On the track

Bannister's star turn at Reunions

During Reunions 1949, Palmer Stadium played host to an international track meet pitting a combined squad of Princeton and Cornell stars against top athletes from Oxford and Cambridge. The marquee race featured Ron Wittreich ’50, in black, one of the NCAA's top three milers that year, and Oxford captain Roger Bannister, in white.

Wittreich, the "Tenafly Flyer," led at the half-mile mark, but near the end of the third lap, Bannister took over and glided to the finish in 4:11.1. Five years later, Bannister would make history as the first miler to break the four-minute mark.

(Photos: PAW, July 8, 1949)