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Glenn Cunningham was born on August 4, 1909, in Atlanta, Kansas. He overcame a near-crippling childhood accident to become one of the world's leading track and field athletes during the 1930s. An Elkhart, Kansas, schoolhouse fire left him at age seven unable to walk for nearly six weeks. After regaining his ambulatory ability, Cunningham began running to strengthen his badly scarred legs. In 1930 he was the nation's premier high school mile runner, winning state and national titles, establishing a national high school mile record of 4:24.7, and earning a scholarship to the University of Kansas.
In 1932 Cunningham won the first of three
consecutive indoor and outdoor Big 6 (now
Big 12) Conference mile championships and
the National Collegiate Athletic Association
(NCAA) 1500-meter title. He finished fourth in
the 1500 meters in the Olympic Games in Los
Angeles, California. As the 1933 champion
in the ncaa mile and the Amateur Athletic
Union (AAU) 800 and 1500 meters, he received
the Sullivan Award as the nation's top amateur
athlete. In 1934 Cunningham established an
outdoor world record of 4:06.7 for the mile
and won the aau indoor 1500-meter title. He
won the aau indoor 1500-meter title again in
1935, 1938, and 1939. In 1935 Cunningham established
an indoor world record of 3:50.5 for
1500 meters and secured the first of four consecutive
AAU titles in the 1500 meters outdoors.
In addition to winning the silver medal
in the 1936 Olympic Games in Berlin, he established
an outdoor world record of 1:49.7
for the 800 meters.
Educated at the University of Kansas (bachelor
of arts, 1934), the University of Iowa (master
of arts, 1936), and New York University (doctorate,
1938), Cunningham later served as the director
of physical education at Cornell College in
Mount Vernon, Iowa. After a stint in the navy
during World War II, he married Ruth Sheffield
in 1947 and established the Glenn Cunningham
Youth Ranch for orphans, juvenile delinquents,
and underprivileged youths near Burns, Kansas,
and later Augusta, Kansas. Cunningham financed
the ranch entirely through his income as
an inspirational speaker. He died on March 10,
1988, of a heart attack less than two weeks after
participating in a relay race of former champions
at the 100th anniversary of the AAU indoor
track and field championships.