This Day in Track & Field, April 28, Princeton sets 2 Mile Relay WR (1895), Charlie Paddock sets WR (1928) at 175 yard dash, Renaldo Nehemiah has a perfect day at Penn Relays (1979), edited and curated by Walt Murphy

Walt Murphy’s News and Results Service  (wmurphy25@aol.com)

This Day in Track & Field-April  28 

1900—Princeton set a World Record (pre-IAAF) of 8:05.0 in the 2-Mile Relay at the Penn Relays.

Syracuse’s Myer Prinstein bettered the existing World Record in the Long Jump with a leap of 24-7  ¼ (7.50), but there were some reports that he might have had help from a strong tailwind.

Results

https://timesmachine.nytimes.com/timesmachine/1900/04/29/102590392.html?pageNumber=10

1906—Michigan set a World Record (pre-IAAF) of 18:10.4 in the 4-Mile Relay at the Penn Relays.

NY Times

Results

1917—George Orton, who competed at the 1^st Penn Relays in 1895, took over as the Relays “Manager” (The term “Director” wasn’t used until 1956). The native of Canada, who won the gold medal in the 2500-meter Steeplechase at the 1900 Olympics (45 minutes after winning the bronze medal in the 400-hurdles!), would become known as the Father of Philadelphia hockey!

Orton: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/George_Orton

www.thedp.com/article/2020/07/george-orton-penn-philadelphia-canada-1900-olympics-track-hockey-forgotten-history

1923—Penn’s World Record in the 2-Mile Relay only lasted a year, with Penn State lowering the mark to 7:48.8 at the Penn Relays with a lineup of Edgar Carter, Russell Edgerton, Schuyler Erick, and Alan Helffrich, who would win a gold medal in the 4×400 at the 1924 Olympics.

Michigan’s DeHart Hubbard won the Long Jump(23-10  ¼ [7.27]) and set a Relays Record in the Triple Jump

(48-10  ¾ [14.90]). He went on to win Olympic gold in the Long Jump in Paris in 1924.

https://timesmachine.nytimes.com/timesmachine/1923/04/29/105860376.html?pageNumber=124

Results

1928— From Sports Illustrated: “In 1928 Charley Paddock, who had won gold medals in the 100-meter dash and 400-meter relay at the 1920 Olympics, and silver medals in the 200 in 1920 and 1924, asked that a 175-yard dash be added to the (Penn Relays) schedule so that he would have a chance to break his own world record of 17[4/5] seconds. “I am not exactly a youngster anymore,” the 27-year-old Paddock said before the race, “but, you know, I have always wanted to run here. When I was at Southern California, the college would never let me come on for the Penn races.”

“Little did Paddock know that he would end up running for his life. Shortly after 4 p.m. on April 28,…