Walt Murphy is one of the finest track geeks that I know. Walt does #ThisDayinTrack&FieldHistory, an excellent daily service that provides true geek stories about our sport. You can check out the service for FREE with a free one-month trial subscription! (email: [email protected] ) for the entire daily service. We will post a few historic moments each day, beginning February 1, 2024.
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By Walt Murphy’s News and Results Service ([email protected]), used with permission.
This Day in Track & Field-May 10
1930–Running without starting blocks, American Frank Wykoff won the 100-yard dash at the Southern Pacific AAU meet at Occidental College in L.A. in 9.4 to break Eddie Tolan’s World Record by a tenth of a second. Wykoff won three Olympic gold medals as a member of the winning U.S. 4×100 teams at the 1928, 1932, and 1936 (Jesse Owens ran lead-off) Games (he also finished 4th in the 100 in 1928 and 1936).
The USC Trojan won two NCAA (1930,1931) and U.S. (1928,1931) sprint titles and was elected to the U.S. T&F Hall of Fame in 1977.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Frank_Wykoff
https://www.olympedia.org/athletes/79221
Video-1936 4×100: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=T7D_V0w3Qqw
Starting Blocks Controversy
http://speedendurance.com/2009/01/04/frank-wykoff-on-track-and-field-starting-blocks-controversy/
A “race” in Street Clothes: https://usopm.org/frank-wykoff/
1969—John Carlos, who was 6’-3”, 200 lbs (1.91/91kg), ran 9.1 at the West Coast Relays in Fresno to match the World Record in the 100-yard dash that had previously been run by Bob Hayes, Canada’s Harry Jerome, Jim Hines, and Charlie Greene.
The NY native also anchored San Jose State to victory in the 440y (39.7) and 880y (1:22.3) relays.
Hall of Fame Bio (2003): https://www.usatf.org/athlete-bios/john-carlos
1975–Colorful Brian Oldfield, who often smoked cigarettes between puts, threw an amazing 75-0 (22.86) to win the Shot Put at the ITA Professional meet in El Paso. The official World Record at the time was 71-7 (21.82). Oldfield, who was the 1970 and 1981 U.S. Indoor and 1980 U.S. Outdoor Champion, is credited by some with developing the spin style in the Shot Put. He finished 6th at the 1972 Olympics. Oldfield passed away in 2017 at the age of 71.
Video: https://twitter.com/beau_throws/status/1656290702353997827
Sports Illustrated Vault:
Cover Story: https://vault.si.com/vault/1975/09/01/coming-on-strong
NY Times Obituary: https://www.nytimes.com/2017/03/30/sports/brian-oldfield-shot-putting-superstar-dies-at-71.html
1975—Villanova’s Eamonn Coghlan, a junior from Ireland, got the first sub-4 mile of his legendary career, running 3:56.2 at the Pitt Invitational. He came back an hour later to win the 3-mile in 13:35.0.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Eamonn_Coghlan
http://www.racingpast.ca/john_contents.php?id=240
