IC4A

At the end of May, the 440-yard dash was run at high speed in Philadelphia at the 49th IC4A  championships. Joe Tierney of Holy Cross blew past pacesetting Vernon Ascher of Georgetown thirty yards short of the yarn. The pocket turnips clicked to a stop at 47.9 – translating to a slick 47.6 for the 400-meter metric distance. Yale’s Charles Gage copped second place in 48.1, while Ascher, who hit the pain cave on the home stretch, held on for dear life to take third in 48.2. They also held the top three positions in the world rankings at the end of the 1925 season. The level of competition is further demonstrated by the fact that half of the ten fastest one-laps of the season were run in the Philadelphia final.

Of the trio, Tierney continued competing until 1928 but faltered in the 400 meter heats at the Amsterdam Olympics. He was one of the few athletes of the 1920s who lived to see the turn of the new millennium, passing away at the age of 101 in 2004.

Plenty of Speed in the Two-Lap Races Too

The 880-yard race featured one of the season's fastest two-lap competitions. Georgetown's George Marsters outsprinted MIT's George Leness, clocking 1:53.5 (equivalent to 1:52.9 for the metric distance, placing him third in the world rankings). To give you an idea of the depth of the field, even the fifth-place finisher achieved the 14th fastest time of the season, 1:54.7.

Of the top finishers, only Leness continued competing until the 1928 Olympic trials. After a tough qualifying process, Leness, representing the New York Athletic Club, reached the final but finished outside the top four. The ocean liner to Amsterdam set sail without Leness.

Chester Bowman, who also played American football for Syracuse University, sprinted to victory in the 100-yard dash. Keith Lloyd, cousin of silent film comedian Harold Lloyd, finished fourth.

Medical Student Hills Defeats Olympic Champion Houser, but Team Victory Slips Away

Princeton University's track and field team captain and Paris bronze medalist Ralph Hills led his team from the front. The medical student threw the shot put to 15.18m (49-9¾) and took a valuable scalp by defeating Bud Houser of University of Southern California. The two-time Olympic champion was not deterred and went on to win the discus throw as a consolation.

Hills' efforts were not quite enough, as the University of Southern California won the team competition by a three-point margin over Princeton.

For the first time in IC4A history, a public annoucement system with electronic amplification was used at Franklin Field.