February 15, 2020
I received several photo copied pictures from a program for the Princeton Invitation Track
Meet held on June 19, 1937. (Bruce Kritzler provided these documents.) There must have been a lot going on at the school with graduation and other year end activities. Still there were some big time races on that track in the late 1930s. Jack Lovelock came over to race the best Americans on July 15, 1933 and set a world record in the mile in Palmer Stadium on the Princeton campus. (see article below) Lovelock in fact strongly resembles the lead runner in this cover art work.
The second picture is the Two Mile Run line up with world records current and pending and American record holders.
The third page is a list of athletes appearing from around the US, and one international Luigi Beccali the Italian 1932 1500 Olympic champion. I don't know if Beccali stayed in the US during WWII or went back to Italy. He did end up living in the States in Florida after the war and was a prosperous wine merchant.
Of note in picture three below, all the athetes' AAU registration numbers as well as their race numbers are listed in the program. This must have been one of the formalities of the times that the pretentious AAU heirarchy prescribed on everyone. Not just to be 'registered' and perform under their approval, but to demonstrate their power by putting those numbers in the program to display that overwhelming power, as if saying, "See what we did to Jesse Owens when he didn't follow our orders after Berlin?" At the same time Avery Brundage had received the contract to build the new German embassy in Washington and enjoyed the Asian objets d'art presented to him by the Germans. Art taken from Jewish citizens by the Nazi regime.
Beccali's 'international registration' is also listed. George Brose
An archival photo of Zamperini before his ill fated flight that led to a prison camp and torture.
He is looking through a flak hole in his aircraft.
A brief write up follows about the Princeton Invitational of 1937 in the Alumni Magazine giving us some info about the upcoming meeting. Note the language is not the same as the typical sportswriting of the day, but a university journal's attempt at authenticity projected to an 'elite establishment' of Princeton alumni readers. I'm wondering how these Tiger alums perceived the mention of two sets of twins from North Texas Teachers College, Elmer and Delmer Brown and Blaine and Wayne Rideout trodding on that hallowed track. Was it one of welcome or just tolerance of the unwashed from the Dust Bowl? Here is that touting of the upcoming track meet.
...."Banner fields have been selected in the quarter-mile, two mile and mile features which should promise a repetition of former Invitation Meet thrills.. "
"Six men comprise the 440 yard entries including the Brown twins, Elmer and Delmer of North Texas Teachers, Dennis Shore of South Africa, Bob Young , Olympic team member for U.C.L.A., Jim Herbert and Eddie O'Brien winner of the event in 1935 who will be making his farewell appearance on the 19th."
"The other famous pair of twins from North Texas Teachers, Blaine and Wayne Rideout are entered in the 2 mile run along with Ray Sears, who won the event two years ago, Louis Zamperini of Southern California, Olympic competitor, and Howard Welch, Cornell Intercollegiate Champion."
" The mile fixture, the meeting between the world's greatest performers in this event offers another possibility for the long heralded 'Mile of the Century'. Although Jack Lovelock conqueror of Bonthron and Cunningham here two years ago, is out of competition, Archie San Romani, who took the measure of the New Zealander in a special race in Palmer Stadium, last fall, will match strokes with Cunningham, Venzke, Luigi Beccali, the 1932 Olympic Champion at 1500 meters, and Don Lash, who toured the two mile event in the rain last year for a new World Record in the event at the first running here 3 years ago, Cunningham who recently completed a sensational indoor campaign and last week hung up a new World Record in the three quarters at Travers Island. "
"Bill Bonthron '34 who used to engage in some memorial clashes with Cunningham and Gene Venzke will watch his old opponents flash by while he acts as a judge."
History tells us that San Romani won this mile race in his all time personal best of 4:07.2.
I am still searching for the 2 mile outcome. Youtube carries several memorable races from Pinceton in the late 1930s, if you search a bit.
Readers of this blog are always have my back. Tom Trumpler just sent three clippings from the St. Louis Post Dispatch reporting on the Princeton Meeting and the NCAA meet which went off on the same weekend. Zamperini won the two mile in 9:28.2. Tom asks why Zamperini went to the Princeton meet instead of the NCAA. He surmizes that Dean Cromwell figured USC could still win the meet without Zamperini. The Brown Twins got in the results with Delmer winning the 440 in 48.0 and Elmer coming in 6th. The Rideout brothers did not place in the 2 miles. Full results of both meets can be seen below. The blue sheet is the box score for the Princeton meet. I made some comments about the writing in the Princeton Alumni journal, and I have to as well in the St. Louis P.D. If an athlete is not white, he is immediately defined as being a Negro. Just the way things were written in those days.
