Princeton has had many great student athletes, and the top 25 were interesting, if not compelling, since there were few listed prior to 1950. I would submit that Bill Bonthron ’34 should have been near the top of the list, since he was the world record holder in the 1,500 meters outdoors and the mile indoors! He defeated all three 1936 Olympic 1,500 meter medalists in 1934, but went to work in NYC after graduation and didn’t qualify to run in the ’36 Olympics.
During the decade of the 1930s track was more popular than any sport in the U.S. except baseball, college football, and possibly boxing. Bonthron’s University indoor mile record stood until first Ross O’Dell ’66 and then I (4:11.6) broke his record. For my senior thesis, “100 Years of Distance Running in America,” I interviewed Bonthron and wrote about his classic 1934-35 duels with Kansan Glenn Cunningham and New Zealand’s Jack Lovelock, in the National Championships in Milwaukee, at the Millrose Games at Madison Square Garden, in Europe, and at the famous Princeton Invitational, which drew crowds of more than 30,000 to Palmer Stadium!
Princeton has had many great student athletes, and the top 25 were interesting, if not compelling, since there were few listed prior to 1950. I would submit that Bill Bonthron ’34 should have been near the top of the list, since he was the world record holder in the 1,500 meters outdoors and the mile indoors! He defeated all three 1936 Olympic 1,500 meter medalists in 1934, but went to work in NYC after graduation and didn’t qualify to run in the ’36 Olympics.
During the decade of the 1930s track was more popular than any sport in the U.S. except baseball, college football, and possibly boxing. Bonthron’s University indoor mile record stood until first Ross O’Dell ’66 and then I (4:11.6) broke his record. For my senior thesis, “100 Years of Distance Running in America,” I interviewed Bonthron and wrote about his classic 1934-35 duels with Kansan Glenn Cunningham and New Zealand’s Jack Lovelock, in the National Championships in Milwaukee, at the Millrose Games at Madison Square Garden, in Europe, and at the famous Princeton Invitational, which drew crowds of more than 30,000 to Palmer Stadium!