Baxter Mile

Two years ago Gene Venzke, who used to train for races by running to his job in a Pottstown, Pa. mill, became the first human to cover a mile on foot indoors in 4 min., 10 sec. Last year Glenn Cunningham of Kansas University, who took up running after his legs had been so badly burned in a schoolhouse fire that he was never expected to walk again, beat Venzke. Last summer Venzke and Cunningham were joined by Bill Bonthron of Princeton, who finished second to Jack Lovelock of Oxford in the fastest' mile on record. Lovelock's time was 4.07.6, Bonthron's 4.08.7. In last week's Baxter Mile in the New York Athletic Club games Venzke, Cunningham and Bonthron were running together for the first time. Their contest promised the most exciting mile race since Nurmi visited the U. S. ten years ago. Speculators got $10 for $2 tickets. A crowd of 16,000 packed Madison Square Garden.

There were two other men in the race -- Dawson of Tulsa A. C. and Crowley of Manhattan College. The crowd became aware of them for the first time when Bonthron, Cunningham and Venzke made it clear at the start that they were in no hurry. A 66-sec. first quarter, a 2.13 half, put the record out of danger just before Cunningham flashed out ahead of the field with Bonthron at his heels. Venzke joined them after a lap and the three ran five times around the track, each lap faster than the last. When they rounded the last turn, Bonthron was a full stride behind Cunningham. He made it up, an inch at a time, in the next 40 yards. Ten steps from the tape they were exactly abreast. Cunningham dived at the tape. Bonthron lunged without falling. The lunge won by inches, in 4.14. Bonthron jogged on around the track, came back to get the cup from Sportsman Hugh M. Baxter, who was a champion pole vaulter and high jumper in the 1880s.

The meet produced two new world's records: 14 ft. 4 in. for an indoor pole vault, by Keith Brown of Yale; 6 ft. 8 1/2 in. for the high jump, by Walter Marty of Fresno State Teachers College.

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