The Bridgeport evening farmer., 1912-10-16
CONNEFF COULD
 HAVE BEATEN ALL
 RUNNING RECORDS


 runner, Tom Connef, who was recent ly drowned in the Philippines, could at the time of his death have been the holder of about every worlds record from three-quarters of a mile to ten
 miles, had athletes been as keen on breaking records in the early nineties as they are at the present day.
 In August, 1895, Connen was groom ed to try for the mile record. which he clipped in the neatest possible man ner. As he was trained for that event by Mike Murphy, it is interesting to hear what the great trainer has to say about the man and the perfor- nance.
 s'Conneff was wonderful little when I was training the New York Athletic Club that I first got hold of him. sHe was in very bad shape then having just recovered from a severe attack of pneumonia As he regain ed his strength he began to show his true form, and then he came along so watches.
 ''In fact if we had been as anxious to make records in those days as we are, now, Conneff would have been the holder of about every worlds rec ord from three-quarters of mile to ten miles. I know Connef could have made all these records, because in his training he was continually doing mar vicious performances. of which even l never suspected he was capable. It was nothing unusual for him to run CnrOuSh a mile III 4 minutes, 10 S6C- onds, in his training. At such times he would go the first quarter in 57 sec onds, the half in 1 minute and 59 sec onds and the three-quarters in about 3 minutes and seconds
 After his running career was over ConneR joined the army, and at the tine tim ztb of bis death Tas sefgeant fs sad in a distance runner the world over and his mile record of minutes, 15 3-5 seconds, made at Travers Island in ocy ,fraY7- @arN[ until supplanted by John Paul Jones, who cut Conneff's mark fifth of a second at the, intercollegiate. games at Harvard on May 27, 1911.
 Abel Kiviat equal1ed Conneff's rec ord at the Eastern Olympic tryouts last June, but the little Irish runner
 while the other records were made on | a track four laps to the mile, and for
 this reason Conneff will. in the opin- ion of the experts, remain the one mile idol of the cinder path.
 ConneM was born at C1ane, County Kildare. Ireland, on Dec. TO- 1867. He l was feet 1-2, inches in height and weighed when in condition 133 pounds. He made his first appearance in an open half-mile handicap at C1ane in
 ogs Tipndng fba in forfIHe nTtes apd and | mark. After winning many races at various distances up to five miles the speedy runner made his first visit to America in January, 1888, and joined l the Manhattan A. C., which at that | time was considered the greatest rival
 of the New York q C. At the Yale
 meet held in February of that year he ran in the mile unplaced from scratch, but later in the season he polished off all the American cracks handily and returned to Ireland. In July, 1888, the Irish lad won the one-mile championship of England at Crewe, in 4 minutes, and 31 3-5 sec- onds, defeating Kibb1ewhite, Pollock, Hill and C.. H. Mabey, the British cracks. In the same month Conneff again beat Carter over five miles at Ballsbridge, Dublin, in 25 minutes and 24 seconds.
 Returning to New York, Conneff captured the national one-mile and fve-mile championships and also won
 the one and two-mfle championships of Canada. He continued to win about all his races in this country and returned to England in 1892, but could not get in condition and made a poor showing. The following year he To- cated in Worcester and came back in racing form in a manner that enabled him to make the remarkable perfor- nance of 4:17 4-5 for the one mile in big handicap meet held at Holmes Field, Cambridge, which, considering the great field he was forced to pick his way through, was considered a re- markable performance.