On October 18, 1964, four days after Billy Mills gave the United States its one and only 10,000-meter gold medal in Olympic history, Bob Schul of West Milton, Ohio came through with his own dramatic victory in Tokyo on a last-lap sprint to earn the only American Olympic 5,000-meter gold ever.

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Mills and Schul both ran down their rivals with furious finishing speed. But unlike the long-shot and little-known Mills, Schul was actually the Olympic favorite, based on an American 5,000-meter record, a world two-mile record, and an undefeated season in 1964. Unlike Mills, however, Schul is nowhere close to being a household name. He’s not even as renowned as the bronze medalist in that 5,000, Bill Dellinger, who went on to fame as a University of Oregon coach.

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“No other American had ever been favored in a distance race before,” Schul noted of that 1964 final. “That, in itself, made it big. I knew my body was in tremendous shape going into that race and I had done all the right things in 1964 to prepare for that race.” - via Runner's World

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Milton-Union XC hosts the Bob Schul Invitational annually on the 4th Saturday in August.  Learn more about the Bob Schul Invitational here.