Who are some names of least known great distance runners?

Here's Juha Vataainen today. He became a serious painter and is obviously influenced by the French impressionists. I think he's a bit too imitative of certain artists. His style is a cross between Seurat (for the pointillism) and Guillaumin (for the color):

http://www.juhavaatainen.info/juhavaatainen_uk.htm

He was a much better runner than painter. Compare his works to Guillaumin, for instance. Note the similarities in color. But Vataainen's work is much more simplistic.

http://www.artrecordiff.com/impression/guillaumin/index.html

http://62.193.218.250/peintres_impressionnistes/grandes_images/affiche_grand.php?image=guillaumin/charenton.jpg&title=La%20Seine%20

à%20Charenton%20-%201878

And note the pointillism apparently borrowed from artists like Seurat:

http://www.ibiblio.org/wm/paint/auth/seurat/gravelines/seurat.gravelines.jpg

http://www.ibiblio.org/wm/paint/auth/seurat/grande-jatte/seurat.grande-jatte.jpg

I was gonna mention Farrington but wasn't quite sure of spelling. Yes, it was 1972 when Shorter ran his PR of 2:10:30. What a race it was! That's what got me into running in the first place... Clayton lead till 15 or 20k (then dropped out) and after that, Shorter was in command. Farrington held on till the end (around 30k) then Shorter was too much. Have some great pictures from that race in the Japanese magazine still! I found a bunch of newspaper article from 77 Fukuoka when Rodgers won last time I went back to Japan. I made copies and gave it to Billy. He had a kick out of that!

A few more from first half of alphabet:

Horace Ashenfelter

Herm Atkins

Gayle Barron

Barry Brown

Julie Brown

John Campbell

Dionicio Ceron

Masako Chiba

Phil Coppess

Mark Curp

Ron Daws

Katrin Dorre-Heinig

Tom Fleming

Rodolfo Gomez

Miki Gorman

Norm Green

Kim Jones

Herb Lorenz

Marion Irvine

Don Janicki

Duncan Macdonald

Mike Manley

Olga Markova

Benson Masya

Stan Mavis

Brian Maxwell

Elena Meyer

Michael Musyoki

Forgive me if I've repeated some names. So many were listed so far...hard to remember who's in, who's out.

Unfortunately, you omitted Mike Boit and Naftali Bon of Kenya, Khalid Skah and Brahim Boutayeb of Mexico, Wodajo Bulti of Ethiopia, and Alejandro Cruz of Mexico (who ran 2:08:57 in his first marathon).

How can you say Bill Scoby with out the words "Mad Dog"?

Tom

Man, you have a memory! I do recall that claim and McClaren and Farrington are great additions. I don't think Farrington ever got to run in a Olympics though, which seems odd for a guy who was as fast as he was. But Ron Clarke always thought Farrington never met his potential.

Ok, let's stay with Aussies and add Trevor Vincent (1962 Commonwealth Games steeplechase champion)and Tony Cook (8th at the Tokyo 10,000.)

And I was oing to mention eddie Gray but thought he'd be too obscure even for this thread.

One of my all time favorites: Mohammed Gammoudi of Tunisia.

1964 Olympic 10,000--silver behind Billy Mills

1968 Olympic 10,000--bronze behind N. Temu and M. Wolde

5,000--gold

1972 Olympic 10,000--fell over a tripped Viren and dnf

5,000--siver behind Viren

Brian Diemer- well known here, but unknown to most Americans although a much more recent Olympic medalist than most of the names mentioned.

Tom Farrell was in the Army, not the Marines, along with some other good runners in the late 60's. Bob Day (UCLA), Preston Davis (Texas) and Tom Von Ruden (Okie St.) all ran for the Army at about the same time. US Army Distance Medley Relay team set the WR at Mt. Sac in April, '68...Von Ruden ran 1320 and Davis anchored. JR and his boys at KU broke the record one year later.

Bill Adcocks

Steve Binns

Dave Black

Bernie Ford

Hugh Jones

Dave Lewis

Steve Kenyon

Jon Solly

Tony Simmons

Carl Thackery

Steve Tunstall

That was impressive that you came up with Trevor Vincent. He is a former great runner who is pretty obscure.

How about British cross country standouts Mike Tagg and Bernard Plain? And how about another Brit, Chris Stewart, who was very competitive at the 5k on the track and the marathon. He ran in the AAU Championships in the three mile one year. I think it was 1971. And he ran the marathon in 2:13 that same year. It's as if he specialized in both events simultaneously.

Has anyone mentioned Charlie Spedding? He earned a bronze medal in the marathon in 1984 behind John Treacy and Carlos Lopes.

People tend to forget that Treacy won the World Cross Country championships twice.

No one has mentioned Fernando Mamede. He was phenomenally talented at the 10k and set a world record for that event. But he would absolutely fall apart under the pressure of a championship race. Didn't he fail to reach the final of the 10k at Los Angeles due to nerves?

