Although our best long-distance running has been done by adopted athletes, and under club col ors, the best men at the middle distances have been college bred. Thus it was Maxwell W. Long of Columbia who made the world's record of 47 seconds flat for the quarter mile, and only three fourths of a second less fast was the record of Wendell Baker of Harvard. It was C. N. Kil patrick of Union who made the world's record of minute 535 seconds for the half mile, and close to Kilpatrick was the i minute 545 seconds of Evan Hollister of Harvard. And beside and behind such records as these is a solid background of first class running— the running of those who were essentially sportsmen before they were athletes, and who went into the game because they thought it was fun.
The quarter mile, although generally spoken of as a " run," is really more properly a sprint. It is run at almost top speed until the last fifty yards, when the runner squeezes his corks and " finishes on what he's got left." Of the quarter-milers who followed Meyers and who were anywhere near to his class, Wendell Baker was the first, and, for many years, the most notable. At the intercolle giates Baker won the quarter only once, in 1885, and then in the slow time of 541 seconds — a commonplace enough record on paper compared with three consecutive victories of his college mate, W. H. Goodwin, who immediately preceded him, and the three straight firsts of that other Harvard quarter-miler, S. T. Wells, who immedi ately followed him. But Baker's speed had been convincingly proved on other tracks and in the shorter distances at Mott Haven, and he decided to try, on July i, 1886, at the Beacon Park track in Boston, to break the world's amateur record. Meyers held it at that time with his quarter in 485 seconds. The course at Beacon Park was nearly straight-away and of dirt, which, when in perfect condition, many runners have preferred to cinders. The upper layer was scraped away and the surface made smooth and hard. Baker sprinted the first two hundred twenty yards alone, and then a pace-maker lifted him over the rest of the dis tance. At three hundred fifty yards the time was 37 seconds, at four hundred yards 43 seconds, and at the finish 47* seconds. While warming up for the trial Baker split his running shoe slightly, and in the middle of the quarter the split spread so that he had to kick the shoe off and run the last one hundred yards with one shoe off and one shoe on. Of the three watches at the finish one showed 47-k- seconds, one 47i seconds, and one 47-1 seconds, so that the authenticity of the record of 474 seconds is more than established. Wendell
Baker's record held for over ten years, until broken by Maxwell Long of Columbia, but between the two there were many good quarter-milers. Dohm of Princeton, Shattuck of Amherst, who won the intercollegiate quarter in 1891 in 491-- seconds, Downs, Wright, Sayer, Merrill, Vincent of Harvard, and Jarvis of Princeton, were all first class men. Burke of Boston University, and later of Harvard, immediately preceded Long as national champion in the quarter mile, and in 1897, indeed, before Long attained his best form, Burke had the pleasure of beating him. Burke won the quarter at the national championships in that year in 49 flat, the year before he had won it in 481 seconds, and the year before that in 491 seconds, a record quite enough in itself to estab lish his reputation as one of our best and most consistent quarter-milers. In addition to his quarter-mile running he won the half mile once at both Mott Haven and the national champion ships, and he added to his list of victories at the Olympic games in Athens, and at all sorts of athletic meets throughout the East, and particu larly in and about Boston. As far as form went Burke was one of the prettiest runners of his day. He was tall, slender, and lithely put together, and in action he " got his back into it " with that steel-spring rhythm which adds so much to the music of a runner's stride.
Long did not try for the world's record in the quarter until after he had won at Mott Haven and at the national championships, in both this country and England, and proved by the stern logic of competition that he could beat all corners. The trial was run at the Guttenberg race track, in New Jersey, under the most favorable circum stances. The weather conditions were all that could be desired. The four hundred forty yards were measured straight-away, several sprinters jumped into the running and set the pace at graduated distances along the course, and the previous times were smashed all the way from the three-hundred-fifty-yard mark to the tape. Long's quarter in 47 seconds beat all previous records, amateur and professional, in this country and in England. Boardman of Yale, Holland of Georgetown, and Haigh of Harvard has each won at Mott Haven since Long's day, and in excellent time ; but no one has done anywhere near his record, and it is one, indeed, that is not likely soon to be disturbed.