As an 18 year-old schoolboy Cawley became the only man ever to be
a finalist in all three hurdle events (110m/200m/400m) at the US
Championships. His talent over 400m hurdles came to the fore five
years later, as he broke the world record in the US Trials with 49.1 a
month before Tokyo. Only Cawley - 50.8 (50.88) - and John Cooper -
50.5 (50.58) broke 51 seconds in the heats. These two were the semi-
final winners, Cooper in 50.40 just ahead of Luck 50.4 (50.43) and
Morale 50.4 (50.48), and Cawley in 49.8 (49.89) in front of Frinolli -
50.2 (50.28). The surprise of the semis was the elimination of Billy
Hardin, the US Champion and son of Glenn, who hit the 10th hurdle
when in fourth place, and slipped back to sixth.
Frinolli led the field for the first half of the final, as he had done in
his semi, with Morale in second place. Cawley pushed hard from the
seventh hurdle, caught Frinolli at the ninth, and went away to a com-
fortable win. Behind him, Luck caught Frinolli at the 10th hurdle, but
hit it, and Morale, Cooper and Knoke went by, with Cooper’s strength
telling at the finish. Three of the 1960-64 medallists died prematurely,
Cushman in Vietnam in 1966, Howard from a drugs overdose in 1967,
and Cooper in the 1974 Paris air crash which killed 346.
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