Richard Thomas Buerkle ( ; September 3, 1947 – June 22, 2020) was an American Olympic athlete and a world record holder for the men's indoor mile. He is known as one of the most successful walk-ons in the history of American collegiate running, due to his athletic successes while at Villanova.

Running career

High school

Buerkle graduated from

Aquinas Institute The Aquinas Institute of Rochester is a co-educational Catholic school in Rochester, New York established in 1902. Although The Aquinas Institute was founded as an all-male high school, it opened to female students in 1982. It is located within ...

high school in 1965 with personal best times of 4:28 for the mile and 10:01 for two miles. He began running competitively only in his senior year of high school.

Collegiate

With no stand-out track credentials from high school, Buerkle enrolled at Villanova initially with no sports scholarship. At Villanova, he learned under the tutelage of head coach Jumbo Elliott and assistant coach Jim Tuppeny. He finally received a track scholarship in April of his junior year, after breaking the nine-minute barrier in the two-mile race, recording 8:57 at a dual meet in

Knoxville Knoxville is a city in and the county seat of Knox County in the U.S. state of Tennessee. As of the 2020 United States census, Knoxville's population was 190,740, making it the largest city in the East Tennessee Grand Division and the state' ...

. Two weeks later, Buerkle lowered Villanova's two-mile record to 8:46.2. He graduated from Villanova in 1970 with a degree in Spanish studies.

Post-collegiate

After graduating from Villanova, Buerkle began working for a distributor of contact lenses in Buffalo, New York, although Buerkle said that the company welcomed his running goals. Buerkle qualified for the

1976 Events January * January 3 – The International Covenant on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights enters into force. * January 5 – The Pol Pot regime proclaims a new constitution for Democratic Kampuchea. * January 11 – The 1976 ...

and 1980 Olympics. The 1976 Games in Montreal were a disappointment for Buerkle; in the

5000 meters The 5000 metres or 5000-metre run is a common long-distance running event in track and field, approximately equivalent to or . It is one of the track events in the Olympic Games and the World Championships in Athletics, run over laps of a stan ...

, he was ninth in what was, at that point, the fastest 5000 m heat in history and did not qualify for the final. The U.S. team did not compete in 1980 because of the boycott enacted by

President President most commonly refers to: *President (corporate title) * President (education), a leader of a college or university * President (government title) President may also refer to: Automobiles * Nissan President, a 1966–2010 Japanese ...

Jimmy Carter James Earl Carter Jr. (born October 1, 1924) is an American politician who served as the 39th president of the United States from 1977 to 1981. A member of the Democratic Party, he previously served as the 76th governor of Georgia from 1 ...

. On January 13, 1978, at the CYO Invitational held at the

Cole Field House The Jones-Hill House is an indoor collegiate sports training complex located on of land on the campus of the University of Maryland in College Park, a suburb north of Washington, D.C. Jones-Hill House is situated in the center of the campu ...

, he broke the indoor mile world record with a time of 3:54.93, finishing ahead of

Filbert Bayi Filbert Bayi Sanka (born June 23, 1953) is a Tanzanian former middle-distance runner who competed throughout the 1970s. He set the world records for 1500 metres in 1974 and the mile in 1975. His world record in the 1500 m was also the Commo ...

and Paul Cummings. He allegedly ate nine oreos and two peanut butter jelly sandwiches only a few hours before the race. He then won the men's

Wanamaker Mile The Wanamaker Mile is an indoor mile race held annually at the Millrose Games in New York City. It was named in honour of department store owner Rodman Wanamaker. The event was first held in 1926 inside Madison Square Garden, which was the venue ...

at the

Millrose Games The Millrose Games is an annual indoor athletics meet (track and field) held each February in New York City. They started taking place at the Armory in Washington Heights in 2012, after having taken place in Madison Square Garden from 1914 to 2011 ...

in 3:58.4, beating Wilson Waigwa and Bayi for a second consecutive race on Madison Square Garden's track. The Wanamaker victory put his image on the covers of ''

Sports Illustrated ''Sports Illustrated'' (''SI'') is an American sports magazine first published in August 1954. Founded by Stuart Scheftel, it was the first magazine with circulation over one million to win the National Magazine Award for General Excellence twi ...

