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GLENN CUNNINGHAM
THE WORLD'S GREATEST MILER

Early on a winter morning in 1918 a small eight-year-old boy and
his older brother arrived at a little frame schoolhouse on the bleak
prairies of Stevens County, Kansas. The older boy was to light the fire
before the other pupils came. It was very cold; the fire was slow in start-
ing. He threw kerosene on the stubborn coals. The explosion which resulted
get the schoolhouse on fire, and the two boys were terribly burned, The
elder brother died; the younger fought his way back to life through six
months of suffering. It was feared for a time that this boy--who even in
his pre-school days had loved to race with the wind across the wide plains--
would never walk again. But he did. He walked; he ran. And how he did run!

That boy was Glenn Cunningham. How he overcame his almost insur-
mountable handicap to become the "King of the Miloers" is as fine a story of
courage, determination, and a fighting spirit coupled with conscientious
training end clean living as can be found in the annals 9f sport. Holder of
four world's records, two American records, Ruusrous intercollegiate and
meet records, and winncr of the coveted Sullivan trophy as the outstanding
amateur athlete in 1933, Cunningham is undoubtedly one of the greatest ath-
letes of all time. He may deservedly be called the world's greatest miler.

The way hasa't been easy. Glenn's legs were a mass of scar
tissue and the circulation was somewhat retarded. Running would be the
best treatment, the doctor told him. ‘So Glenn began to run at every op-
portunity, to and from school over the prairies, everywhere he went. As he
ran, those flame-scarred legs which were to carry him to fame the world over
strengthened into the tapered, well-museled limbs of a runner, and he devel-
oped that lung power which was later to make him the barrel-chested iron man

of the track.

Glennts first chance in competition came when the officials at a
county fair asked him to run in the mile race against a group of high school
boys. Although stili of grade school age, he won rather easily after leaving
the pack behind at tho half-way mark, In high school he tock part in bas-
ketball and football as well as track, which however remained his major in--
terest. Completing his course in three years, this Elkhart, Kansas, high
school boy was a senior in 1930 when he won the national iuterschnolastic
mile at Stagg Field, Chicago, in the time of 4:24.7, a record that still
stands.

Coming to the University of Kansas, Cunningham continued his
track work to the exclusion of other sports, as he was advised by Coach
Brutus Hamilton. The 1932 season found him for the first time in inter-
collegiate competition. In the Big Six meet of that year at Lincoln,
Nebraska, he established new conference records, running the half in 1:55.3,
the mile in 4:14.3. A week later in the national intercollegiate meet in
Chicago he set a new record of A:ll.1, at that time the fastest mile ever
run in an outdoor meet in this country. Throughout his college career Glenn
was a valuable asset to the varsity track team, usually winning two or more

events in a meet.