The First Men's Championship Race
(1912)

 

NEICAAA Men’s XC Championships
November 16, 1912
Larz Anderson Park, Brookline, MA
45 Finishers

Some twenty-five years after hosting their first outdoor championships in 1887, the New England Intercollegiate Amateur Athletic Association (NEICAAA) hosted their first cross country championships at Larz Anderson Park in Brookline, Ma. on November 16, 1912 A total of seven New England schools answered the call to the 4.6 mile “Over Hill and Dale” challenge in mid-November. The spectator-friendly course began and finished at Technology Field (MIT), but encompassed much of Larz Anderson Park in Brookline and the area of Jamaica Pond. The course décor consisted of long straightaways, hard road, challenging short, steep hills, rough field marsh and meadows that greeted the entrants. Following a highly successful performance at the Stockholm Olympic Games in the Summer of 1912, between his junior and senior year, Brown University senior Norman S. Taber was crowned the first NEICAAA Cross Country champion that Fall, defeating a field of 45 contestants. Taber, who won a Bronze medal (1500 meters) and Gold (3000meter team race) at the Olympic Games, won with a time of 25:31.2, defeating runner-up H.T. Ball of Dartmouth by over six seconds. Post collegiately, Taber would go on to set the world record in the mile of 4:12 3/5 at Harvard on July 16, 1915. Behind Ball, Dartmouth runners finished 3-4-5 and 21st to capture the team title over Brown, 35-50. Massachusetts Institute of Technology finished third with 82 points.