Tom's notes on each clipping follow. Imagine all this track and field material in one issue of newspaper. No way that will happen today.
The article on the Princeton Invite, plus results.
- The text in the article recounts in great detail the mile, but nothing about the two-mile!
- To learn that Louie Zamperini was the two-mile winner, go to the summary of results!
(Hey, why wasn't Louie running at the NCAA meet, maybe it was because Dean Cromwell
knew he had it won.
- A banner headline of Archie San Romani and Lash running the mile.
- A column 5 sub-headline notes that USC won the NCAA track championship
The article and summary results of the NCAA meet. Johnny Woodruff set an NCAA 800M mark of 1:50.3
This is the story of that earlier 'Mile of the Century' when Lovclock set a World Record in the Mile.
This article is from the website New Zealand History
Jack Lovelock’s run at Princeton University beat the record for the mile, held by Jules Ladoumègue, by 1.6 seconds. The race was dubbed the ‘greatest mile of all time’ by Time magazine.
The race was part of the sixth annual Oxford-Cambridge vs Princeton-Cornell track meet. There was much media interest in the showdown between Lovelock (Oxford) and Bill Bonthron (Princeton), with speculation that the world record might be broken. Bonthron had won that year’s intercollegiate 800-m and 1500-m events impressively. As a warm-up for the Princeton-Cornell meet, Lovelock and his teammate Forbes Horan (Cambridge) competed against a Yale-Harvard team in the mile. Lovelock won this race in 4 minutes 12.6 seconds, an intercollegiate record.
On the day of the event there were about 5000 spectators at Palmer Stadium, Princeton. Rain threatened but held off, and by the start of the programme at 4.30 p.m. conditions were good for running. The mile was a tactical race. Bonthron took the lead before giving way to John Hazen (Cornell). To Lovelock’s delight, they set a fast pace. With half a mile to go, Bonthron moved back to the front. At the top corner Horan overtook Bonthron to make sure the ¾-mile mark was reached in the target time. Horan soon dropped back, leaving the race to Bonthron and Lovelock.
With 300 m to go, Bonthron pulled away. Lovelock was prepared and shortened and quickened his stride, closing the gap before the final bend. As they came into the home straight he drew level and then hit the front. Bonthron was unable to muster his usual ‘blistering kick’ and Lovelock breasted the tape seven strides ahead.
Lovelock’s time of 4 minutes 7.6 seconds broke the world record by 1.6 seconds. It was the first time a New Zealander had set a recognised world record. Now the top miler in the world, Lovelock was inundated with invitations to social engagements and races in Europe and the United States. In 1933 Lovelock ran 33 major races, winning most of them. That year he came second to baseballer Carl Hubbell in the Associated Press Athlete of the Year poll in the US.
More on those Eagle Twins
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| Elmer and Delmer Brown and Blaine and Wayne Rideout |
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| Elmer Brown |
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| Delmer Brown |
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| A ticket to the Princeton Invitational cost $1.00. But you could request special seating with this form. |
Today there would not be a college sponsored meet on the same day as the NCAA. Was T&F a bit like basketball where the NIT was considered more important than the NCAA for about 15 years? At the NCAA in 1937 Jesse Owens was no longer at OSU but disqualified for academic reasons. However, Cleveland East Tech and OSU teammate, David Albritton, was still present and won the NCAA high jump. He would later be elected as a state representative in Ohio. Southern Cal was the team champion once again with a strong showing from Indiana. Were any of the members of the famous USA 1926 Olympic 4x100 relay running at Princeton because they were not at the NCAA? A number of small schools, later Division II, would emerge with placers in the meet. The mile at Princeton was won with a 4:07 but at the NCAA it was 4:13. Only Southern Cal, Stanford, Georgia Tech and Georgia placed in the three sprints among warm weather schools with the others coming from cold weather climates. That would not happen today. The winning times of 9.7, 21.3 and 47.1 were comparable to those of Lamar Preyor of TMHS in 1975: 9.4, 21.0 and 47.7. How much of that can be attributed to polyurethene tracks? No women were at either meet.
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