GLENN CUNNINGHAM

Glenn Cunningham was a American distance runner and an athlete considered by many the greatest American miler of all time. He even won the James E. Sullivan award in the top amateur athlete in the United States in 1933. He was born in Atlanta, Kansas but grew up in Elkhart, Kansas to henry Clinton Cunningham and Rosa Agnes Cunningham. Cunningham was nicknamed the “Kansas Flyer “ the “ Elkhart Express “ and the “ iron horse of Kansas.”  His legs very bad burned in an explosion causes when someone put gasoline instead of kerosene in the can at his school house by accident when he was eight. His brother Floyd was thirteen. Floyd died in the fire. When the doctors recommended amputating glens legs, he was distressed his parents would not allow it. The doctors predicted he might never walk normally again.

He lost the flesh on his knees and shins and all the toes on his left foot. He transverse arch was practically destroyed. However, his great determination, coupled with hours upon hours of a new type of therapy, enabled him to gradually regain the ability to walk and to proceed to run. It was in the early summer of 1919 when he first tried  to walk again. Roughly two years after the accident. He had a positive attitude as well as a strong religious faith. His favorite bible verse was  Isaiah 40;31: “ but those who wait on the lord shall renew their strength. They shall mount up with wings like eagles, they shall run and not be weary, they shall walk around and not faint.

Cunningham won the Sullivan medal in 1933 for his various running achievements in middle distance. In 1932 Olympics he took 4^th place in the 1500 m. and in 1936 berlin Olympics, he took silver in the 1500 meters.