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Walt Murphy’s News and Results Service ([email protected])
This Day in Track & Field-November 11 (Veterans Day)
1868–From Wally Donovan’s History of Indoor Track & Field
“On a cold and rainy night, indoor track was born in New York City. The newly formed New York Athletic Club conducted the first organized track and field meet ever held in the United States in a building that was under construction for a skating rink at Third Avenue and 63rd Street.
The building (later known as the Empire City Skating Rink) had only a partial roof, so tarpaulins were hastily gathered by the faithful club members, sewn together and stretched over the yawning hole atop the structure.
Inside, the center of the rink had not been floored, so the athletes competed on a staked out eighth-of-a-mile clay track, with four straight and narrow sides and four uncomfortably sharp corners.
On Wednesday evening, November 11, 1868, it was pouring rain as the crowd arrived in horsecars and carriages. They were greeted by a 42-piece band and the place was aglow with gaslights. However, this didn’t keep the 2,000 spectators (both male and female) and the athletes in their flimsy track suits from shivering.
Spiked shoes were used for the first time, but there was only one pair so they were shared by (some) athletes. The shoes were helpful in winning a prize in every event they were used, three firsts, one second and one third being the total for the evening. When it is remembered that not one of the users had ever before worn a spiked shoe and that the track was almost as hard as a concrete floor, it may be realized that the new style shoes were somewhat uncomfortable, to say the least.
The use of the pistol in starting was not as general as it later became, and a bass drum was used at this meeting to give the starting signal. While it will be generally admitted that such a sound would be audible not only to the starters but even to all of the spectators, yet a contestant in one heat of the 75 yard run asked for another trial because he ‘did not hear the drum’.
The marks made by each winner were the first amateur records ever claimed in America.”
Winners
75 yards—William B. Curtis NYAC 9.0
220y—Frank Johnson NYAC 28.0
440y—H.S. Magrane NYAC 1:02.0
880y— H.S. Magrane NYAC 2:26.0
Hurdles (distance not stated)—Frank Johnson NYAC 24.0
Running Jump—F.W. Stone Woods’ Gymnasium 5’-2”
Running Broad Jump—John Goldie Caldeonian Club 17’-0”
Standing Broad Jump (with weights)—P.M. Broderick NYAC 11’-6 1/5”
Standing High Jump—John Goldie Caldeonian Club 4’-5”
Standing Three Jumps—P.M. Broderick NYAC 33’-8”
Pole Vault—W.L. Campbell Caledonian Club (NYAC?) 8’-3”
Shot Put—Alexander Graham Caledonian Club 35’-5”
Hammer—W.L. Campbell Caledonian Club (NYAC?) 73’-0”
Mile Walk–J.E. Russell NYAC 7:50.5
1882–Lon Myers lowered his American Record in the mile to 4:27.6 in New York. A charter member of the National Hall of Fame (1974), Myers also set American Records in the 100y, 220y, 440y and 880y and won a total of 15 U.S. titles in the 100y (2), 220y (4), 440y (6) and 880y (3)
WIki Bio: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lon_Myers
https://www.usatf.org/news/2020/myers-earns-throwback-athlete-of-the-week-honors
1963—Just like the mile has its’ 4-minute barrier, the benchmark for the traditional 2-1/2 mile high school cross country course at NY’s Van Cortlandt Park is 13-minutes. While he didn’t garner the level of attention that Roger Bannister received when he ran his historic 3:59.4 in 1954, Bill Leahy, a 17-yeard old senior at Boston’s Catholic Memorial H.S., became another barrier-buster when he ran 12:58.6 on this date at the “Irish Christian Brothers Championship”!
