Municipal Stadium (John F. Kennedy Stadium), Philadelphia, PA | July 4–5, 1928 (400m, 400m hurdles, decathon, relays)
Harvard Stadium, Cambridge, MA | July 6–7, 1928 (other events, except the marathon)
The US Championships in the men's category were held in Philadelphia on July 4th and 5th, and in Cambridge, Boston, at Harvard Stadium, the track and field arena of Harvard University, on July 6th and 7th. The competition also served as the trials for representatives for the Amsterdam Olympics.
Paris Olympic champion Morgan Taylor returned to Olympic trials after a break, in top form. He set a new 400-meter hurdles world record at 52.0. In the final, second-placed Frank Cuhel from Iowa clocked 52.1, and the third Olympic spot went to Johnny Gibson from New York, who lived to be 101 years old, with a time of 52.5. Despite trailing at the final hurdle, the Big Apple's hurdler managed to pull through to third place. The quartet heading to Amsterdam either surpassed or matched Taylor's previous moral world record of 52.6.
Ed Hamm focused intensely on the long jump. He gave his all right from the start, achieving a new world record of 7.90 meters (25-11 1/8) on his first attempt. Paris Olympic champion and former record holder DeHart Hubbard secured the third Olympic spot with a jump of 7.30 meters (23-11 1/2), significantly below his best performances. Foot issues hampered the Ohio lad's usual results by about half a meter.
The official world record was equaled in the 110-meter hurdles. Karl Anderson from Washington claimed victory with a time of 14.8. However, the moral record was still held by Canada's Earl Thomson, who had cleared 120-yard hurdles in 14.4 (equivalent to the same time over the metric distance). California's Ross Nichols had a tough break. He stumbled at the final hurdle while leading. "He got caught like a rabbit in a loop," described Jaakko Mikkola, the coach from Harvard University who reported on the event to a Finnish newspaper.
The season's sensation, the 18-year-old Frank Wykoff from California, secured victory in the 100 meters. The rigorous trials schedule chipped a fraction off his winning time of 10.6, perhaps a tenth of a second. Indeed, competitors had to endure heats, semifinals, and finals all in the same afternoon.
Antwerp Olympic Games champion Charley Paddock, who had faced professional accusations, fell short in the 100-meter semifinals. However, he performed better in the 200 meters, clinching second place and his third Olympic trip. Charley Borah won the straight race. Olympic gold defender and later a pulp fiction writer, Jackson Scholz, raced to third place. The atmosphere at Cambridge Stadium was electric. "The thirty thousand mouths in the stands were like trumpets, and the noise was like in a great war," described Mikkola in his report to Helsingin Sanomat.
Emerson Spencer, who had been setting a world record in the 400 meters in May, had a mishap in his favorite event. He mistakenly believed he was running a heat in the final, so he held back and finished fifth. Nevertheless, Spencer secured a spot for Amsterdam in the 4x400-meter relay. Ray Barbuti, who had bulked up (weighing nearly 90 kilograms) and worked hard on the track, won the race with a disappointing time just over 51 seconds. A storm hit Philadelphia, turning the track into mud and greatly affecting the performance of the Brooklyn bull.
Philadelphia
Cambridge
Evening Star, July 9, 1928 (photos)
Helsingin Sanomat, July 24, 1928 (Report from Boston by Harvard's coach Jaakko Mikkola, Part 1, in Finnish)
Uusi Suomi, July 25, 1928 (in Finnish)
Helsingin Sanomat, July 26, 1928 (Report from Boston by Mikkola, Part 2, in Finnish)
Morgan Taylor (National Union of Track and Field Statisticians)
Ed Hamm set a new world record in the long jump.
Frank Wykoff (3rd from the right) dashes to the victory in the final of the 100 meters.
The world's best mark was witnessed in the 800 meters, although it wasn't ratified as an official world record. Lloyd Hahn clocked 1:51.4. He applied Rudisha's tactic of leading from start to finish.
There were no remarkable results in the long-distance events. Joie Ray, the tough rival of Ville Ritola, won the 10,000 meters with a time just over 31 minutes.
Surprisingly strong performances were seen in the steeplechase. William Spencer, who had shown promising but somewhat unclear times even during indoor competitions, stopped the clock at 9:35.8. The result was decent, only a couple of seconds slower than Ritola's winning time in the Paris Games.
"A splendid competition!" commented a pseudonymous observer named Jaakoppi, who reported on the pole vault event for the Finnish sports magazine Both Olympic gold defender Lee Barnes and William Droegemuller, as well as former world record holder Sabin Carr, cleared 4.19 meters (13-9).
Paris Olympic champion Bud Houser successfully returned to the discus circle. After a hiatus in 1927, during which he worked as a dentist, Houser secured victory in the trials with a throw of 46.79 meters.
