The Cal 100: No. 42 -- Don Bowden
We count down the top 100 individuals associated with Cal athletics, based on their impact in sports or in the world at large – a wide-open category. See if you agree.
No. 42: Don Bowden
Cal Sports Connection: Bowden won the NCAA title for the 880-yard run in 1957 then broke the 4-minute mile weeks later at the Pacific Association championships in Stockton.
Claim to Fame: A 1956 Olympian, Bowden was the first American to break 4 minutes, setting a record that stood for nearly three years.
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More than 700 Americans have now run the mile in less than 4 minutes -- a track and field barrier once thought out of reach.
Steve Scott did it 136 times during his prolific career. High school kids have done it. Sixty-four different U.S. runners eclipsed 4 minutes for the first time last year alone.
But until June 1, 1957, no American had done it.
Cal’s Don Bowden changed all that.
Bowden accomplished the feat in Stockton, where he ran 3 minutes, 58.7 seconds — after taking an economics final in Berkeley earlier in the day.
Don Bowden crosses the finish line in Stockton.
No other American went sub-4 for almost three years, until Oregon’s Dyrol Burleson broke his U.S. mark by one-tenth of a second at Eugene in 1960.
Now 86 years old, Bowden lands at No. 42 in the Cal 100.
The 4-minute mile was track and field’s equivalent of climbing Mt. Everest. The world record is now a blistering 3:43.13, run by the incomparable Hicham El Guerrouj of Morocco in 1999.
But no one had gone under 4 minutes done until Great Britain’s Sir Roger Bannister shook the world on May 6, 1954. That came just a year after Sir Edmund Hillary and Tenzing Norgay reached the summit of Everest.
So 4 minutes still was a big deal with Bowden did it. At the age of 20, he achieved it on a clay track at Baxter Stadium at the Pacific Association Championships, notably without a pacesetter.
“It feels like a couple lifetimes ago … a long, long time ago,” Bowden told me in an interview for the Oakland Tribune in 2007 on the 50th anniversary of his record run. “It’s hard to believe the years have gone by that fast.”
The American record before Bowden was 4:00.5, held by Wes Santee.
Bowden had to deal with more than the clock to run faster than 4 minutes.
“It was a psychological barrier,” Bowden said of 4 minutes, “and once it was broken, that changed the mental aspect of the mile.”
Coach Brutus Hamilton with Don Bowden
Photo courtesy of Cal Athletics
Bowden was coached by the legendary Brutus Hamilton, who led the Cal program for nearly 30 years into the 1960s. Bowden said it was Hamilton who gave him the confidence to achieve his goal.
“He had a great ability to predict what your body was capable of at a given time,” Bowden said. “I would run 4:10, and the next week Brutus would say, ‘You can run a 4:05 now, and this is how you’re going to do it.’ That was Brutus’ pep talk: You can do it.”
Bowden also benefitted from a training relationship with Irish middle-distance star Ron Delany, who came to the Bay Area early in 1956 to prepare for the Melbourne Olympics.
Hamilton encouraged a partnership between Delany and Bowden, and for a couple of months the two lived together at a cabin Bowden owned in Aptos.
“What a talent,” Bowden said. “We had more fun together. He was serious, but at the same time he had a good time. He lightened everything up. All the great training I did in ’56 really paid off in ’57.”
Bowden, a San Jose native who was a two-time high school state meet champion in the 880-yard run, made it to the 1956 Melbourne Olympics but did not advance to the 1,500 meters final after battling mononucleosis. Delany won the gold medal, setting an Olympic record.
A year later, Bowden focused on the 880 and captured the NCAA championship in 1:47.20, earning him a No. 3 world ranking that season from Track and Field News. His performance helped the Bears finish second in the NCAA team standings.
In ’58, Bowden and Cal teammates Maynard Orme, Jerry Siebert and Jack Yerman set a world record in the 4x880-yard relay, clocking 7:21.0 at Los Angeles.
Bowden was Cal’s only sub-4 miler for 22 years until Andy Clifford ran 3:59.49 on July 8, 1979 in Gateshead, England
Bowden was inducted into the Cal Athletics Hall of Fame in 1987, the U.S. Track and Field Hall of Fame in 2008, and the Pac-12 Hall of Honor in 2020.
Cover photo of Don Bowden courtesy of Cal Athletics
Follow Jeff Faraudo of Cal Sports Report on Twitter: @jefffaraudo