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.
This Day in Track & Field/X-Country-November 10
1883—Great Britain’s Walter George ran 52:53 for 10 miles in a handicap race in London to break his pre-IAAF World Record of 52:56.5.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Walter_George_(athlete)
1924–Lake View(IL) prep Norma Zilk equaled Helen Filkey’s American Record of 11.6 for 100 yards at Soldier Field in Chicago.
Early Girls Track in Illinois: https://www.ihsa.org/archive/hstoric/track_girls_early.htm?NOCACHE=1:11:35%20AM
https://chicagoreader.com/news-politics/letters-59/
1961–Steve Machooka’s individual win led Cornell to the team title at the Heptagonal Championships at NY’s Van Cortlandt
Park. Machooka was the first Kenyan to run for a U.S. college.
Machooka: http://www.ivy50.com/story.aspx?sid=10/19/2006
1973–This was the first year of the three-division setup in the NCAA, with both Div.II and Div.III staging their Championships on the same day in Wheaton, Illinois.
Individual winner Steve Foster led Ashland College (now University) to the team title as they became the first Div.III Champions.
Gary Bentley’s individual win sparked South Dakota State to the Div.II title.
Before this year, there was only Div. I and the “College” Division were first held in 1958.
Div.II(from 1958 on): http://www.ustfccca.org/meets-results/meet-history?series=3370
Div. III: https://sagehens.com/sports/2023/8/28/d3-cross-country-historians-report.aspx