The results of the decathlon were closely followed in Finland, especially since Paavo Yrjölä was heading to Amsterdam as a favorite. Kenneth Doherty won with a score of 7600.52, about four hundred points behind the spirited Finn's results; no worries. Yrjölä's colleague, the country boy Jim Stewart, claimed second place and has been claimed to be the originator of the Fosbury Flop technique in high jump. According to urban legend—or in this case rural—Stewart invented the style while jumping over barbed wire fences on his family farm.
The season's top performer, Fait Elkins, suffered the same fate as Dan O’Brien 64 years later. The Native American injured his leg, withdrew, and his journey to the competition came to an end. After his athletics career, the decathlete started playing baseball professionally.
George Lermond congratulating Lloyd Hahn after the 800m race.
Memorial Coliseum, Los Angeles, CA | June 16, 1928 (southwestern)
Yankee Stadium, New York, NY | June 16, 1928 (eastern)
University of Detroit Stadium, Detroit, MI | June 30–July 1, 1928 (midwestern)
In the United States, Olympic representatives were selected through a lengthy process. Before the final trials held in Philadelphia and Boston, 14 regional meets were organized across America, and the top three or four in each event advanced to the final Olympic trials.
In the Western semi-final trials, the season's newcomer, 18-year-old Frank Wykoff from Glendale High School, defeated the great Charley Paddock in both the 100 (10.6) and the 200 (20.8, straight track, equivalent to about 21.3 on a full curve).
In terms of performance level, the season's toughest 200-meter race was held in Los Angeles. Wykoff's result represented a high standard; only once in 1928 was the 200 run faster in the world.
Thanks to a strong final push, Paddock, who finished five yards behind Wykoff, dashed to second place (21.0), and Frank Lombardi, who had run a fast 100 yards in high school competition in the spring, came in third. Charley Borah, who had suffered from injuries during the season, withdrew from both the 100 and 200.
There was also plenty of talent in the sprint hurdles. U.S. champion Leighton Dye clocked the season's second-fastest time of 14.6 and nipped Jed Welsh by a tenth of a second on Welsh's home track. At the same time, Dye avenged his May loss to Welsh at the Pacific Coast Conference Championships.
Old scores were also settled in the long hurdles. Dick Pomeroy (53.4) of the Los Angeles Athletic Club subdued Arizona's Clyde Blanchard, who had beaten him at the Pacific Coast Conference meet in May.
Bud Houser was firmly aiming to defend his Olympic gold in the discus. The California dentist launched the seventh-longest throw of all time and the world's second-best mark of the season at 47.70 m (156-6). In principle, Houser threw himself to the top of the season's rankings, as the statistical leader, Hans Hoffmeister, had achieved his results with a self-modified discus.
The western trials at the giant Memorial Coliseum stadium were watched by 50,000 track and field fans.
The Eastern Division semi-final trials were held in New York around mid-June. Lloyd Hahn, who had already shown sharp form during the indoor season, achieved the best result by taking the lead at the 200-meter mark in the two-lap race and holding his position to the finish. He clocked the season's seventh-fastest time and a U.S. record of 1:52.2. The "Boston Express" improved his time further in the final Olympic trials less than a month later. Another Boston lad, Sam Martin, followed closely behind him to finish second.
A fierce race took place in the 5000, although the times were slightly below Nordic standards. Massachusetts' stonecutter Leo Lermond started his push as the final lap began, while J. Macauley Smith, who had been lurking out of sight for the entire race, attacked from behind. Smith beat Lermond in the homestretch battle.
Sam Ring of the New York Athletic Club, perhaps somewhat surprisingly, beat his teammate Weems Baskin, who was allowed to compete despite two false starts.
Defending Olympic gold medalist Morgan Taylor pushed to victory in the Midwestern trials with a time of 53.1. In the final trials, he shaved off more than a second, resulting in a new world record and a ticket to Amsterdam.
People gradually began to hear about Eddie “Midnight Express” Tolan, the future 1932 Los Angeles Olympic champion in the 100 and 200 meters. The 19-year-old African-American "pocket rocket" sped to victory on the 220-yard straight track with a personal best of 21.1. In the final trials, he was eliminated in the heats of both the 100 and 200 meters. His time had not yet come.
In the 400, the top three finished within a tenth of a second of each other. Fred Alderman, who was struggling in seventh place as the final straight opened up, won (48.0), Ken Kennedy pushed hard to take second (48.1), and John Lewis finished third (48.1). Of them, only Alderman managed to fight his way onto the ocean liner to Amsterdam in the final trials.
Charles McInnis belonged to that rare group who competed at a world-class level in two upward-thrusting jumping events. In the high jump, he surprisingly defeated Olympic champion Harald Osborn. The winner's result of 1.956 (6-5) was the ninth best in the world that season. Osborn cleared 1.93 (6-4). McInnis secured the pole vault victory by clearing 4.11 (13-6).
Southwestern, eastern
Running And Jumping At Yankee Stadium, 1923 To 1938 (Society for American Baseball Research)
Midwestern