
16 at the time, White was the silver medalist in the Long Jump at the 1956 Olympics in Melbourne. She would win a 2ndOlympic silver medal in the 4×100 Relay in 1964 and was a member of 5 Olympic teams! She was inducted into the National Hall of Fame in 1981.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Willye_White
Mead-Tricard: https://or.milesplit.com/articles/20029
https://www.amazon.com/American-Womens-Track-Field-History/dp/0786402199
https://books.google.com/books/about/American_Women_s_Track_and_Field_1981_20.html?id=IKGamAEACAAJ
1962—Dave Tork cleared 16-2 (4.93) at the Mt.SAC Relays to set a World Record in the Pole Vault. A month earlier, John Uelses set the previous mark of 16-1/2 (4.89).
1963—C.K. Yang scored 9,206 points at the Mt.SAC Relays to break the previous World Record of 8,683, set in 1960 by Rafer Johnson, his friend and former UCLA teammate. (Adjusted scores based on current tables: 8,010-7,981).
Note: The official score was 9121, but the correct score should have been 9206 (because Yang’s 4.84 PV went beyond the upper limits of the published scoring table.
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By Walt Murphy’s News and Results Service (wmurphy25@aol.com), used with permission.
