NCAA

Right on the First Attempt

Olympic long jump champion DeHart Hubbard of the University of Michigan dashed any hopes of his opponents by leaping 7.89m (25-10¾) on his very first attempt. A new world record was born at the fourth American Intercollegiate Championships. Track and field experts were impressed by the jump and predicted the world record would last forever, or at least for a very long time.

A century ago, sports results traveled slowly across the Atlantic. There were also news inaccuracies. For example, Hubbard's jump was initially declared a hoax in Finland until, on July 7, almost a month after the competition, a Finnish-language newspaper in New York confirmed that the Michigan athlete, with a scissors technique, landed in the sandpit 7.89m from the takeoff board.

The Chicago jump was Hubbard's tenth clearance of 25 feet (7.62m), further solidifying his position as the world's top jumper. Others struggled to reach 25 feet even once.

Hubbard was also the only athlete in Chicago to successfully defend his NCAA title, having won the long jump in 1923. The championships were not held in 1924, the Olympic year.

Hubbard crowned his busy weekend by sprinting to victory in the 100-yard dash, although his winning time of 9.8 seconds (equivalent to 10.7 seconds for the metric distance) could have been better.

Taylor Wins the 220-Yard Hurdles, Second in the Long Jump 

Chicago hosted the season's fastest 120-yard hurdles race. Hugo "Swede" Leistner, who twice failed to qualify for the U.S. Olympic trials (1924 and 1928), won with a time of 14.6, beating George Guthrie, who had been disqualified in the Paris Olympic final, by a tenth of a second. Larry Snyder, later known as Jesse Owens' coach, finished third with a time of 14.8 seconds, tying the seventh-best time of the season.

In practice, Leistner's winning time was the world's leading time of the season, as the 14.5-second marks of Germany's Heinrich Trossbach are somewhat questionable.

Since the 440-yard hurdles were not on the program, Paris Olympic 400 meter hurdles champion F. Morgan Taylor sliced the 220-yard hurdles and won in 24.0. He had a busy schedule, also taking silver in the long jump behind Hubbard with a jump of 7.37 (24-2¼).

Paris shot put runner-up Glenn Hartranft won the shot put with a solid result of 15.24 (50-0). However, he fell short of his previous year's record of 15.53 (50-11 1/2). In the discus, the South Dakota athlete threw 43.03 (141-2), which was good enough for second place. He was well behind his new world record of 47.89 (157-1), which he had set in San Francisco in early May. Clifford Hoffman won the event with a collegiate record of 45.21 (148-4). The following season, the new champion turned professional to play American football.

The NCAA championships used the English timing method, which allowed for accuracy to the hundredth of a second. However, the results are rounded to the nearest tenth in record books and grouped with hand-timed results.