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By Walt Murphy’s News and Results Service (wmurphy25@aol.com), used with permission.
This Day in Track & Field–April 11
1914—19-year old Harry “The Horse” Liversedge, a senior at San Francisco Polytechnic H.S., threw the javelin 184-9 ½ (56.32) at Stanford to not only smash the previous High School Record but also the official American Record of 169-10 ¼ (51.77), which was set by Bruno Brodd in 1913.
Less than a week earlier, Liversedge had thrown 171-3 ¼ (52.20) in an exhibition event at Stanford. Later in the year, Liversedge enrolled at Cal-Berkeley, where he played rugby and football in addition to competing in T&F. He was the 1916 IC4A champion in the Shot Put and went on to win the bronze medal in that event at the 1920 Olympics.
In addition to his athletic achievements, Liversedge also had a stellar military career, rising to the rank of Brigadier General in the Marine Corps. He led the invasion of Iwo Jima during World War II, and a Marine patrol under his command raised the flag on Mount Suribachi. Read more at the links below.
Cal’s Most Heroic Olympian:
http://www.californiagoldenblogs.com/2012/6/13/3011285/harry-liversedge-cals-most-heroic-olympian
Marine Obituary: http://www.arlingtoncemetery.net/hbliversedge.htm
https://www.olympedia.org/athletes/78707
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Harry_B._Liversedge
H.S. Record: http://stanforddailyarchive.com/cgi-bin/stanford?a=d&d=stanford19140406-01.2.12#
1959–The World Record of 63-2 (19.25m) in the Shot Put, shared by Parry O’Brien and Dallas Long, was bettered by Long and Bill Nieder on this day, but neither got credit for a new record. Competing in separate “exhibitions”, Long and Nieder threw 64-5 ½ (19.645m?) and 63-8 ½ (19.415m?), respectively.
1981–Willie Banks bettered his American Record in the Triple Jump with his winning leap of 56-9 ½ (17.31) in San José,CA.
1987–Djibouti’s Ahmed Saleh (2:10:55) repeated as the men’s…
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