Lots of things happen in May in Oxford. With the university disappearing on its endless Long Vacation in early June, May is the month for summer balls, Eights Week (28th to 31st), exams, and of course the traditional start of spring with May Morning at Magdalen Bridge (see earlier article).
More by way of a one-off occurred at the Iffley Road running track on 6 May 1954. On that windy afternoon, at 6pm to be precise, one R.G. Bannister, running for the Amateur Athletic Association against his old Alma Mater, Oxford University, made history. He became the first person in the world to run a mile in under 4 minutes, achieving the feat in 3.59.4. About 2,000 spectators were at the track that day, although if all those who claim they saw Bannister breasting the tape were speaking the truth, there would have been approximately 10 times that number! I'm almost one of those fibbers. I was actually about one mile away, assiduously doing my 'prep' at New College School in Savile Road when the epic event took place, and heard about it only the next morning.
Why was it such a big deal? Before it was broken, the 4 minute barrier was held in some mystique; some doctors said that the human body just wasn't capable of running so fast. But Bannister (a doctor himself) thought it only a matter of time before someone did it. The Swedes had got awfully close during the wear when not much athletics took place, and now John Landy in Australia and one or two others were threatening too.
So the AAA put together a fantastic team for this normally fairly low key match in Oxford: Chris Brasher (the founder of the London Marathon) would set the pace for the first 2 laps, then Chris Chataway (later the Mo Farah of the day, and an MP) would take over for the third, leaving Sir Roger to make his bid for life time fame over the fourth, and final, lap. The rest is history.... and Bannister is a household name and will be for the rest of his life for this one achievement, now 60 years in the past.
I suppose Sir Roger is particularly well-known in Oxford: he was an undergraduate at Exeter College, much later Master of Pembroke College and still lives here. But, judging by my asking a few of our learners at OISE and some other non-Brits, he seems to be almost totally unknown abroad. I suppose this might be because the mile is now a rarely run event, as we've all gone metric now. 1500 metres is the equivalent Olympic distance, and it's quite easy to run that in under 4 minutes - or so I'm told!
On the other hand great crowds showed up at Iffley Road for both the 40 and 50 year anniversaries, and even this year (the sixtieth) the Oxford Mail was reliving the whole event yet again; it also gave great prominence to Sir Roger's recent announcement that he has Alzheimer's and sadly has difficulty in walking. Certainly for English people of a certain age, whether they are runners or not, Bannister is a household name, but perhaps less so for younger people. I read somewhere that Bannister has the unusual distinction of having a road named after him in Oxford while still alive. They've changed the name of the track too.
In fact, despite the fuss, Bannister's world record didn't last long: it was broken by Landy shortly afterwards. But it's still Bannister whom we remember, at least for now. But perhaps when he and his generation are no longer with us, the four minute mile will just fade into history. After all, who nowadays remembers the awesome breaking of the 6 foot barrier in the high jump, which took place in Marston in the 19th century? Answer - almost nobody!
By Kit Villiers
