Oregon’s Jerome Sprinted To NCAA Glory

If ever a meet could have used photo-finish timing, it was the 1964 NCAA Outdoor Track & Field Championships.

The 5000 and 400 were both ruled deadlocks, but those were with merely two runners inseparable.

The 100-meter final saw three sprinters crossing the line at almost the same instant: Harry Jerome of Oregon, Edwin Roberts of North Carolina Central and Trenton Jackson of Illinois.

It took almost an hour to sort the finish, but when they did, Jerome was ruled the victor in 10.1. Roberts (second) and Jackson (third) were also credited with that same mark as well.

“Honestly, that’s one I’d hate to judge on,” Jerome said about the finish to Dick Leutzinger of the Eugene Register-Guard. “Usually I know when I win or lose. I’d hate to say on that one.”

While the 10.1 was a meet and collegiate record, it wasn’t a PR for Jerome. He still owned a share of the world record of 10.0 that he set in the summer after his freshman season back in 1960.

Jerome was a Canadian prodigy who came from great lineage. As a high school standout in North Vancouver, British Columbia, he broke a 31-year-old national record in the 220 yards. And many knew his grandfather, John Armstrong Howard, who was the first Black athlete to represent Canada in the Olympic Games.

The fact that Jerome was even running in 1964 – near his best, let alone at all – was a comeback story for the ages. Jerome tore his quadriceps tendon in the fall of 1962 at the British Commonwealth Games and the seriousness of the injury led many to believe that he would never run again. He didn’t believe that and a little over a year later, he opened the 1964 season by equaling the world indoor best in the 60-yard dash with his time of 6.0.

Then at the 1964 NCAA Championships, Jerome doubled back in the 200, taking third to lead Oregon to its second team title in three years – both at Hayward Field. The Ducks won their first national title in 1962 when Jerome won the 220 yards and was runner-up in the 100.

Not long after that, Jerome went to the Tokyo Olympic Games, where he earned his lone Olympic medal – a bronze in the 100.

Jerome died in 1982 of a brain aneurysm at age 42. In 1984, the Labatts Classic held in Burnaby was renamed the Harry Jerome Classic and in 1988 a statue of him was erected in Vancouver’s Stanley Park.