Will-o'-the-Wisp Miler

The Wanamaker mile, first run in 1926, is one of the top events of the indoor track season. But for the past four years it has taken on a monotonous predictability: Don Gehrmann in front, usually followed by FBI-Man Fred Wilt. Last week at Madison Square Garden the Wanamaker had a new look and a new parade leader: a little (5 ft. 8 1/2 in., 139 Ibs.), will-o'-the-wisp runner named Fred Dwyer, who scoots around a board track with the short, effortless strides of a warm-up jog..

For a while last week it looked like the old Wanamaker story. Don Gehrmann was out in front at the halfway mark, with Wilt dogging his heels. But from there on, the crowd kept its eyes on Dwyer, the Villanova University senior who had run the two oldtimers into the ground three times before this season. At the three-quarter mark (3:07.5), Dwyer was in the lead, lost it in the final backstretch to Brown University's surprising Walt Molyneux, then came on with a rush for the tape, beating Molyneux by three yards in a fine 4:08.2, fourth fastest in the Wanamaker's 27-year history, and less than three seconds slower than Gil Dodds's indoor record of 4:05.3.*

Two nights later, in Boston, Dwyer did it again, this time in 4:09.2. Trackmen, a little skeptical even after his earlier victories, agreed that Dwyer had arrived--and at an age (21) when most middledistance runners are just beginning to hit their stride.

Dwyer was a track natural from the moment he took up cross-country running as a high-school senior, to strengthen a leg weakened by a basketball injury. He was first in every cross-country run he entered, won the New Jersey schoolboy title as a miler both indoors and outdoors. His best time in his first year as a miler: a remarkable 4:22.9. Under Villanova Coach Jim Elliot, Dwyer blossomed into a respectable collegiate miler, but was no great shakes in the big time against the likes of Gehrmann and Wilt until his sudden blooming this year.

The wiry little wisp attributes his recent rise to "work, and more work," a preseason training grind of 35 miles a week, a stay-in-condition routine of 25 miles. Unlike most milers, Dwyer never plans a race in advance: "I let the others do the figuring; I do my thinking while I'm running." Without being cocky about it, Dwyer knows that this is his year. "Now," he says, tapping his chest, "I've got it here physically, and here," tapping his head, "psychologically."

-Glenn Cunningham, who won the Wanamaker six times (never bettering 4:11), ran a specially paced 4:04.4 mile on the oversize (6 2/3 laps to the mile) Dartmouth track, since dismantled.

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