Athletics at the 1904 St. Louis Summer Games:

This race was mostly noteworthy for the athletes not in attendance, primarily Alfred Shrubb of Britain, the 1903 and 1904 AAA champion, and four-time AAU mile champion Alex Grant from Penn. Off past records, the favorite among those present had to be David Munson, the 1904 champion in both the IC4A and the AAU meet, but he would prove to be a disappointment.

The race began with Harvey Cohn and Peter Deer taking the lead, with Bill Verner third for most of the first lap. Deer dropped back on the second circuit and at the bell, it was Cohn, Verner and Jim Lightbody, in that order, with Munson struggling in fourth place. On the backstretch, Lightbody made easy work of the field and coasted in a victor by six yards, Verner held onto second and was followed by Lacey Hearn who closed fast to take third. Lightbody's time was 4:05.4, which was a "world record," but was equivalent only to a 4:25.7 mile, far inferior to the world amateur record of 4:15.6 held by Tom Conneff.