Herb Trube

Although he won the 1908 IC4A two mile title for Cornell, Herb Trube was primarily a one mile specialist and he won the 1908 AAU mile championship in highly unusual circumstances. The 1908 AAU championships were held on a five-lap track in New York and the first race, which Trube won, was declared void as an official rang the bell after three laps. A rerun was held an hour later and again Trube won, but incredibly the officials made the same mistake and rang the bell prematurely A third race was held the following Wednesday and Trube’s winning time of 4:25.0 went into the record books as the official result. In February 1909, Trube ran 4:19.8 to become the first man to beat 4:20 for an indoor mile. At the 1908 Olympics he placed ninth in the three mile event and was the third scoring member of the U.S. team which took the silver medals in the team race. His business career was a special agent with the Massachusetts Mutual Life Insurance Company in its New York office.

Personal Bests: Mile – 4:19.8i (1909); 3 miles – 14:55.0 (1908).