Bob Day, the former UCLA distance great and a member of the '68 Mexico City Olympic Team (5K) passed away of bladder cancer on Thursday morning, March 15, 2012. Considered UCLA's greatest distance runner he set school records at 1,500 and 5,000 meters and his times of 3:56.4 in the mile and 8:33 in the two-mile were national records at the time. He was currently the track and cross-country coach at Beckman HS in Irvine, CA.
apparently battled cancer for a while
One of the the smoothest runners I ever saw - impressive to watch
RIP and sympathy for family
Dude had class. He lived up to UCLA's tradition.
[quote]KIOTSG wrote:
Bob Day, the former UCLA distance great and a member of the '68 Mexico City Olympic Team (5K) passed away of bladder cancer on Thursday morning, March 15, 2012. /quote]
I heard that he was the first teenager to break the 4 min mile. Interesting.
knocks off another one.
Sorry to hear. He was a very good runner; beat one of my favorite runners, Steve Stageberg of Georgetown, for the 3rd spot on the '68 team (Stageberg was 4th).
UCLA was, I believe, the first college team to have three guys on the same team run under 30 minutes: Bob Day, Geoff Pyne, and George Husaruk. Day was a beautiful runner to watch at any distance.
Mea culpa . . . for six miles.
every bruin tried to earn the "bob day" award that he'd give out at the banquet every year--his words were always interesting, humorous, and inspiring.
i'm guessing bob was a 19 year old sophomore (if one of the above posts is true) when he became the 12th american to break 4, just ahead of an even younger teenager breaking 4 for the first time as well, jim ryun, in the same race in compton, 1964.
great runner, great coach, great person...