Soldier Field, Chicago, IL, June 11–12, 1926
Northwestern University's stocky half-miler, Alva Martin, perhaps achieved the best result at the fifth NCAA championships held in Chicago. He surged to victory in the two laps with a time of 1:51.7. The distance was found to be short, so his winning time is estimated to have been 1:52.0 or 1:53.0 for the full 880 yards. Even the slower time would have placed him among the top five in the 1926 season standings.
The indoor track at Soldier Field was in poor condition, so the half-milers were made to run about half a meter outside the inner edge of the inner lane. Because of this, the distance was miscalculated.
A month later, Martin also grabbed the U.S. title, and little was heard from him after that.
The mile race was a real contest. Notre Dame's Charles Judge didn't start his final sprint until halfway down the homestretch. He surged from fourth place to the lead and victory. Allison Wills, who had led bravely for about 1550 meters, faded to third.
Among the best results was Rufus Haggard's jump of 2.01 (6-7¼). It was only two centimeters short of Osborn's world record. After winning his only NCAA championship, the University of Texas athlete also attempted 2.04 (6-8½), but the bar placed on the standards succumbed to gravity. The competition was high-quality, as Chicago's favorite, Anton Burg, jumped 1.98 (6-6¼) for second place, the second-best result in the world standings.
Roland Locke, who had achieved an astonishing result in the 220 yards in the spring, proved that his time might not have been a complete fluke. The Nebraska athlete won the college championship in both the 100 yards (9.9) and the 220 yards on a straight track (20.9). The winning time in the longer distance on a rain-softened track was Locke's third best of the 1926 season.
Butler's Hermon Phillips cruised to victory in the 440 yards with a time of 48.7, the second-best in the world standings. Phillips' career continued for a couple more years. In the 1928 Olympic trials, he secured a place on the team that traveled by ocean liner to the Amsterdam Olympics. There, he finished sixth in the 400-meter final. The next twenty years were spent coaching at Butler and Purdue Universities.
Ohio State University's George Guthrie and the University of Southern California's Leighton Dye fiercely competed for the title of the world's best high hurdler in 1926. At the beginning of the season, Dye took the lead, but as the more important competitions approached, the tables began to turn. Guthrie won the NCAA championship by a meter over Dye.
The reigning Olympic discus champion, the recent world record holder, and the captain of the University of Southern California track and field team, Bud Houser, led his team from the front. He took the victory in the discus and finished second in the shot put, which was won by the rising talent and future Olympic champion, John Kuck.
The team competition was won by the University of Southern California, the Trojans, although the competition and the resulting placement points were not officially confirmed until later.