The Magical Mile : Forty Years Ago Today, Britain’s Roger Bannister Was First to Break the Four-Minute Barrier

On May 6, 1954, Roger Bannister, completing his final year in medical school, arrived early at St. Mary’s Hospital in London, honed the spikes on his track shoes, then took the train to Oxford, less than an hour away.

There, he and fellow Olympians Chris Brasher and Chris Chataway were to represent the British Amateur Athletic Assn. in a mile race that evening at 6.

For almost a year Bannister, 25, and a small group of friends had been secretly planning for this day, but as he looked out the train window it was evident that the weather was not cooperating. The forecast calling for occasional rain and winds gusting to 20 m.p.h. had already proven correct.

Bannister had serious thoughts about calling off his attempt to become the first man to run the mile in less than four minutes.

Because of the winds, Bannister calculated that he would have to run the equivalent of a 3:56 mile to break the four-minute barrier.

The four-minute mile was a mystical barrier, the dream of mile runners for decades. At the beginning of the 20th Century, the world record was 4:15.6. Then in the 1920s, the incomparable Paavo Nurmi of Finland lowered that mark by almost five seconds, but he was still more than 10 seconds away.

Runners kept chipping the time down, then in the ‘40s, during World War II, the amazing Swedes, Arne Andersson and Gunder Haegg, took turns at lowering the mark. Finally, in 1945, Haegg ran the mile in 4:01.4. It was called the ultimate achievement of man.

“I think British scientists and doctors gave it the mystery,” said Franz Stampfl, an Austrian who earned his living as a free-lance coach and pretty much convinced Bannister that the mark could be broken.

“They said it couldn’t be done . . . the human body couldn’t take it. So many of the scientific and medical community said it was impossible. They convinced the general public it was impossible. I think in a way they created a barrier so that many runners thought it was impossible.

“In a sense, I think Bannister’s medical and scientific background was a great help for him in questioning the impossibility of it. But I knew he could not do it by himself. His friends, Chris Brasher and Chris Chataway, agreed to join him.”

Bannister was not alone in seeking to become the first.

Australia’s John Landy and America’s Wes Santee were also hovering around the 4:02 mark.

As Bannister was preparing for his attempt, in fact, Landy was in Turku, Finland--the birthplace of Nurmi--indicating that he was ready for the supreme effort.

Sports pages around the world were comparing a successful attack with Lindbergh’s becoming the first to fly solo across the Atlantic and Peary’s becoming the first to reach the North Pole.

For almost nine months leading to this day, Bannister, Brasher, Chataway and Stampfl had met nearly every weekend for training and planning. Stampfl’s plan was basic. He knew Bannister’s style was ideal for winning races, far less than that for beating the clock.

“Bannister, like most British runners, liked to stay behind and win races with a fast finishing kick,” Stampfl recalled. “I knew that Bannister could not run ‘alone’ for too long a distance. So I convinced Brasher that he must set the pace for 2 1/2 laps. Then Chataway would take over for the next quarter mile. Finally, Bannister could take off on his own for the final 220 yards.”

Stampfl’s plan called for Brasher to run the half-mile in less than two minutes, ideally 1:58, for Chataway to reach the three-quarter mark around three minutes and carry Bannister another 220 yards. If all the checkpoints were precisely reached, Bannister’s last 440 yards would have to be run in less than a minute.

Two other important members of Bannister’s entourage were Norris and Ross McWhirter, twin brother colleagues of Bannister at Oxford who later went on to international acclaim as the editors of “The Guinness Book of World Records.”

“Our role was to keep Roger supplied with information from all over the world about what his rivals were doing,” said Norris McWhirter. “Not just the times they did but more detailed information about lap times and tactics, and in a way . . . we kept him fired with the urgency to do it first.

“Roger was always sensitive to what he called ‘the burden of expectation.’ He would rather do it without being expected to do it.

“I was selected to be the public address announcer that evening, and in the course of conversation amongst several friends in the press, I told them I thought it might be worth their while to attend. I’m certain that many of them took this as some sort of hint that something was going. For why would I be asking them to attend this rather small, insignificant meeting between the BAAA and Oxford--particularly since the weather conditions were so poor?”

McWhirter was correct. Several journalists who ordinarily would not have attended such an event recognized that a race involving Bannister, Brasher and Chataway had a sense of mystery to it. However the fact that only about 1,000 spectators showed up, most of them in rain gear, contradicted the possibility that something special would happen.

As the afternoon wore on, Bannister was in conflict, torn between the weather and two conversations he had had earlier that day.

Stampfl had been on the train with Bannister and when Bannister voiced concerns about the weather, Stampfl tried to take his thoughts off the conditions.

“If you don’t take the chance that you’re given, you may never get another chance and you may never forgive yourself,” Stampfl had said.

Later, Bannister saw Chataway.

“The day could be a lot worse,” Chataway said. “The forecast says the wind may drop towards evening. Let’s not decide until 5 o’clock.”

At 5:15, Bannister, Brasher and Chataway were warming up, making small talk. Brasher and Chataway knew it was not their decision, but all three realized that although the wind was blowing strongly at times, there were periods of quiet.

A few minutes before the six starters were called to the mark, Bannister looked up at the flag atop a nearby church. Earlier, it had been flapping furiously. Now, as Bannister looked up, the flag was limp. Bannister signaled to his friends.

“It’s amazing that one can be indecisive up to the point of decision,” Bannister said. “When I noticed that the wind had settled the flag, I talked to myself and realized that I must do it.”

Besides Bannister, Brasher and Chataway, William Hulatt also represented the British AAA. Two runners from Oxford, Alan Gordon and George Dole, completed the field.

The electric atmosphere was the cause for a rarity in the mile--a false start. To this day, nobody remembers who jumped the gun. On the second attempt, the start was clean.

“So the race started and Brasher went into the lead and I was so full of running and so impatient that I couldn’t believe he was going fast enough,” Bannister said. “So we went around the first bend and somewhere down the back I began yelling to him, ‘Faster! Faster!’ and luckily he kept his cool for he knew what a first lap should be.”

Brasher completed the first 440 yards in 57.4 seconds, right on target with Stampfl’s plan. A yard behind was Bannister, followed closely by Chataway.

McWhirter recalled, “One of the rules of the IAAF, the world governing body, was that no information be given the athletes during . . . the race other than the information of the public address announcer. Since I was the public address announcer, I thought it would be helpful to have a microphone with a double speaker--one speaker each for the straight and back straight. I thought it would be probably helpful to them to get half-lap times.”

The first lap had drained Bannister of his excessive nervous energy and he was now content to fall into an evenly paced stride immediately behind Brasher.

“I felt wonderfully relaxed and was relieved to hear the first-lap time,” Bannister said. “I had so much energy because this was the first time I had been near a track for five days. I had not run a yard for five days till this night, just storing up energy.”

When McWhirter announced that Brasher had run the half mile in 1:58 flat, the crowd began to roar. Brasher continued on pace for the next 220 yards then, as planned, Chataway went past both of them. Bannister fell in behind Chataway.

The next 220 yards, taking them to the three-quarter mark, would be the most critical part of the race.

“I now was trying to keep right behind Chataway, as I did with Brasher,” Bannister said. “I was running with the maximum smoothness and economy and at any time I could go by Chataway. But I must stay with the plan.”

Chataway hit the three-quarter mark in 3:00.5. Bannister was a tenth of a second behind.

“I knew then that everything had gone as planned,” Bannister said. “I followed (Chataway) around, gradually getting impatient to overtake him. But I realized to overtake him on a bend would mean I would have to run an extra three or four yards by running wide and I would never forgive myself if I lost the four-minute mile by a yard or so.

“So I kept behind him, then leaped past him at the beginning of the back straight, for I had to run almost 300 yards on my own. I was wondering as my legs got tired if they would give my brain a false message. And I might think I was running faster when in fact I was running slower. As I got around the bend, for the first time I was feeling fatigue and concern.

“And then there’s a moment when time seems to slow up. And the finishing line instead of getting nearer . . . it almost seems to recede. I was very, very tired indeed. And I more or less flung myself at the tape. And then, feeling faint, I really had no knowledge for a few seconds as to what was happening.”

But McWhirter knew.