Arturo Barrios broke Mamede's world record. Barrios is another obscure great runner.

Bet nobody out there remembers Jack Holden!?

A potted history and a life full of anecdotes… a local hero from my grandfather’s generation. The great Jack Holden.

Born in the industrial heartland of Tipton (UK) a family of 9 and he was already working in a foundry at the age of 13. He was still a youngster when he won his first race, a 3-mile race organized by a local publican. His prize was a live pig. Ran cross country in the 30s and was 4 times international cross country champion (forerunner of today’s IAAF World Championships). His last cross country vest for England would come in 1946 but in the meantime his triumphs as an athlete were interrupted by the war and he served with the RAF. By the end of the war years he was now nearly 40 and at this late age he decided to have a go at the marathon.

At this stage he became one of the first runners to regularly churn out 100 miles a week. Most of those miles were run at night after finishing work (by this time he was a groundsman). His only chance of Olympic glory came in The London games of 1948 and went horribly wrong. He was favourite to win the marathon but according to Jack himself, his fatal error had been to bathe his feet in permanganate of potash. He over-pickled them and the skin was so hard it just blistered. He dropped out and such was his disappointment that he announced his retirement, although his wife Millie, soon coaxed him back into competition again.

1946-50, won the AAA marathon championship 4 times.

1950, won the Commonwealth Games marathon in New Zealand (finished barefoot after his shoes fell apart with 8 miles to go).

Won the European marathon title in Brussels… at 43 the oldest man to do so.

1953 Broke the world record for 30 miles but in the same year was beaten by arch rival Jim Peters and retired for the second time.

Died last year aged 97.

The running track of Jack’s beloved Tipton Harriers bears his name and there are also “the Jack Holden gardens” nearby. Amusingly Jack rejected the proposal to erect a statue of him saying “no dog is going to pee on me while I’m alive”.

Sorry for such a long one…it’s just that nobody outside Tipton remembers a guy who was on his day unbeatable.

I met Ron Daws at a running camp in Colorado. There were a lot of high school runners there like me. It was 1973, and the camp was abuzz over Dave Bedford's recent world record in the 10k.

Anyway, Daws was very friendly and spoke knowledgeably about the importance of easy running, since a lot of the high school guys were just hammering themselves every day. Daws seemed genuinely concerned about his the high school runners and was very accessible to anyone who wanted to talk to him.

The only thing that bothered me about Daws was that one of his claims to fame as a national-class runner was his indoor record for 20 miles. I mean, can you think of anything more ridiculous than running 220 laps around a tiny oval to set a record at an event nobody gives a damn about?

I greatly respect Daws for making the Olympic marathon team in 1968. But the indoor 20-mile record is something that I thought made him look silly, as if he were desperate for some kind of record to enhance his standing. I think he would have been better off without it.

Fellow Minnesotan here (though Japanese native). Daws held the American records for 15 miles and 25k (outdoor). I didn't know about his indoor 20-mile (if he held it or not). He passed away a year after I moved to MN and, it was one of those things, he's local and I'm here, I can go see him anytime I want... Never had a chance to get together. Have become very close friends with Steve Hoag whom Daws coached and once-his-wife, Lorraine Moller.

Well, record or not, anybody who continues to run 220 laps indoor will have my respect!

Hey, Living in the Past, have you ever gotten together and talked to coach Squires? He's like track & field history book (though he digresses all the time). It's like playing trivial pursuit because he never remembers the names and you'll have to guess who he's talking about! "That black guy who ran 2:11 from Seattle..." "Herm Atkins?" etc.

He gets my respect for the indoor 20 miler too. Ron knew he was nowhere near as talented as a slew of hin contemporaries. That comes through clearly in both his books, particularly "Self Made Olympian".

He has been mentioned in this thread, but Steve Hoag is definitely someone that doesn't get mentioned as much as his accomplishments would suggest. 2:11 or thereabouts a while back.

No Noddy. I haven't crossed paths too much with Squires. I've interacted a lot with you and HRE and Kim Stevenson and Malmo and Tom Derderian and Orville Atkins and many other knowledgeable old timers (although Orville insists that he is not old).

It's amazing the range of running knowledge on this board. Some might dismiss this type of thread as mere trivia, but behind every name that we come up with is a running career that can teach us something about the principles of training and racing.

The present has been built on the past. The legacy of the runners of yesterday and, especially that of the greatest coaches, must be preserved by us!

Young Orville

Geez mate ! never thought of myself as an old timer !!!. But I guess when you have been around a sport for 40plus years you pick up a little information.

I can still run with my athletes though !!

Another "great" NZ Cross Country runner who goes into the category of being arguably our greatest: Bryan Rose. Another really tough nut who ran exceedingly well for years.

Also placed 3rd in the World Cross Country (1969 if I am not wrong) and also a member of the great 1976 Team who won the Teams race.

That whole Team was inducted into the NZ Sports Hall of Fame. It was a "Who's who" of 1970's NZ Distance Running.