1919: Mike McNally, a Boston Red Sox infielder, wins his heat of the 70-Yard Dash, but is eliminated in the second round. The next year, McNally would return to New York when he was traded to the Yankees, and in the fifth game of the 1921 World Series would put his speed to good use when he stole home in a 3-0 shutout of the Giants.
1920: Jackson Scholz, a University of Missouri sprint star, equals the World Indoor Record in winning the 70-Yard Dash. Scholz would go on to popular fame as the runner who lost to Harold Abrahams in the100-meter dash at the 1924 Olympics depicted in the 1981 Oscar-winning film, “Chariots of Fire.” (A three-time Olympian, Scholz won the 200-meter gold medal the same year.) He later became a successful author of sports books for children.
1921: Harold Cutbill, known as “The Flying Parson,” ends Joie Ray’s four-year winning streak with a huge upset in the Wanamaker 1.5 Mile Run. Cutbill, a divinity student, became a Congregationalist minister in Massachusetts.
Between 1919 and 1926, Loren Murchison won 13 sprint races, which to this day makes him the most prolific winner in Millrose Games history. In 1926 alone, the two-time Olympic relay gold medalist won the 40-,60- and 300-Yard Dashes.
1922: Joie Ray records his fifth Wanamaker 1.5 Mile victory. His time of 6 minutes, 42.6 seconds is a new World Indoor Record, but comes after weeks of unpleasantness. Organizers wrote Ray weeks before the event to ask the return of the Rodman Wanamaker Trophy for processing “following your victory last year.” Ray wrote back that he did not have it. Angry exchanges follow, with Ray insisting he has searched his home and trophy room at the club, and organizers insisting he had taken the trophy home with him the year before. After many harsh words, everyone realizes why Ray doesn’t have the trophy: after four consecutive wins from 1917-1920, no one – including Ray – remembered that he lost the year before.
1923: Six World Indoor Records are set in one night, and Willie Ritola of Finland becomes the first foreigner to win a Millrose invitational event, the Three-Mile Run.
1924: Joie Ray wins the Wanamaker 1.5 Mile for the seventh and last time. In an unusual twist, the Princeton-M.I.T. mile relay is halted after the lead-off runner from Princeton is tripped and injured, then re-started as a three-man, three-quarter mile event.
1925: Paavo Nurmi, winner of the 1500, 5000 and 10,000 meter gold medals at the 1924 Olympic Games, sets World Indoor Records in both the .75-Mile and 1.5-Mile Runs in a two-day meet, the only one in Millrose history.
1926: The Wanamaker Mile (shortened from the 1.5-Mile Run) is born as the Millrose Games moves to the new Madison Square Garden at 50th Street and 8th Avenue.
1927: Alan Helffrich retires undefeated at Millrose, winning his fifth-consecutive 600. In 1925, Helffrich had gained fame as the only American to beat Paavo Nurmi during his 68-race tour of the United States. At the 1928 Olympics, he would win gold as a member of the 4x400-meter relay squad.
