Athletics at the 1960 Roma Summer Games:

Glenn Davis was the defending champion, world record holder, and the heavy favorite in 1960. He had won the AAU title in 1956, 57, 58, and 60, not competing in 1959 when the event was won by Dick Howard. Howard had also placed second at the 1959 Pan-American Games, third in that event going to Cliff Cushman. The only hurdler felt capable of challenging Davis was South Africa's Gert Potgieter, 1958 Commonwealth Games champion in a 440 yard world record of 49.7. But he was injured in a car accident shortly before the Roma Olympics and could not compete. In Roma, Davis led an American sweep, with Howard getting the bronze medal, the silver medal going to Cushman. Cushman and Howard both died young, for different reasons. Cushman was listed as missing in action in Vietnam in 1966, while Howard died in 1967 from a heroin overdose.