American Competition.

No one could match the Finnish miler Paavo Nurmi in the 1920s, but in the 1930s attention turned to U.S. athletes in track. George Venzke burst onto the scene in 1932, breaking Nurmi's mile record of 4:12 (shared with Joie Ray) in the Milrose Games. Venzke bettered his own record of 4:11.2 a little more than a week later, coming in at 4:10. By 1934, though, Venzke was regularly coming in second to the great Kansas runner Glenn Cunningham and third when Princeton's Bill Bonthron participated in the races. In the Princeton Invitation Meet, Cunningham put on one of his greatest shows ever, outdistancing Bonthron and Venzke and clocking 4:06.7 in the mile. Two weeks later at the AAU National Championships in Milwaukee it was Bonthron's turn, though this race, like most of the later Cunningham-Bonthron matches, would be neck and neck. Future races between the...