The 1928 United States Olympic trials for track and field were held between July 3 and July 7, 1928 and decided the United States team for the 1928 Summer Olympics in Amsterdam. For the first time, women's track and field was part of the Olympic program. The trials for men and women were held separately; men competed at Harvard Stadium in Cambridge, Massachusetts on July 6 and July 7, while women competed at City Field in Newark, New Jersey on July 4. Three of the men's events were contested in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania between July 3 and July 5.
Both the men's and women's Olympic trials also served as the annual United States outdoor track and field championships. For the last time, the top four athletes in each event qualified for the Olympics; starting in 1932, every nation was limited to three entrants per event.
Official world records were set in the men's meet by Morgan Taylor in the 400 m hurdles and by Ed Hamm in the long jump.
Qualifying
Athletes qualified for the men's Olympic trials by competing in preliminary tryouts. There were 14 preliminary meetings in total, including regional tryouts and major collegiate meets (the NCAA championship and the IC4A championship both served as tryouts). So many athletes qualified for the final Olympic trials that three or more rounds were needed in all sprinting and hurdling events; for the next Olympic trials in 1932 a more restrictive qualifying system was adopted. Athletes who finished in the top four in their events at the final trials qualified for the Olympic team, with some exceptions. The marathon was not part of the main Olympic trials, and a different qualifying system based on multiple races was used for that event.
Men
The men's Olympic trials were contested at Harvard Stadium in Cambridge, Massachusetts on July 6 and July 7, except for three events (400 meters, 400 meter hurdles and decathlon) which were scheduled to be held at the Philadelphia Municipal Stadium in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania on July 3 and July 4. Due to poor weather conditions, the decathlon was interrupted on July 4 and continued on July 5 at Franklin Field, also in Philadelphia.
The meeting doubled as the annual AAU outdoor national championship; all defending champions from 1927 returned to defend their titles, with the exception of Ville Ritola who was Finnish. Two official world records were set at the men's trials, by Morgan Taylor in the 400 m hurdles and by Ed Hamm in the long jump; additionally, Lloyd Hahn broke the world record in the 800 m and both Ross Nichols and Steve Anderson equaled the world record in the 110 m hurdles, but their marks were not officially ratified.
Philadelphia
EventFirstSecondThirdFourth400 mRay Barbuti51.6All official times at the 1928 Olympic trials were hand-times, taken with the accuracy of one-fifth of a second; for example, Ray Barbuti's winning time in the 400-meter final was 51 seconds.Euil SniderHermon PhillipsJoe Tierney400 m hurdlesMorgan Taylor52.0 Frank Cuhel52.1Johnny Gibson52.5eRobert Maxwell52.6eDecathlonKen Doherty7600Jim Stewart7533Barney Berlinger7362Tom Churchill7203
The 400 meters final was run in a storm, accounting for the very slow winning time of 51.6 seconds; both Barbuti and Snider had won their semi-finals in 48.0. Emerson "Bud" Spencer, the one-eyed Stanford University runner who had set the world record (47.0) two months earlier, was surprisingly eliminated as he only placed fifth; Spencer and the sixth finalist, Fred Alderman, were named to the Olympic 4 × 400 meter relay team. The other two Olympic relay runners were decided by an extra race for those eliminated in the semi-finals, won by George Baird ahead of John Lewis; however, Lewis was replaced with Barbuti after the latter won an Olympic gold in the individual event.
The 400 meter hurdles final was run before the storm arrived; Morgan Taylor, the 1924 Olympic champion, set a new world record (52.0) but still only narrowly defeated Cuhel. Defending AAU champion Gibson, who held the world record in the 440 yard hurdles (52.6), placed third. The old, still listed world record for the metric hurdles (53.8 by Sten Pettersson) was broken in the heats, in the semi-finals, and by all seven men in the final.
