"That" list is in the Archives section of the Track & Field News website!
It's amazingly detailed!
It lists the athlete's name, his time, the venue, and the date!
(This is an All-Male list, regrettably! It would be nice if T&FN did the same for Women---Say, every US Miler's first-ever Sub-4:30!!)
As you might expect, I disagree with T&FN's calculations!
In two very important ways---
Their list combines INdoor with OUTdoor!
And with their INdoor listings, they include Oversize Track marks!!
So following is this Blogger's breakdown of T&FN's list!
Here are some of the more famous names on their list--with the number they rank!
I've chosen 20 names!
Don Bowden was the first, his 3:58.7 being run on June 1, 1957!
Dyrol Burleson & Jim Beatty were Numbers 2 & 3.
(More on Beatty below!)
Jim Ryun's 3:59.0 in 1964 made him 13th!
25th was Marty Liquori.
The Legendary Steve Prefontaine was 37th!
Matt Centrowitz became Sub-4 US Miler Number 78.
(See below for Matthew's entry!)
Number 83 was Steve Scott!
Craig Masback--best known now as an announcer--was 90th!
Sydney Maree was 116th!
Mark Coogan--now a famous Coach--was 165th!
Kara Goucher's husband--Adam--was 231st!
Alan Webb's INdoor 3:59.86 in 2001 became 238th on the list!
Bernard Lagat was Number 265!
BTW, both Syd Maree and Lagat had previous Sub-4's---but as citizens of South Africa & Kenya, respectively!
Andrew Wheating--now retired--made the list in 311th position!
Centro (Matthew Centrowitz!) is Number 319!
Galen Rupp followed shortly after--as Number 321!
Evan Jager was 327th!
We skip to 445th---who was Grant Fisher!!
Finally--at Number 500--came Emmanuel Bor!!
(There are now 501 on their list, but I'm using only the first 500 for my purposes here!!)
About Jim Beatty---
His time comes from 1960, and was run OUTdoors!
Tom O'Hara's 3:59.2 from 1963 was run INdoors!
But Beatty ran the first-ever INdoor Mile under 4 minutes---in 1962!!
If you break down T&FN's list by Decade, the numbers are as follows---
50's (1)
60's (30)
70's (68)
80's (69)
90's (63!!)
00's (98)
10's (171)
Obviously, this counts ALL marks from their list--including IN & OUT, and all OT marks!
There have been 262 OUTdoor times on the list!
And 238 INdoor times!
And therein is my first problem with the way T&FN does things!
As my loyal readers know, I see the INdoor season as TOTALLY SEPARATE from the OUTdoor season!!
T&FN should have made TWO lists, not one!!
If they had, we would be FAR removed from seeing the 500th American Sub-4 Miler!
In fact, we'd still be pretty distant from Number THREE hundred!!
On either list!!
The second problem is with their listing marks made on Oversize Tracks!!
NO marks---at ANY distance!!--made on an OT are eligible for inclusion on OFFICIAL lists!!
This is not just MY ruling!!
I don't believe ANY record-keeping person or agency sees OT times as legit for Record or List purposes!
Even T&FN---on their weekly or yearly lists---separates OT marks from their "regular" lists!
I wanted a complete number to offer you of OT marks on the T&FN list!
But not knowing--with 100% certainty!--the size of some INdoor tracks--I decided to limit my count to those Sub-4's run on either Notre Dame's 352 yard track, or Seattle's 307 meter track!
Here are my counts!
Notre Dame has seen 24 such Milers!
Seattle has seen a whopping 65!
It's interesting how those counts break down!
The first ND time comes from 1988.
Then nothing until 1994.
The highest number for ND is 4 from 2009!
But the LAST Miler to run his first-ever Sub-4 on the ND track happened in 2014!
NONE were run in 2015, 2016, or 2017!
(Nor in 2018!)
Why??
My opinion is that most potential Sub-4 guys chose Seattle over ND--while the ND track saw a RISE in the number of Collegiate teams who ran their NCAA Qualifying time for the Distance Medley Relay!
THEY mostly chose ND for that project!
The first Sub-4 Miler on Seattle's OT wasn't until 2002!
(Were they not open before that? I'm not familiar with when Seattle built their OT!)
Anyway, 4 Men ran their times in 2002!
None in 2003, then 1 in 2004!
Grew to 5 in 2006--with 5 again in 2008!
But in 2010, that number doubled--to 10!!
They haven't been over 7 (in 2012) since then, but the Dempsey Center has seen OT Miles run EVERY year from 2006 through 2017!!
(None of the first 500 have been run this year! But Number 501 WAS in Seattle!!)
So, if you subtract those DEFINITE Oversize Track marks from T&FN's list, their INdoor total is reduced to 149!
With those 262 OUTdoor times, their "500" list count is actually 411--149 + 262 = 411.
You can take T&FN's list any way you choose!
I choose to see it MY way!!
And MY way says they are FAR REMOVED from any count of 500!!
Next post will have the Millrose results--and LOTS more!
Maybe TWO posts???
(I have some results & news items to report, but I'm holding them back for my next post!)
See you soon!
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