Running History in May:
5/3/64 Pete McArdle broke Met AAU record for 3, 4, 5, 6 miles and 10K in winning a 10K track race at Yonkers in 29:03.4. This was the fastest time ever run by anyone on U.S. soil.
5/3/64 During a 10k track race both Pete McArdle and Oscar Moore bettered Greg Rice’s Met AAU 3 mile record of 14:00.0 set in 1942.
5/5/57 Bill Welsh Millrose AA wins the Met AAU 20K championship over Ted Corbitt and Joe Kleinerman. The NYPC wins the team title.
5/6/54 Roger Bannister is the first to break the 4 minute mile barrier running a 3:59.4 at the Iffley Road Track in Oxford, England.
5/7/49 Mel Patton set a world record for 220 yard & 200 meters of 20.2 to erase from the books Jesse Owens 20.3 performances of 1935.
5/8/65 John Tarrant wins a 44 mile road race in England from Exeter to Plymouth in 4:56:27.
5/11/57 Max Truex USC smashes American 5,000 meter record with a 14:15.5 at the West Coast Relays.
5/12/68 Bob Deines Occidental College wins the Western Hemisphere Marathon in Culver City in 2:20:48.
5/13/56 Gordon McKenzie wins 10K track race by a ½ mile in Yonkers. His wife of 7 months Chris ran along with him on the infield each lap.
5/13/62 John A. Kelley age 54 runs an amazing 2:37:42 for a 4th place finish at the national marathon championship in Yonkers.
5/14/66 Gerry Lindgren sets an American record for 3 miles of 12:53.0 missing the world record by six-tenths of a second.
5/15/48 Mel Patton USC becomes the first man to run 100 yards in 9.3 to edge Lloyd LaBeach.
5/15/48 Lloyd LaBeach equals the 100 meter world record of 10.2 at the West Coast Relays.
5/15/65 Jim Ryun runs 3:58.3 and becomes the 1st high schooler to break the 4 minute mile mark against only high school competition.
5/15/66 Norm Higgins Santa Monica AC captured the National Marathon championship at Yonkers in 2:22:50.8.
5/16/52 Charley Moore records the second best time ever in the 400 meter hurdles of 50.9 at the L.A. Coliseum Relays.
5/16/54 Ted Corbitt becomes the first African American to win the U.S. national marathon title. The distance was 26.8 miles.
5/16/58 Australia’s Herb Elliott ran the second fastest mile in history of 3:57.8 at the Coliseum Relays.
5/18/52 Vic Dyrgall, Tom Jones, and Ted Corbitt are the top 3 finishers at national marathon championship and selected to the 1952 Olympic team.
5/18/69 Gary Muhrcke Millrose AA wins the Yonkers Marathon over Moses Mayfield in 2:33:11.
5/18/58 A record number of 18 men were under 3 hours at the difficult Yonkers Marathon course.
5/18/58 John J. Kelley becomes the 4th man in history to win the national marathon crown 3 times. The others were Clarence DeMar, Pat Dengis, and Gerard Cote.
5/19/51 Fred Dwyer Villanova defeated Larry Ellis NYU with a 4:20.4 mile in a dual meet.
5/19/51 George Brown UCLA smashed Jesse Owens’ LA Coliseum broad jump record with a 25’ 6 ¼” at the Coliseum Relays.
5/19/57 New York Pioneer Club with Ted Corbitt, Jim Borden, and John Conway wins the AAU National Marathon team championship at Yonkers.
5/19/68 Barry Geisler Jr. age 12 & Eric Geisler age 11 run 3:33:42 and 4:04 respectively at the Atlantic City Marathon.
5/20/56 Ron Gregory brother of Dick Gregory ran the fastest mile in U.S. track history for a high school athlete of 4:19.2.
5/20/56 Rudy Mendez NYPC smashes 3 track American records in Philadelphia for 26.2 miles, 20 miles, and 25 miles.
5/21/50 John A. Kelley won his second national marathon title in Yonkers at age 42 in 2:45:55.3.
5/21/50 The New York Pioneer Club of Lou White, Charley Robbins and John Sterner wins the national marathon team title at Yonkers.
5/21/67 Tom Laris NYAC wins the Bay to Breakers race in 38:42. There were 473 finishers.
5/22/60 John J. Kelley sets a course record at the Yonkers Marathon in 2:20:13. He was pushed by Gordon McKenzie who recorded a 2:23:46.
5/23/51 Bob Richards improved his decathlon score to 7544 points and became the 4th best mark all-time for an American.
5/23/65 Mike O’Hara St. Anthony Boy Club completes his 120th marathon at Yonkers in 3:37:55. The most marathons ever completed by anyone.
5/24/64 Buddy Edelen wins the National Marathon championship by 3.5 miles in 91 degree heat in 2:24:25.6 at Yonkers and earns a spot on the Olympic team.
5/25/35 The Greatest 45 Minutes Ever in Sports – Jesse Owens sets 6 world records. 100 yards 9.4, Long Jump 26’ 8 ¼”, 200 meter & 220 yards 20.3, 200 meters & 220 yard Low Hurdles 22.6.
5/25/57 Jack Barry beats Ted Corbitt by 35 seconds at the Riverview Park Marathon in 2:34:36. The race was one week after the Yonkers Marathon.
5/26/51 Andy Stanfield Seton Hall runs 20.6 to better Ralph Metcalfe’s 21.2 record set in 1933 for 220 yards on a turn.
5/26/63 John J. Kelley wins an unprecedented 8th consecutive AAU Marathon crown at Yonkers in 2:25:17. There were 76 finishers.
5/29/51 Parry O’Brien USC 54’ 9 ½” and Bob Mathias Stanford 160’ 4 ½” won the shot put and discus at the Pacific Coast Conference meet.
5/30/51 Fred Wilt sets a new national 2 mile record of 8:54.5.
5/30/65 Lou Castagnola wins National Senior 30K championship over Hal Higdon in 1:41:37.4.
5/30/65 The team title for the 30K national championship went to Gaelic American AC of Tom McCarthy, Jim McDonagh, and John McCarroll.
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