POINT OF FACT
? Is the AAU Indoor Track and Field Championships the oldest indoor meet in the U.S.?
•No. The first official indoor meet was held by the New York Athletic Club on November 11, 1868 at the old Empire Skating Rink in New York City. The AAU, which was founded in 1888 and held its first outdoor championships the same year, didn't stage its first indoor meet until November 9 and 10, 1906 at the original Madison Square Garden. One other indoor meet also predates the AAU—the Boston Athletic Association Indoor Games, which have been held since 1890.
? Don Bragg holds the AAU meet record in the pole vault at 15 feet 5 inches, set in 1960. What was the winning vault in the 1906 AAU indoor meet?
•A. C. Gilbert, then of Yale University and later the founder of one of the country's largest toy companies, leaped 10 feet 9 inches to win the event. Sabin Carr lifted the AAU indoor pole vault record to 14 feet 1 inch in 1928, and in 1943 Cornelius Warmerdam (15 feet 3‚Öû inches) became the first man to vault over 15 feet in the AAU championships.
? Has a four-minute mile ever been run in the AAU indoor championships?
•No. Last year Jim Beatty came close when he won the mile in 4:00.2, easily breaking Ron Delany's three-year-old meet record of 4:02.5. Two weeks earlier, in Los Angeles, Beatty had become the first man to run the mile indoors in less than four minutes (3:58.9). But in the New York meet the numerous heats delayed the final 45 minutes and Beatty, who had warmed up for an on-schedule start, was upset by the long wait.
? Have any of the current indoor records been set at the AAU championships?
•Yes, two. Harold Connolly's 35-pound weight toss of 71 feet 2½ inches and Australian Al Lawrence's time of 13:26.4 in the three-mile run. Both records were made at the 1960 meet. Until three weeks ago Ralph Boston's 26-foot 6-inch broad jump in the 1961 championships had stood as the indoor mark. His record was broken by Russia's Igor Ter-Ovanesyan, who leaped 26 feet 10 inches at the Millrose Games.