Frank Shorter

Inducted 1976

Born 31 October 1947

There were three important events in Frank Shorter's running career that happened during his senior year at Yale: he made the 1968 NCAA All-American cross-country team, he won the 1969 NCAA six-mile title, and he lost the open two-mile at the 1969 Florida Relays. As a result of the latter race, he met Jack Bachelor and was impressed by the possibilities for training in Florida. Upon the conclusion of his athletic tenure at Yale he joined the Florida Track Club and eventually became a Gainesville resident, entering the University of Florida Law School in March 1971. Running for the Florida Track Club, Shorter won national AAU titles in the indoor three-mile (1970, 1974), outdoor three mile (1970), outdoor six mile (1970, 1971), outdoor 10,000m (1974, 1975), and cross country (1970, 1971, 1972, 1973), and was the Pan-American Games 10,000m champion in 1971.

In 1971 Shorter took up the Marathon, finishing second in the AAU championships. From there he went on to win the 1971 Pan-American Games Marathon. He was also a champion for four years straight (1971-1974) at the Fukuoka Marathon, regarded by some as the unoffical Marathon world championship.

Running for the United States at the 1972 Olympics in Munich, Shorter first placed fifth in the 10,000m run and then came back to win the gold medal in the Marathon with a first-place 2:12:19.8. Shorter returned to the Marathon later in 1972 to post a winning 2:10:30 at Fukuoka, his career best. 1972 was also the year that Shorter was chosen as winner of the Sullivan Award as the top amateur athlete in the United States. Shorter's Olympic achievements did not end with Munich--in 1976 he placed second at the Olympic Marathon in Montreal, catpuring a silver medal and becoming one of a very few athletes to win two Olympic medals in the Marathon.