The 52 memorable San Diego sports moments: #50, indoor Mile world record

“The track has a reputation of being a fast one, and that gave me a psychological advantage. And the crowd gave me a big lift.” - Eamonn Coghlan, The Chairman of the Boards

By John Maffei, San Diego Union Tribune

Tucked away in the bowels of the San Diego Sports Arena, there was a spike-worn,...

Mile Moment of the Month: Heald’s Historic Run

American teen beats Russian women and also sets indoor world record

By Bring Back the Mile

March 1972: The world was still embroiled in the Cold War, the Vietnam War was raging on and U.S. President Richard Nixon had recently returned from an official visit to Mao Zedong in China. To step on...

Debbie Heald Set an Important Record

Forty years ago, a California teenager ran a race that shocked the world. It seemed important at the time. It's even more important now.

By Steve Friedman, Runner's World

They are sitting together at a round oak table in a sun-soaked living room on a mountain ridge in Ukiah, California,...

The Fun Miler: Former World Record Holder Tony Waldrop Reflects on His Storybook Career

In the mid-1970s, American middle-distance runner Tony Waldrop was lighting the track on fire. As a University of North Carolina senior, Waldrop set the world record for the indoor Mile, running a blazing 3:55.0 on February 17, 1974 in San Diego. Earlier that same year, he became the first man to...

Coghlan’s Run at Sports Arena Still a Huge Thrill 31 Years Later

But, for me, nothing tops the night of Coghlan’s Mile on the Sports Arena boards during the Jack in the Box Indoor Games. It was electrifying.

By Nick Canepa, San Diego Union-Tribune

It was 31 years ago this week when Eamonn Coghlan became an Irish storm, when he ran beyond the hype… by a...

Jim Beatty: An All-American Miler

Fifty years ago on February 10, a short middle-distance specialist from North Carolina stepped up on the boarded indoor track at the Los Angeles Sports Arena and made running history. Three minutes and 58 seconds after the starting gun had sounded, Jim Beatty became the first human ever to go...

Bring Back the Mile Salutes Jim Beatty

Historic first sub-4 minute indoor Mile by Beatty celebrates 50th anniversary on February 10, 2012

SANTA BARBARA, Calif. – On February 10, 1962 in Los Angeles, American Jim Beatty became the first man to break 4 minutes for the Mile indoors, nearly 8 years after Great Britain’s Roger Bannister...

He had the Time of His Life

In the season finale, Eamonn Coghlan lowered his indoor Mile world record to 3:49.78: "All I could think of was my coach Gerry Farnan and my father. I was saying, hey, this is for you guys."

By Craig Neff, Sports Illustrated

Eamonn Coghlan lay in his New Jersey hotel room early last Sunday...

Right Omens for Eamonn

Having espied a portentous green bikini and donned his lucky singlet, Coghlan cleaved two seconds off his indoor Mile world record with a 3:50.6 clocking

By Kenny Moore, Sports Illustrated

Eamonn Coghlan is not a superstitious man. Yet he kept a constant eye out for omens last week in San...

This was a Time to Remember

Spurred by a memory, Eamonn Coghlan wiped out the indoor Mile world record; runner-up Steve Scott set U.S. record in San Diego

By Kenny Moore, Sports Illustrated

Forty-five minutes before the Mile, Eamonn Coghlan began to warm up. As he ran through the tunnels beneath the San Diego Sports...