In the decathlon the 1928 Penn Relays were originally advertised as an Olympic qualifying event; Tony Plansky, the 1924 AAU champion, won the Penn Relays decathlon ahead of Doherty and Churchill with 7142 points. In the end, though, decathlon selections were based solely on the Philadelphia meet; Plansky was unprepared for having to qualify a second time and only placed 11th. Defending AAU champion Fait Elkins, who entered the trials as a clear favorite, was also left out of the Olympic team; he injured himself in the first event (100 meters) and had to withdraw. An appeal by Elkins to be selected in spite of his injury was not upheld; he performed poorly in a test two weeks after the trials, and the selectors felt he had not recovered sufficiently.
The rain and wind that disturbed the 400 meters final interrupted the decathlon's eighth event, the pole vault; the last three events were moved to Franklin Field and contested the following day, with the pole vault restarted from scratch. Doherty, the Penn Relays runner-up, eventually won from Stewart and Berlinger; he went on to win bronze at the Olympics. Churchill received the fourth spot on the Olympic team after Elkins's appeal was rejected.
Cambridge
Track
EventFirstSecondThirdFourth100 mFrank Wykoff10.6Robert McAllister10.7eHenry Russell10.7eClaude Bracey10.7e200 m straightCharles Borah21.4Charley Paddock21.5eJackson Scholz21.5eHenry Cumming21.7e800 mLloyd Hahn1:51.4 Earl Fuller1:51.9eRay Watson1:52.3eJohn Sittig1:53.4e1500 mRay Conger3:55.0 Sid Robinson3:55.6eNick Carter3:55.8eOrval Martin3:55.9e5000 mLeo Lermond14:52.8Macauley Smith14:56eDavid Abbott14:56eCharles Haworth15:03e10,000 mJoie Ray31:28.4 ARJohn Romig120 yds bhVerne Booth10 yds bh2Johnny Zola90 yds bh33000 m William Spencer9:35.8Jesse Montgomery10 yds bhMelvin DaltonWalter Gegan110 m hurdlesSteve Anderson14.8 =WRJohn Collier14.8eLeighton Dye14.9eCarl Ring15.0e
In the 100 meters four roundsheats, quarterfinals, semi-finals and the final were run in the space of one afternoon. Frank Wykoff, an 18-year-old high schooler, outlasted his opponents, winning all four of his races in 10.6. Defending AAU champion Charley Borah retained his title in the 200 meters; Paddock and Scholz, who placed behind him, had both been among the world's top sprinters for almost a decade and qualified for their third Olympic Games. Roland Locke, who held the world record for 220 yards (20.6), lost the fourth Olympic spot to Cumming by inches. The Americans entered the Olympic short sprints with high hopes, but did not win any medals in either the 100 meters or the 200 meters; in the 4 × 100 meter relay, the American team (Wykoff, Borah, Russell and Jimmy Quinn) won gold in 41.0.
1924 Olympian Lloyd Hahn, who had won the 1928 AAU indoor title in a world best 1:51.4 (880 yards), reached the same time outdoors in the 800-meter final; his time was an outdoor world record, breaking Otto Peltzer's previous mark of 1:51.6, but was never officially ratified. In the 1500 meters, defending champion Ray Conger finished fast to set an American record of 3:55.0, with Robinson and Carter following; Orval Martin, who had been in the lead for much of the way, stumbled at the very end and dropped to fourth place. As Hahn was named to the team in this event as well, Martin missed out on an Olympic spot. In the long-distance races the American teams, while not world-beaters, were stronger timewise than the 1924 squad; Joie Ray, also entered in the marathon, set an American record in winning the 10,000 meters.
There were two high-profile falls in the 110 m hurdles. Hugo "Swede" Leistner, winner of the Pacific Tryouts, fell while leading his heat; Ross Nichols, who led the semi-finals with 14.8, fell while leading the final. Nichols hit the ninth hurdle and lost his balance; as a result, he crashed into the tenth hurdle, losing his chances of making the team. There was controversy as to whether the ninth hurdle had been misplaced, causing Nichols to trip; a meeting official stated the hurdle had been correctly positioned, and was only knocked out of position when Nichols hit it, but Nichols's supporters did not accept this explanation. Steve Anderson won, equaling Nichols's semi-final time of 14.8; both times also equaled the official world record, but were never ratified.
