This Day in Track & Field History, March 29, 2024, George Horine, first HJ WR using Western Roll, Julia Brown sets WR (Pre-IAAF) for 10,000m, London Marathon debuts in 1981, by

Walt Murphy is one of the finest track geeks that I know. Walt does #ThisDayinTrack&FieldHistory, an excellent daily service that provides true geek stories about our sport. You can check out the service for FREE with a free one-month trial subscription! (email: WaltMurphy44@gmail.com ) for the entire daily service. We will post a few historic moments each day, beginning February 1, 2024.

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by Walt Murphy’s News and Results Service (wmurphy25@aol.com)
This Day in Track & Field—March 29 

1912—Stanford’s George Horine set a World Record of 6-6  1/8 (1.985) in the High Jump at home in a dual meet with USC. Horine was the first to set a record in the event using the Western Roll. He would improve to 6-7 (2.007) on May 17, becoming the first man to clear 2 meters, and that was the first HJ record ratified by the IAAF. Horine went on to win the bronze medal at the 1912 Olympics in Stockholm.

            Read about the development of his style, dictated by the limitations of his family’s backyard in Palo Alto, in his Wiki bio: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/George_Horine

Stockholm Video: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Kd1kuIhtNOs

The High Jump: http://www.iaaf.org/disciplines/jumps/high-jump

1921–USC’s Charley Paddock edged Stanford’s Morris Kirksey in the 100-yard dash at Stanford Stadium in a dual meet between the two schools. Both were timed in 9-3/5 (9.6) to equal Paddock’s World Record that he shared with fellow Americans Daniel Kelly and Howard Drew. However, the marks were never ratified by the IAAF. It was the closest Kirksey would ever come to beating Paddock, whom he never beat in the 25 times they met!

Kirksey finished 2^nd to Paddock in the 100-Meters  at the previous year’s Olympics in Antwerp, anchored the winning U.S. team to a World Record in the 4×100 (Paddock ran the lead-off leg) , and won a 2^nd gold medal in Rugby!

(From the IAAF Progression of World Records)

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Morris_Kirksey

1975—13 days after winning the World X-Country title, Julie Brown set a pre-IAAF World Record of 35:00.4 for 10,000 Meters at UCLA. She also established the first American Record in the event. (Kathy Gibbons had run 34:51.0 in a mixed-gender race in 1971).

WR Progression: