John Eisele

While at Princeton, John Eisele enjoyed only limited success as an athlete. Later, representing the New York AC, he won the AAU 10-mile championship in 1908 and was the leading U.S. distance runner at the Olympics that year. Individually he placed fourth in the three mile team race – the first American to finish – and in the steeplechase he was the only U.S. runner to make the final. After graduating Princeton in 1906, Eisele joined his father’s stock brokerage firm, Eisele & King, in Newark, and did quite well for himself and his family. But the stock market crash affected many lives and Eisele died as the result of a self-inflicted gunshot wound.

Personal Best: 3 miles – 14:41.8 (1908).