V9 N. 8 Jim Beatty's and the World's First Indoor Sub 4

I couch potatoed  this weekend while watching the  Wannamaker Mile from the Armory in New York and was reminded of a day many years ago  (February 10, 1962)  when Jim Beatty and his Los Angeles Track Club  teammates Laszlo Tabori, Jim Grelle, and Dave Martin along with USMC Lt. Peter Close made an attempt to run the first sub  4 minute mile indoors.   This weekend  Yomif Kejelcha running on a synthetic 200 meter track almost broke the current world record missing by only 0.01 of a second in 3:48.46.  When Beatty took down the record in 1962, he ran 3:58.9 or a little over 10 seconds slower than Kejelcha.  That would have put him a half lap behind on the old 11 lap track.   So with all the improvements in track surfaces, increased  lengths, training methods, shoe technology, and money Beatty wasn't really that far out of reach, at least in this old timer's way of thinking.  Kejelcha is a long legged, sweet striding runner who might have had  a lot of trouble motoring on that 11 lap wood track that was state of the art in 1962.  Anyone who ran on those tracks remembers that they were not smooth to run on, often having dead spots that gave no elastic return to the stride when a runner hit the dead wood.  Only a few colleges had 220 yard indoor tracks in those days, and the big names were not often getting a chance to run on those tracks.  Big meets were in older arenas that were built to handle basketball and ice hockey. Furthermore the radius of the turns on the short tracks was much tighter making it harder to maintain pace.    Other differences in the past were that some of the top runners  ran in two meets the same weekend often on both coasts taking a red eye flight across the country after a race in Madison Square Garden on Friday night and hitting the west coast on Saturday.   Oh yes, and in those days people could and did smoke at indoor arenas, so Beatty, who was a smoker himself, might have had a bit of an advantage over the other guys in the race breathing in all that secondary ash and nicotine.  However today's runners, I think might find that atmosphere a bit toxic.  One was truly left with throat burn in those venues.  You would occasionally catch some of the other runners besides Beatty having a smoke themselves under the stands.

Jim Beatty and Ron Delaney  New York Athletic Club Meet 1962

Dave Martin and Peter Close at Start (SI)

Jim Grelle, Jim Beatty, Laszlo Tabori  SI

The Start in L.A.

Wide World of Sports edition of Beatty's mile record  (Jim Makay and Dick Bank commentating)

Short version but clearer cinematography of Beatty race Pathe News

Sports Illustrated account of race by Tex Maule

Earlier  on that evening in Los Angeles, Peter Snell made his first appearance in the US.   He had  recently set the world outdoor mile record in New Zealand on a 353 meter or 4.55  laps/mile grass track in 3:54.4 at a place called Cook's Gardens in Wanganui, NZ.  Giving 440 splits must have been a challenge. 

Snell on grass 880WR in Christ Church

A week later still in New Zealand, he broke the WR's at 800 and 880.   Never having run indoors he got on that wooden track that he thought looked like a tea saucer and promptly broke Ernie Cunliffe's world 1000 yard record in 2:06, passing the 880 in WR time at 1:50.2, although there weren't enough watches on him to make the 880 official.  Incidently Ernie Cunliffe ran in that WR mile race against Snell.  And John Bork, another of our readers was down there and ran against Snell in the 880 at Christ Church.  He also let me know that he and Ernie did some salmon fishing down under, but I forget who won that contest.

Ernie just sent in the fishing results:   "Salmon fishing:  I won with a  35  1/2 inch    17  1/2 lb fish. Bork had won the trout fishing with a bigger and heavier fish but nothing close to the two salmons we caught."

Here is a note I received from John Bork several years ago after mentioning this trip to New Zealand.

"Dear George and Roy.:

I love this story, ....because , like you, George, I got to know Ernie Cunlife on a trip too.

Yours in Ohio and mine in New Zealand, where we roomed together throughout our 2 1/2 week tour.

We even got to go out salmon and trout fishing there and caught a couple of nice fish. Ernie's best race

was probably in the Wanganui world record mile which he and Bruce Tulloch helped set up for Peter.

Mine was a 1:48.5 at Hamilton, in coming second to Snell to his 1:47.6, or so.

My best only only winning effort during the N.Z. trip was also at Wanganui, where I was able to best

the former, NZ record holder,  Gary Philpott and Jim Dupree. in a time of 1:49.2.

I considered these to be good times since my last workout in Oxford Ohio before getting on the plane to

NZ consisted of 24 x 220 in the snow behind Withrow Court where I beat down a path to run the intervals in.

If it hadn't been for Once upon a Time in the vest., I might not have met up with Ernie again.

So,, thank you."

John Bork    CA

Peter Snell's 880/800 record in Chrst Church

I am not able to find film on  Snell's indoor 1000 or outdoor mile records.  The mile was at night, and the 1000 seems to have ended on the cutting room floor after Beatty's race.    For an account of the Cook's Gardens race see our earlier posting at:  

Peter Snell's Mile Record by Once Upon a Time in the Vest


 Los Angeles  was our first close look at Snell here in the US, and we found him incredible.  He was a big guy and muscular.  We were learning of his new training methodology inspired by Arthur Lydiard.  It (the mileage) was stretching our imaginations.  Mihaly Igloi's training was still a mystery to all except the members of his elite group of runners.  We only knew you ran well with him or came away limping.  It took someone very special to survive the Igloi method.

By the way, the Wanamaker Mile is named after a famous chain of department stores on the East Coast.  It is no longer in business and probably never had online shopping.

(Thanks to Walt Murphy and his great site This Day in Track and Field for background and inspiration.  ed.)