death_date death_place birth_place nationality team sport birth_date article_title name collegeteam
20 march 2012 fishers , indiana detroit , michigan american wayne state university hurdles 30 march 1918 allen tolmich
 allen tolmich wayne state university
allen tolmich

allen tolmich -lrb- march 30 , 1918 -- march 20 , 2012 -rrb- was a track and field athlete .
tolmich was born in detroit , michigan , and is jewish .
he attended wayne state university , joined its track team as a walk-on in 1934 , and was captain of it in 1936 to 1937 .
he was an all american from 1937 -- 41 , and a national amateur athletic union -lrb- aau -rrb- champion in 1937 , 1939 , 1940 , and 1941 .
between 1936 and 1941 , he set 10 world and united states indoor track and field records , including the 60-yard hurdles , 110-meter hurdles , and 120-yard hurdles , and tied 5 of them .
he was a national aau champion in 1937 , 1939 , 1940 and 1941 .
while at wayne state , in 1937 he twice broke the world record in the 200 meter hurdles at the aau championships -lrb- running it in 23.4 seconds and 23.3 seconds , on july 3 -rrb- , and won the national 110 meter high hurdles .
in 1939 , he won the aau national indoor 65-meter hurdles in 8.4 seconds .
in 1940 , he set a new world record in the indoor 60-yard hurdles at madison square garden , at 8.4 seconds , breaking his own record by .01 seconds , as well as setting world records in indoor 50 low hurdles -lrb- 6.0 seconds -rrb- and the 70 high hurdles -lrb- 8.4 seconds -rrb- .
in 1941 , he set a new world record -lrb- 5.4 seconds -rrb- in the indoor 45 low hurdles , breaking a 40-year-old record , and tied the world record in the 45 high hurdles -lrb- 5.6 seconds -rrb- .
in august 1942 , he was commissioned as a lieutenant in the army air force , as world war ii began to involve the united states .
in 1976 , tolmich was inducted into the inaugural class of the wayne state university sports hall of fame .
he was also inducted into the michigan jewish sports hall of fame in 1999 , and into the international jewish sports hall of fame in 2002 .
