(May 15, 1920) Charles W. Paddock of the Los Angeles Athletic Club, driven to a frantic frenzy by the knowledge of a fleeting form before him at 98 yards, dug his spikes into the dirt and fairly catapulted himself over the tape into a new world's record for the 100-yard dash in the annual AAU track and field championship at the Coliseum yesterday afternoon.
That figure in green at his side was Charles Borah, University of Southern California freshman. They crossed the line together, Paddock and Borah, and three watches agreed at 9.5 seconds.
While the race was on the wind was tested by handkerchiefs held at three points down the track and was found to be blowing against Paddock's left shoulder --- off the port bow, as the nautical men would say.
The question is not whether it was a world's record, but whether Paddock actually won the race.
There was the wildest confusion as Borah, leading by more than two feet at 98 yards, was caught by Paddock's savage finish. They broke the tape together, and Borah was raised on the shoulders of a Trojan serpentine and carried off the field as the conqueror of the mighty Paddock.
So certain was the writer that Borah had won by inches that he went straight to Paddock and began to offer sympathy for the latter's defeat. Paddock, thinking he had won, glared back in surprise. Every man named his own victor, with a great majority favoring Borah, and when the official announcer named Paddock as the winner a mighty roar of protest swept the vast enclosure and cries of "Robber! Robber!" clashed with other vehement outbursts against the judges.
The newspaper decision went to Borah, there being but one press representative who thought Paddock had won.
E.J. Likely, head judge of the finish, and Jack Case were picking first place. They were unanimous that Paddock had won. Tom Coles and Sam Tennison picked second place. Tennison named Borah for second, and Coles thought it was a dead heat.
Those to the north of the track picked Paddock, who was to the south of Borah. Those to the south of the track, including the spectators and press, were certain that Borah had won.
Paddock said after the race that he was certain he had won by turning his shoulder into the tape at the proper moment, thus nipping Borah by about 4 inches. He admits he was two feet back at 98 yards and "scared stiff".
He finished with the mightiest effort of his life. (Note---Paddock's feat of gaining about 24 to 28 inches on Borah in the last two yards of the race may be the clinching proof that he DID win races with his famous flying leap at the tape. But for that desperate leap in the race with Borah Paddock would have been a hopelessly beaten man.)
(1925) The Phantom Finn is well named.
Running with the ease of a fleeting spectre and looking like one in the weird glow from 30 arc lights, Paavo Nurmi broke three world records before 32,000 people last night in the Los Angeles Coliseum, when he met and defeated Lloyd Hahn of Boston Tech in a special challenge race of one mile and a half.
Nurmi showed his flying heels to Hahn and a number of other contestants all the way and established world's records for 2000 yards, a mile and a quarter and a mile and a half.
At the first distance the great runner from Finland was timed in 5:03.6, which bettered his own record of 5:09. His time for the mile and a quarter was 5:35. It lowered the mark which Tommy Conneff made on Sept. 2, 1895, at Bergen Point, New Jersey, by 3.4 seconds.
Speeding around the last quarter mile with all the power that lurked in those marvelous legs that have carried him to fame, Nurmi completed his race in 6:42.5. This did not equal the great Finn's indoor record of 6:39.4 for the distance, but it lowered the world's outdoor mark of 6:46.6, made by Conneff in the same race in which the latter set the old mile and a quarter mark.
The huge crowd that jammed the Coliseum until it was nearly half full swept the Coliseum officials completely off their feet. This was the first track meet ever held at night in Southern California, and a cold, misty night it was. Few dreamed that more than 10,000 would brave the chill night air even to see the great Nurmi. Consequently, Coliseum officials were not prepared to handle the thousands that swooped down upon them all at once.
Considerable confusion and no little delay in the meet resulted and a few were badly jammed in the shuffling crowd that fought to get in through the few tunnels that were open. Zack Farmer of the Coliseum management promptly called on his reserves and all the tunnels were thrown open to the seething, angry crowd. After everybody was finally seated the show was on.
(Note---A few days before this 1925 appearance by Nurmi in Los Angeles he had drawn 45,000 to an afternoon meet at the Coliseum. My impression has always been that the night crowd was the bigger of the two. It is possible that the official attendance of 32,000 was paid attendance, for the crowd broke down the wire fence at the peristyle end of the Coliseum and no one knows how many got in free.)
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