'' and

Track & Field News ''Track & Field News'' is an American monthly sports magazine founded in 1948 by brothers Bert Nelson and Cordner Nelson, focused on the world of track and field Track and field is a sport that includes athletic contests based on running ...

Personal life

Years before the look became popular, Buerkle's most noticeable physical characteristic was his bald head which was the result of

alopecia areata Alopecia areata, also known as spot baldness, is a condition in which hair is lost from some or all areas of the body. Often, it results in a few bald spots on the scalp, each about the size of a coin. Psychological stress and illness are pos ...

by age 12. The taunts he heard at track meets helped fuel his determination to succeed. He was later most thankful to Michael Jordan for shaving his head and ushering the style into the mainstream. At the time of

Steve Prefontaine Steve Roland "Pre" Prefontaine (January 25, 1951 – May 30, 1975) was an American long-distance runner who from 1973 to 1975 set American records at every distance from 2,000 to 10,000 meters. He competed in the 1972 Summer Olympics, a ...

's death in 1975, Buerkle was his chief American rival; he composed a tribute poem that was printed in the Eugene's ''

Register-Guard ''The Register-Guard'' is a daily newspaper in the northwestern United States, published in Eugene, Oregon. It was formed in a 1930 merger of two Eugene papers, the ''Eugene Daily Guard'' and the ''Morning Register''. The paper serves the Eugene- ...

'' the following day. Buerkle eventually grew tired of the winter weather in his native

Rochester Rochester may refer to: Places Australia * Rochester, Victoria Canada * Rochester, Alberta United Kingdom *Rochester, Kent ** City of Rochester-upon-Medway (1982–1998), district council area ** History of Rochester, Kent ** HM Prison ...

, New York, and relocated his family to

Atlanta Atlanta ( ) is the capital and most populous city of the U.S. state of Georgia. It is the seat of Fulton County, the most populous county in Georgia, but its territory falls in both Fulton and DeKalb counties. With a population of 498,715 ...

Georgia Georgia most commonly refers to: * Georgia (country), a country in the Caucasus region of Eurasia * Georgia (U.S. state), a state in the Southeast United States Georgia may also refer to: Places Historical states and entities * Related to the ...

, soon thereafter. Buerkle continued to live and work in the Atlanta area after retiring from world-class competition in 1981. Buerkle said that the decision was not difficult. By that point, he and his wife, Jean, whom he met at Villanova, had a son, Gabriel, and two daughters, Lily and Tera. Buerkle tried careers in sales and teaching in tandem with his running career. In 1992, he began teaching

Spanish Spanish might refer to: * Items from or related to Spain: **Spaniards are a nation and ethnic group indigenous to Spain **Spanish language, spoken in Spain and many Latin American countries **Spanish cuisine Other places * Spanish, Ontario, Can ...

Dunwoody High School Dunwoody High School is a public high school in Dunwoody, an incorporated city in DeKalb County, Georgia, United States. Dunwoody enrolls students in grades 9- 12, and is operated by the DeKalb County School System. It follows a four by four bl ...

, where he also coached track and field and cross-country running. He finished his career at Henderson Middle School as a Spanish instructor while simultaneously training the boys' track team thus resulting in back to back county championships in 2011–2012. Buerkle retired in January 2014. He died on June 22, 2020 from multiple system atrophy.

Notes

The "i" after a result indicates an indoor performance.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Buerkle, Dick 1947 births 2020 deaths World record setters in athletics (track and field) American male middle-distance runners Villanova University alumni Villanova Wildcats men's track and field athletes Athletes (track and field) at the 1976 Summer Olympics Olympic track and field athletes for the United States Sportspeople from Rochester, New York Neurological disease deaths in Georgia (U.S. state) Deaths from multiple system atrophy