“I remember the words as clearly as if it was yesterday,” he said. “What I said was, ‘Ladies and gentlemen, here is the result of event No. 9, the one-mile. First, No. 41, R.G. Bannister of Exeter and Merton colleges for the Amateur Athletic Assn. with a time, which is a new meeting and track record and which, subject to ratification will be a new English native, British national, British all comers, European, British Commonwealth, and world record--in the time of 3 minutes . . . ‘ The crowd drowned out the rest but I did say, ‘3 minutes 59 and 4/10 seconds.’ ”

Fortunately, all four official times caught Bannister in 3:59.4.

Bannister, Chataway and Brasher ran a victory lap, but there were some anxious moments about an hour later. Surveyors were called in to measure the track to certify the performance. They determined that four laps around the 440-yard track exceeded the mile by half an inch.

Six weeks later, in Turku, Landy made his attempt. Chataway ran in that race, too, taking his own shot. Landy astounded the athletic world, finishing in 3:57.9. Chataway, again in second place, was still almost five seconds away from the four-minute mark.

A little more than six weeks later, Bannister and Landy raced the mile at the Commonwealth Games in Vancouver, putting on a stirring duel. Landy led most of the way but was overtaken by Bannister on the final turn. Both men broke four minutes. A few months later, Bannister retired, knowing that although he no longer held the record, he had been the first.

The four decades since May 6, 1954, have been good to the three main actors in the drama.

Bannister was knighted by Queen Elizabeth in 1975 for his medical and scientific athletic research.

Chataway later became a Tory cabinet minister and now is chairman of the Civil Aviation Authority.

Brasher, who considered himself the least talented runner of the trio, was the only man to win an Olympic gold medal. He won the 3,000-meter steeplechase at the 1956 Melbourne Olympics and since has had successful careers as a writer, television commentator and organizer of the London Marathon.

Bannister loved representing his country.

“Patriotism is a curiously old-fashioned concept these days and loyalties are often centered around sporting events,” he said. “I make no apologies for the continuation of this kind of loyalty. Records should be the servants, not the masters, of the athlete. The importance of competition is the need to feel our bodies have the skill and energy of their own, apart from machines. Running brings a joy, a freedom, a challenge not found anywhere.”

Making Tracks

World-record progressions in the mile since Roger Bannister (right) of Britain broke the four-minute barrier with a time of 3 minutes 59.4 seconds at Oxford, England, on May 6, 1954:

* June 21, 1954--John Landy, New Zealand, 3:57.9, Turku, Finland.

* July 19, 1957--Derek Ibbotson, Britain, 3:57.2, London.

* Aug. 6, 1958--Herb Elliott, Australia, 3:54.5, Dublin, Ireland.

* Jan. 27, 1962--Peter Snell, New Zealand, 3:54.4, Wanqanui, New Zealand.

* Nov. 17, 1964--Snell, 3:54.1, Auckland, New Zealand.

* June 9, 1965--Michel Jazy, France, 3:53.6, Rennes, France.

* July 17, 1966--Jim Ryun, United States, 3:51.3, Berkeley.

* June 23, 1967--Ryun, 3:51.1, Bakersfield.

* May 17, 1975--Filbert Bayi, Tanzania, 3:51.0, Kingston, Jamaica.

* Aug. 12, 1975--John Walker, New Zealand, 3:49.4, Goteborg, Sweden.

* July 17, 1979--Sebastian Coe, Britain, 3:49.0, Oslo, Norway.

* July 19, 1980--Steve Ovett, Britain, 3:48.8, Oslo.

* Aug. 19, 1981--Coe, 3:48.53, Zurich, Switzerland.

* Aug. 26, 1981--Ovett, 3:48.40, Koblenz, Germany.

* Aug. 28, 1981--Coe, 3:47.33, Brussels, Belgium.

* July 27, 1985--Steve Cram, Britain, 3:46.32, Oslo.

* Sept. 5, 1993--Noureddine Morceli, Algeria, 3:44.39, Rieti, Italy.

Bud Greenspan is a winner of five Emmy Awards as writer - producer - director of Cappy Productions. His half-hour program on Bannister, “Beyond Belief,” will be shown on ESPN at 3 p.m. today and on ESPN2 at 6.