Walker Completed Only Hurdling Triple

George Walker of Illinois completed a career hurdle “triple crown” that likely will never be matched, winning titles over hurdles at three different distances in the NCAA Outdoor Track & Field Championships.

As a freshman, Walker showed promise, winning the 120-yard/220-yard hurdle double at the 1945 NCAA meet at Marquette Stadium in Milwaukee, Wisconsin.

That made Walker the fifth in history to complete that combination, and the only freshman.

The next two years saw him face a future legend – Walker was second in the 220 lows to world-record setter Harrison Dillard of Baldwin Wallace at the NCAA meet – and miss the 1947 NCAA due to injury.

With 1948  being an Olympic year, the NCAA held the 400-meter hurdles for just the third time, temporarily suspending the 220 hurdles.

The 220 lows and 400 hurdles are quite different events. The length of the event, of course, is the first noticeable part, but the hurdle height adds the other dynamic – the lows are 30” (0.762m) high, while the 400H is held at the “intermediate” height of 36” (0.914m).

Walker thus faced a new event, but that was generally true for all of the long hurdlers at the 1948 NCAA meet in Minneapolis. His prime opponent was the Golden Gopher’s Lee Hofacre, who entered the 1948 meet as fastest in the field at 52.7 for the 440-yard hurdles.

The two waged an early battle in a preliminary heat on Friday, Walker edging a fading Hofacre at the finish in a PR 53.3 that was close to the meet record of 52.9 set in 1932.

In the final on Saturday, Walker lowered his best to 52.4, a new meet record that made him the first – and still only – winner of three hurdle events in NCAA DI Outdoor history.

Walker lowered his PR to 51.9 three weeks later at the U.S. Final Olympic Trials, but finished an agonizing fourth by inches when only the top three made the Olympic team.