V 2 N. 145 Ernie Cunliffe R.I.P.

 

 Ernie Cunliffe,  Stanford

USA 800 Meters, Rome 1960

World Record 1000 Yards

Yesterday, Saturday June 6, 2026, my friend Ernie Cunliffe passed away.  He died peacefully after a long race with cancer.  He was a middle distance runner by trade, but he proved his ability to go long distance as well.   I'd been communicating with Ernie by phone for the past few months knowing that this last race he was in would soon have an ending, but he kept kicking the finish line out a bit further each day.  He knew he was in his last race, but a lifetime of competitiveness kept a spark of intensity ignited right down to the last steps.  

If you got to know Ernie, you would find out that running was not his only passion.  He spent a lot of time in the mountains of Colorado on multiple expeditions, and I believe he summited all of the 14,000 foot peaks in that state.  I got to know Ernie by passing on my knowledge of going up Mt. Kilimanjaro, a trip he was planning to do with his son about 25 years ago.  I knew it would be a challenge even for a very fit person like Ernie, because of the scarcity of oxygen once you pass 14,000 feet, and that mountain was 19,380 feet.  Not high like Mt. Everest at 29,000 feet, but the Kilimanjaro trip is fast.  You have very little time to acclimate as you go up in 4 to 5 days starting at 3,000 feet, and the time frame is hardly sufficient to make it an easy hike.  Fast and oxygen debt are key words here and Ernie was more than used to being fast and in oxygen debt in his races.  

Ernie may be more famous not from his being on the 1960 Olympic team, but from a second place finish in Eugene, Oregon.  In that dual meet with the U. of O and Ernie running for Stanford, led Dyrol Burleson down to the last 100 yards in the first ever sub-four-minute mile at Hayward Field.  In fact Burleson was only the second American after Don Bowden to break four minutes.   I think it was the first all college race in the US that went under four minutes. Bowden's race was in a Pacific AAU meet.  The picture above shows Ernie and Burleson probably on the second or third lap of that race.  Afterwards Burly credited Ernie with his sub four saying he did the brunt of the work getting to that last 100 yards, and that he could not have done it without Ernie setting the pace.  Ernie did not get under four minutes that day, and he never did it in a later race.  He went back to his preferred races of the 880 and 1000 yards.

  This is the better known photo of that first sub-four mile in collegiate and Oregon history as Dyrol passes Ernie coming off that last turn.   Burleson was timed at 3:58.6 and Ernie was 4:00.5.

Interestingly I met Ernie not through this blog but having known his sister Barbara Singleton who lived in Yellow Springs, Ohio near Dayton where I was living.  We connected through a group of ex Peace Corps volunteers.  She came to one of our gatherings.  She wasn't a former volunteer but she was definitely a world traveller and was interested to hear our stories and share hers.  It was several years before I ever learned that she had a brother who ran in the Olympics.  I was of course stunned to find out, because Ernie had been one of my heroes when I was running in high school.  I even wrote to his coach Payton Jordan at Stanford to inquire about going to school there someday.  Unfortunately my ACT scores weren't quite up to getting accepted.  But I did have a track brochure with a picture of Ernie and Jordan.  I distinctly remember the photo below from that brochure.

Photo from Stanford track brochure

When Barbara's husband passed away in the early 1990's Ernie came to the funeral in Ohio and we met on that occasion.  We had already exchanged a few emails, but meeting in person was one of the meaningful moments in my life may have inspired  beginning this blog.  We talked with great intensity for over an hour and may have forgotten we were there for a funeral of his brother-in-law.  

After his collegiate career was over Ernie joined the Air Force and ran some races in Europe and North Africa in CISM (Conseil de Sport Militaire)  competitions between national military teams.  He knew my college coach Bill Carroll from the University of Oklahoma, because Bill had coached one of those US military teams.  One humorous aspect of those days was when an American general in Europe decided to put on a display of American sports might to impress a visiting Soviet delegation in Germany in the 1960's at the height of the Cold War.  The general ordered construction of a small stadium with an American football field and recruited/assigned/ordered any American service member with collegiate football experience to be there at a certain date to play an American football game for the Russians.  The general also decided a track meet might be more to the Russian's liking, so a track was included around the football field.  Ernie at the time was on tour in Europe with several other US military track guys.  They were about to go home on a military plane.  But the flight was cancelled and they were told they were going on a secret mission, put on another plane, and flown at night wearing parachutes not knowing their destination or if they were going  to be dropped into Eastern Europe on some mission.  .  What were the parachutes for?  Anyway the plane lands and they were told they were to run a race for the visiting Russians. Ernie was in no mood to be a performing seal and told them he had pulled a muscle and was excused.  

Another one of Ernie's assignments in the Air Force was as an ROTC (Reserve Officers Training Corps) instructor at the University of Oregon.  In those days he connected with Coach Bill Bowerman.  I don't think he was running competitively by that time but he does appear in Kenny Moore's book  "Bowermen and the Men of Oregon".   

In the photo collection in the book there is a picture of Bill Bowerman leading a group of adults on a trail run.  Ernie though not clear in this copy is the guy right behind Bowerman.  The photo spans two pages in the book and he his right near the center and the scanner does not pick up his face very clearly.

Of course being on the Olympic team in 1960 as member of the US 800 meters contingent was a highlight of Ernie's career, but also one of disappointment.  In those days only six men got into the final.  And what Ernie felt cost both him and Tom Murphy was their lack of preparedness for running two prelims in one day.  He felt that neither of them had the endurance for that kind of qualifying process.

So in conclusion,  I know I was really honored to have met Ernie and been able to share stories and some tall tales with him.  There's a lot I haven't said, including the days that he was the coach at the US Air Force Academy or his world record in the 1000 yards, or the WR in the 4x800.   What I will leave you with is a link to all the stories I did include with him or he shared with me in the blog  Once Upon a Time in the Vest.  Much of it has nothing to do with track and field, including the first article that appears talking about his hiking and climbing days in the Rockies and Sierra Nevadas.   There is also mention of his world record race in the 1000 yards in Boston.  When you open the link, you can just keep scrolling down through all the articles where he is mentioned. They appear one after the other.

Good race, Ernie.

George

Ernie Cunliffe Stories on the Blog  link

Comments:

Thank you for letting us know. 

In the 1970s. Ernie and I were both at the Air Force Academy and frequently took a lunch time run together, typically 5 to 7 miles.  While I was concentrating on getting enough of the thin Colorado O2 Ernie was hardly working and telling me wonderful stories of his many running experiences.  It was such a fun time!

When we were about a mile or so from the end of the run he would change gears and leave me in the dust.  

In those years when I know he was only running 35 or 40 (slow) miles a week with me he would run a marathon in the mid 2:40s!  He ran a Boston Marathon just under 3 hours and had not run a step during the entire month before.  

John Epperson

That's a new one.  I didn't know Ernie was doing marathons.  George

Thanks for the notice George. We were in Rome together and I always thought Ernie a regular guy. Ernie R.I.P.

My best,

Earl Young

may Ernie rest in peace.   Dr. John Telford

I don't recall ever meeting Ernie,  but I much admired him.  I never wish that a person "rest in peace."  I hope he remains as active as he once was. 

 

Mike Tymn