Gallery: (6-22-2020) Dick Buerkle Career Photos
A two-time Olympian and the former indoor world record holder in the Mile, Dick Buerkle was among the greatest walk-on student-athletes in the history of collegiate track & field. Buerkle, whose world record race in the Mile occurred on January 13, 1978 during a renowned post-collegiate running career, is one of 42 athletes from Villanova to run a sub-four minute mile and was a four-time All-American during his collegiate career. Buerkle was remembered by his teammates as much for his affable personality and quick sense of humor as for his career achievements.
After setting a world record in the Mile and adding a victory in the famed Wanamaker Mile at the Millrose Games in January 1978, Buerkle appeared on the cover of the February 4, 1978 issue of
Sports Illustrated. At one time a noted friendly rival of Steve Prefontaine, he penned a poem that appeared in the
Eugene Register-Guard on May 31, 1975 as part of the paper’s coverage of Prefontaine’s tragic death. Buerkle would also write a memory of Wildcats coaching legend Jumbo Elliott for the
New York Times on April 5, 1981 following Elliott’s passing.
Buerkle represented the United States at the 1976 Summer Olympics in Montreal and qualified for the 1980 Olympics in Moscow which the U.S. contingent was ultimately ordered to boycott. He retired from competitive running in 1981 and would become a Spanish teacher and track coach in the Atlanta area. Buerkle participated in the torch relays prior to both the 1992 Olympics in Barcelona and the 1996 Olympics in Atlanta.
A native of Rochester, N.Y., Buerkle did not begin to compete in track & field until his senior year of high school at The Aquinas Institute. He therefore joined the Wildcats as a non-scholarship athlete before being awarded a scholarship during his junior year. Buerkle was a member of three Wildcats teams that won national championships, including back-to-back cross country NCAA titles in 1967 and 1968 as well as the 1968 indoor track & field champions.
Villanova was at the peak of one of its most successful runs of national success during Buerkle’s years with the program. The cross country team won four NCAA titles in a five-year span from 1966-70, with Buerkle getting his first taste of national success during the 1967 championship season. He came in sixth in the Wildcats lineup and 63
rd overall at that year’s NCAA meet, then improved to a 22
nd place finish and was Villanova’s second runner across the line to earn All-America honors on another title winner one year later.
Running for Elliott and longtime assistant coach Jim Tuppeny, it was not until Buerkle broke nine minutes over two miles at Tennessee during the 1969 outdoor season that he was rewarded with a scholarship. He was already a two-time All-American by then, with his cross country finish in 1968 and a third place finish over two miles during the 1969 indoor season. Buerkle helped the Wildcats win the 1969 and 1970 team titles at the indoor IC4A Championship. The team also was the NCAA runner-up each of those seasons.
Buerkle was the indoor IC4A champion in the two miles with a winning time of 8:42.2 as a senior in 1970. He went on to repeat his third place finish from a year earlier at the NCAA meet to add his third career All-America accolade. The fourth came as a result of a third place finish in the three miles outdoors the same year. Buerkle was the outdoor IC4A champion in both the three miles (13:34.2) and the six miles (28:34.7). The latter time in the six miles still puts Buerkle fifth on the Wildcats all-time performance list in the event. He also still ranks fifth at three miles (13:27.8) and sixth at two miles (8:40.9) in the Villanova record book.
No legacy of a Wildcats runner would be complete without a history of their achievement at the Penn Relays, the world’s oldest and largest track & field meet at which Villanova has won more titles than any other collegiate program. Buerkle ran the second leg of the 4xMile relay in both 1969 and 1970 for teams that won Championship of America titles. He split 4:07.9 as a junior in 1969 and lowered that to 4:05.5 a year later.
Buerkle ran for New York Athletic Club following his collegiate career and broke the four-minute barrier in the Mile for the first time when he was clocked in 3:58.0 on June 4, 1973. He would go on to post either a sub-four minute time or the metric equivalent (3:42.20) in the 1500 meters on 11 occasions during his racing career. His personal best in the Mile was the world record time of 3:54.93 on January 13, 1978. He was also clocked in 3:39.8 for the 1500 meters en route to the mile in that race.
Although it was the Mile in which he set a world record, Buerkle achieved a great deal of success at longer distances. He was ranked among the top 10 Americans at 5000 meters seven times between 1970 and 1981; in 1974, he was No. 1 in the United States and ranked fourth in the world at the distance. Buerkle also won three career marathons: 1973 and 1975 in Rochester; and 1981 in Atlanta.
Frontier Field in Rochester is the home of baseball’s minor league Rochester Red Wings. Since its opening in 1997, a special section at the center of the stadium’s Walk of Fame has been designated to honor the city’s sports legends. Buerkle was among the inaugural honorees on the Walk of Fame, which recognizes individuals who have made a monumental impact on the community through their achievements in the Rochester-area sports scene. Buerkle was inducted to the New York Athletic Club Hall of Fame in 1993, the Villanova University Varsity Club Hall of Fame in 1994 and the Greater Rochester Track Hall of Fame in 2008. He was also honored on the Villanova Stadium Track & Field Wall of Fame on September 26, 1998.
Following his graduation from Villanova, Buerkle was a contact lens salesman for Bausch and Lomb in Buffalo. It was during this time that he continued his racing career. Buerkle won the 5000 meters in 13:26.6 at the 1976 United States Olympic Trials in Eugene, Ore., but he did not advance out of the qualifying heats at the Olympics in Montreal. He posted a time of 13:29.01 in the third of three heats at the Olympics, finishing ninth in a race which at the time was the fastest heat of the 5000 meters in history. A week later, Buerkle was back in the Philadelphia area and ran a lifetime best of 8:21.76 over two miles on August 4, 1976.
The world indoor record in the Mile which preceded Buerkle’s record-setting race was 3:55.0 and had stood for nearly four years after being set by American Tony Waldrop in San Diego on February 17, 1974. Buerkle’s time of 3:54.93 in College Park, Md. on January 13, 1978 allowed him to defeat the heavily favored Filbert Bayi; he would also win the Wanamaker Mile in 3:58.4 nine days later. Buerkle is one of three Villanovans, along with Ron Delany and Eamonn Coghlan, who broke indoor world records in the Mile on at least one occasion.
Buerkle qualified to run the 5000 meters at the 1980 Summer Olympics in Moscow, but President Jimmy Carter enacted a United States boycott of the Olympic Games. Buerkle later met and interviewed President Carter for a running column in an Atlanta newspaper. The former Olympian and the former President ran together during the interview and Buerkle asked the reason for the 1980 boycott. He never revealed President Carter’s response, other than to say he gained an understanding of why Carter banned the United States team from competing.
Buerkle was born on September 3, 1947 in Rochester, N.Y. and died on June 22, 2020.