Marc Bloom, a member of the Van Cortlandt Park Hall of Fame (for his extensive coverage of high school events at the iconic site), writes at length about Leahy’s life before and after his shining moment in this RunnerSpace article (Leahy was inducted into the VCP HOF in 2025):
https://www.runnerspace.com/news.php?news_id=647922
Born On This Day*
KC Lightfoot 26 (1999) Set an American Record of 19-11 (6.07) in the Pole Vault in Nashville on June 2, 2023. The
previous record of 19-10 ½ (6.06) was set by Sam Kendricks in 2019
2021 NCAA Indoor Champion (Baylor); 4th-2019 NCAA Championships, 8th Indoors
Tied for 4th at the 2021 Olympics, competed in the qualifying round at the 2019 World Championships
Tied for 10th at the 2022 World Indoor Championships
2nd at the 2021 U.S. Olympic Trials; eliminated in the qualifying round at the 2024 Trials
3rd at the 2023 U.S. Indoor Championships, 4th Outdoors
2018 National Scholastic Champion
Plagued by injuries in recent years
PBs: 19-11 (6.07/2023/NR/#5 All-Time), 19-8 1/4i (6.00/2021/=Collegiate Record/=#10 A-T, #4-U.S.);
High School PBs: 18-5 (5.61+/2018/#3 A-T), 17-9i (5.41/2018/#10 A-T)
2025 SB: 18-10 ½ (5.75)
https://www.olympedia.org/athletes/147335
https://www.usatf.org/athlete-bios/kc-lightfoot
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/KC_Lightfoot
AR: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eh-mo-U7fxc
Post AR: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pfNQ39RtVrg
Raymond Hecht—Germany 57 (1968) Bronze medalist in the Javelin at the 1998 European Championships
4th at the 1996 and 2000 Olympics
Finalist at 4 World Championships—1991 (12th), 1995 (4th), 1999 (5th), 2001 (5th)
Set a German Record of 303-10 (92.60/#9 All-Time) in 1995 (since broken)
Made the T&F News Top-10 World Rankings 10 times from 1993-2003 (missed in 1997)…ranked #2 in 1995 &
1996
Rankings:
https://trackandfieldnews.com/mens-world-rankings-by-athlete-2/mens-world-javelin-rankings-by-athlete/
http://www.olympedia.org/athletes/70268
Deceased
Willie May 75 (1936-March 28, 2012) 1960 Olympic silver medalist—110-Hurdles (lost a photo-finish to Lee Calhoun)
All-American at Indiana: NCAA (120y-hurdles)-1957 (7th), 1958 (3rd), 1959 (2nd)
Silver medalist at the 1963 Pan-American Games
Became a coach and Athletic Director at Evanston Township(IL) High School. Retired as the head coach in 2006,
but remained as an assistant up until the time he passed away in 2012.
https://www.olympedia.org/athletes/78748
OG(Finish): https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1sIwZKn2_6A
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Willie_May
https://www.chicagotribune.com/news/ct-xpm-2012-04-04-ct-met-willie-may-obit-20120404-story.html
Jan Johnson 74 (1950-February 23, 2025) 1972 Olympic bronze medalist—Pole Vault
1970 NCAA Champion while at Kansas (event held indoors due to inclement weather/set a World Indoor Record of
17-7/5.36)
After transferring to Alabama, he won the 1972 NCAA Indoor title
1971 U.S. and Pan-American Games Champion
PB: 18-1/2 (5.50/1972)
Grew up on his family farm in Chicago Heights,IL. “I got started in pole vaulting with a pitchfork jumping over hay
bales. That’s the honest truth. We’d go out to milk the cows and then we’d be dragging hay bales. Probably my
earliest memory of jumping over hay bales was when I was about 8 or 9.”
Coached his daughter Chelsea in high school…she went on to win the silver medal in the Women’s Pole Vault at
the 2009 World Championships in Berlin—(her husband is Trey Hardee, the 2-time World Champion–2009,
2011, and 2012 Olympic silver medalist in the Decathlon).
Daughter Chelsea’s Post on Facebook
“Some of the pole vaulters he coached were 1997 World Championships bronze medalist Dean Starkey
(19’5″), Greg Duplantis (19’0″)1988, Simon Arkell, the former Australia Record Holder (19’4) 1991, and
Shayla Balentine, the former National HS record holder (13’8) 2001”.
Founder of the Sky Jumpers Vertical Sports Club in Atascadero, California.
Had been the Pole Vault Safety Chair for USATF
Wrote about his journey to the 1972 Olympics in his autobiography, “The High Flyer and the Cultural Revolution”
https://www.amazon.com/High-Flyer-Cultural-Revolution-Journal/dp/1480986003/
https://www.olympedia.org/athletes/78614
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jan_Johnson
https://patch.com/illinois/chicagoheights/olympic-medalist-jan-johnson-hasnt-forgotten-his-chicf8bd826540
Sky Jumpers: https://www.vstraining.com/skyjumperspv/
Aleksandr Baryshnikov—Russia 75 (1948-Sep. 15, 2024) 2-time Olympic medalist—Shot Put (1976 -bronze, 1980-silver)
Was one of the early practitioners of the spin technique (but not the first).
Former World Record holder: 72-2 ¼ (22.00/1976). It was the first World Record using the new technique.
http://www.olympedia.org/athletes/77373
http://rethinkingathletics.blogspot.com/2016/08/are-shot-putters-becoming-spinners.html
Video
