The UVM Varsity Track & Field Team was established one hundred years ago, in the Fall of 1901.

THE ARIEL, 1914.

Albert Lovejoy Gutterson

Winner of Olympic Broad Jump

A. L. Gutterson was born in Andover, Vermont. His early life was much the same as that of any other young Vermont boy. He was brought up on a farm and attended district school until 1903, when his parents moved to Springfield, Vt. In the Fall of that year he entered the Springfield High School from which he graduated four years later. The High School was very much interested in track work and every year they sent a team to Claremont, NH, to compete in the Green Mountain Interscholastic Athletic Association Meet. The boys used to do most of their training on school grounds. Gutterson, owing to his modesty and bashfulness, did not go out for the team until about two weeks before the meet, but finally when there was no one around except two of his friends he tried the high jump. He was so successful that the captain was told about him and from that time he became a member of the team. In his first meet he tied for third with a jump of 4 feet 11 inches. They tossed for the medal and Gutterson lost. His Sophomore year he improved and won second place in the high jump, 5 feet 1 inch. His junior year he took first place with a jump of 5 feet 2 inches, and also first in the discus, throwing it 84 feet. His senior year he starred, figuring in many events. He won first in the high jump, making a new record of 5 feet 8 1/4 inches, which still stands; second in the discuss throw, 104 feet; second in the broad jump, 20 feet 1/2 inch; third in the 220-yard dash.

Besides participating in track work he was active in other branches of athletics. He played two years on the basketball team and played first base, pitcher and catcher on the baseball team.

In high school he was very popular; his last three years he was president of his class; his last two years he was captain of track, and his last year he was captain of his basketball team.

After being graduated from High School he worked a year and entered the University of Vermont in the Fall of 1908. Here he had no difficulty in making good his freshman year. He was substitute on the relay teams. The following Spring in a meet with St. Lawrence University he won both hurdle races and the broad jump, 22 feet 2 inches. He was second in the high jump and 220-yard dash. In his meet he sprained his ankle and was unable to enter the New England Intercollegiate Meet.

His Sophomore year he made the relay team. In a meet with The University of Maine he captured five first places and a third. At the New England Intercollegiate Meet he suprised friends by jumping 23 feet 5/8 inches, winning first place. In the same meet he was third in the low hurdles. This same year, at the meet given by the New England Amateur Athletic Union, he won the low hurdles, defeating George Chisholms of Yale, who was Yale's crack hurdler.

His Junior year he was elected Captain of the team. He won six firsts and a second in a meet with Maine; four firsts in a meet with Colgate; two firsts and a third at the N.E.I.A.A. Meet. In this meet he made a new record of 24 3/5 seconds in the low hurdles and took first in the broad jump, 23 feet 1 3/8 inches. At the N.E.I.A.A. Meet held at Boston, he won two firsts, making a new record in the broad jump 23 feet 5 1/2 inches. At the National Championship Meet of the A.A.U., held at Pittsburgh, PA., he was defeated in the low hurdles by Jack Eller of New York. This race was run on a curve and Eller equaled the world's record for hurdles on a curve. He beat Gutterson by half a yard.

His Senior year Gutterson was re-elected Captain. A great part of his last year he was disabled and so did not take a very active part in Vermont's two dual track meets; in a meet with Colgate he took first in the broad jump, 22 feet 6 3/5 inches, first in the 220-yard dash in 22 1/5 seconds, and third in the 100-yard dash; in a meet with M.A.C. he took first in the discus throw, 106.3 feet, and third in the shotput. At the New England Intercollegiate Meet at Springfield Mass., he won the broad jump and made a new record of 23 feet 5 3/4 inches. At an intercollegiate meet at Philadelphia, Gutterson took first place in the broad jump, 24 feet 3/8 inch. His nearest opponent was 2 feet 3 inches behind him. This remarkable feat was accomplished in a downpour of rain and on a drenched track. How far he would have gone on a fair day may perhaps be estimated when it is known that Wasson, winner of second place, is a 23-foot man and was able to make but 21 feet 9 inches. The newspapers characterized Gutterson's work as by far the best exhibition of jumping ever seen in this country. He made six jumps and each one exceeded 23 feet 5 inches.

In the Olympic games at Stockholm, Sweden, Gutterson won the broad jump with a new Olympic record of 24 feet 11 1/2 inches, one quarter of an inch below the World's record.  He was the only American to score in this event.

At present Gutterson holds a number of records, the greatest of which are:

       New England I. A. A. Broad Jump, 23 feet 7 1/2 inches

       New England I. A. A. Low Hurdles, 24 3/5 seconds

       New England A. A. U. Broad Jump, 23 feet 5 3/4 inches

       Olympic Broad Jump, 24 feet 11 1/2 inches

He holds eighty-one medals and more than three quarters of them are for first place.