Field
EventFirstSecondThirdFourthHigh jumpBob King6 ft 5 in(1.96 m)Charles McGinnis6 ft 5 in(1.96 m)Harold Osborn6 ft 4 in(1.93 m)Ben Hedges6 ft 3 in(1.90 m)Pole vaultLee Barnes13 ft 9 in(4.19 m)Bill Droegemueller13 ft 9 in(4.19 m)Sabin Carr13 ft 9 in(4.19 m)Charles McGinnis13 ft 6 in(4.11 m)Long jumpEd Hamm25 ft in(7.90 m) WRAl Bates24 ft in(7.38 m)DeHart Hubbard23 ft in(7.30 m)Ed Gordon23 ft in(7.17 m)Triple jumpLevi Casey48 ft in(14.89 m)Sidney Bowman48 ft in(14.76 m)Bob Kelley47 ft in(14.60 m)Lloyd Bourgeois47 ft in(14.47 m)Shot putHerman Brix50 ft in(15.54 m)Harlow Rothert49 ft in(15.14 m)John Kuck49 ft in(15.05 m)Eric Krenz49 ft in(15.00 m)Discus throwBud Houser153 ft in(46.79 m)Fred Wiecker150 ft in(45.81 m)James Corson147 ft in(45.08 m)John Anderson145 ft 7 in(44.40 m)Hammer throwEd Black166 ft in(50.70 m)Ken Caskey162 ft in(49.62 m)Donald Gwinn161 ft in(49.17 m)Frank Conner159 ft in(48.63 m)Javelin throwCreth Hines202 ft in(61.60 m)Charles Harlow201 ft in(61.35 m)Arthur Sager200 ft 3 in(61.04 m)Lee Bartlett198 ft in(60.62 m)
In the high jump Bob King, who was both the defending AAU champion and the 1928 NCAA champion, defeated McGinnis in a jump-off to retain his AAU title; Osborn, who was the reigning Olympic champion and held the world record of 6 ft in (2.03 m), placed third. King went on to win gold at the Olympics, with Hedges taking the silver.
McGinnis also qualified in the pole vaulta double that has never been repeated sinceafter defeating Jack Williams in a jump-off for the final Olympic spot. Reigning Olympic champion Barnes won from Droegemueller and Carr in a competition with a deep high-quality field; the United States was the world's leading pole vault power. Carr, Droegemueller and McGinnis swept the medals in Amsterdam.
NCAA champion Ed Hamm dominated the long jump, improving Hubbard's world record of 25 ft in (7.89 m) by a fraction of an inch. In a rarity, three individual Olympic champions qualified for the American team in the same event; Hubbard had won Olympic gold in 1924, Hamm won in Amsterdam, and Gordon went on to win in 1932. In the triple jump Levi Casey won his third consecutive AAU title; he took silver in Amsterdam, the last American to medal in the triple jump until 1976.
In the shot put Herman Brix was the in-form man at the Olympic trials; defending AAU champion Kuck had unofficially broken the shot put world record earlier in 1928, but at the trials he only placed third. At the Olympics Kuck set an official world record, winning gold ahead of Brix. Bud Houser, the reigning Olympic champion in both the shot and the discus, concentrated on the latter event in 1928; he won at the trials and successfully defended his Olympic title in Amsterdam, with Corson taking the bronze. The failure of defending AAU champion Eric Krenz to qualify in the discus was a surprise; he made the Olympic team in the shot, but the discus was considered his better event. Some consideration was given by team selectors to adding Krenz in the discus team or moving Anderson to the shot with Krenz in the discus, but these ideas were rejected.