By Robert Marchetti
Mercer County Track & Field Hall of Fame

An Unexpected Beginning

The newspapers had gotten his initials wrong. In the aftermath of his most impressive high school athletic accomplishment, The Illustrated Sporting News reported his name as “J.H. Whiteley”. The same mistake was reprinted in The Lawrence newspaper in Mercer County NJ where he was enrolled as a student at Lawrenceville Prep. Perhaps that was understandable, because up until that point in his extremely short running career there were no indicators that the boy’s name would deserve to be memorable. His rise to national prominence arrived suddenly.

His name was actually “G.H. Whiteley”, short for George Henry Whiteley Jr. He unexpectedly made nationwide news in 1906 for setting a world scholastic record in the half-mile run. Whiteley covered the 880 yards distance in a time of 1 minute 57 and 2/5 seconds at the Middle States Championship held in Philadelphia on May 19th of that year. (The newspapers at least did get his time right.)

Whiteley not only topped the previous scholastic record set by The Pingry School’s Herbert E. Manvel in 1897, he also posted a time better than all US collegiate runners of that year. The Philadelphia Inquirer described Whiteley’s record shattering effort at Franklin Field as the “greatest race of the day” and his mark was so fast that even after it was broken nationally, it remained the Lawrenceville Prep record for decades.

What made Whiteley’s record even more remarkable was that he had only started running a few months before. Up until then he was a self-described baseball guy. He had not thought to be a runner until a roommate at Lawrenceville persuaded him to give it a try. Very soon it would be made clear that Whiteley was a natural running talent.

In later years Whiteley claimed to have broken the half-mile record in only his second time ever running the distance. However The Lawrence’s post-season review on G.H.’s schedule of races in the spring of 1906 reveals that he actually set the record on his 4th attempt.

In his second half-miler of the season he suffered a loss, placing 2nd on April 21st 1906 at Princeton, by finishing runner-up to Tom Hughes of Mercersburg Academy. In that race Hughes himself nearly broke the 1897 record of 1:59 & 3/5 seconds, missing it by a fifth of a second with a 1:59 & 4/5 for the win. Perhaps the fast pace taught Whiteley a thing or two about high level running.

Whiteley would avenge that loss a month later when he broke the record in Philly. With Hughes also in the field, Whiteley took the lead from the start. He led wire to wire and crossed the finish line leaving Hughes a distant third and Halliday of The Hill School at runner-up. Some reports claim Whiteley won by twenty yards, others claim thirty. He hadn’t just taken the old record down by a sliver. He had murdered it by over 2 seconds.

The 18 year old Whiteley’s result was phenomenal when put in the perspective of the times. With his 1:57 2/5 he had run only one second slower than 22 year old Jim Lightbody’s winning time at the 1904 Olympic Games in St. Louis two years before. He had also run a better time than the senior mens’ 1905 AAU National Champion the previous season. Such a colossal record was Whiteley’s that it would take over a half of a century until another student at Lawrenceville Prep would run faster in the half mile.

In 1906 there was not yet an NJSIAA federation to hold an official NJ state meet. So the Middle States Championship was a final exclamation point on a short high school career that abruptly rose up and put him into the limelight. In just 4 meets he became the fastest 880 runner in high school history, and faster than any half miler at any university he could attend.

The Ups and Downs of Being a Tiger

After graduating from Lawrenceville Prep, Whiteley chose to enter Princeton University in the fall of 1906. He ran on the cross-country team, and soon became the Tigers’ #1 harrier. He won cross-country duals, covered 6.5 mile courses in the 35 minute range, and by 1907 finished 4th place at the Inter-Collegiate Cross-Country Championships with a time of 35:22.

Of course, Whiteley also ran track at Princeton, and by the 1908 college season he put up the best collegiate time in the country for the half mile.

He had mastered the art of winning as well. Besides the 1906 loss to Hughes in his 2nd half mile race ever, he had not lost another race at that distance though April of 1908.

Whiteley’s 880 Yard win streak would continue as he won the event again in early May of 1908. On the 10th he took 1st against Yale in a dual meet. However the box score shows his winning time to be a surprisingly slow 2:01 4/5. The reason being that he had stepped in a hole in the track and injured his ankle during the race—damaging a tendon.

In the early 1900s, blocks hadn’t been invented yet. Sprinters had to dig holes in the cinder tracks to achieve better footing for their starts. Prior to Whiteley’s race, the holes needed to be re-filled after a sprint race had concluded. Unfortunately no one had done so that day.

The hole G.H. stepped into caused him to stumble. He was able to regain his balance and gut out the win, but was left seriously hurt. His season was over.

This was a blow not only to Whiteley himself, but to the United States National Team as well. Whiteley was a favorite to represent the US at the 1908 Olympic Games in London. The injury was so severe that he had to pull out of the Olympic Trials held in June of 1908 in Philadelphia.

*The Gazette. York, Pennsylvania · Sunday, June 07, 1908*

It was a shame Whiteley didn’t have the opportunity to compete at the Olympics. His times were world class and his abilities at racing would have held up well at the London Games. Of all the prelim races to get into the Olympic finals not one of them was run faster than Whiteley’s personal best, with most being considerably slower. In the Olympic finals Mel Sheppard of the United States took gold with a world record 1:52.8.

All was not lost for Lawrenceville fans though. Whiteley’s former Lawrenceville Prep teammate J.A. Rector did in fact make the Olympic team and won a silver medal at the games in the 100 meters.

Comeback Kid

The ankle took a long time to heal. According to Whiteley himself, he was out of running for two years because of it. This wasn’t true, but perhaps he wanted to forget the 1909 season. He might have understandably blocked it out of his memory. His 1909 times weren’t what they were the previous year. He lost his win streak. He failed to win a major championship.

By 1910 Whiteley had rehabbed fully. During his last spring season at Princeton he was able to achieve his all-time personal best of 1:56 1/2 in a dual meet vs Cornell. That time returned him to the top of the college rankings.

In May of 1910 Whiteley won the greatest championship of his career. He ran a 1:57.0 to take 1st at the IC4A Championships—the college national championships of his day. His time was the fourth fastest in the history of the meet. It was also 2.2 seconds faster than former world record holder Walter Dohm’s time when he won the IC4A as a Princeton athlete back in 1890.

Then… it was over. Whiteley retired from running. Maybe the 1912 Olympics were just too far away. Or maybe as a graduate of one of the most prestigious universities in the world, he wanted to take on a new challenge in the business world.

The Next Chapter

Whiteley’s father had started a dental supply company in 1899 in New York City. In 1911 after Princeton, G.H. joined up with his father’s company: Dentsply International Incorporated. It grew into the world’s largest manufacturer of artificial tooth products. Whiteley eventually became president of the company by 1949 and chairman of the board in 1955. He personally held a US patent in the area of artificial tooth technology.

Whiteley also was active in civic affairs serving on multiple boards for banks, libraries and the YMCA. His company donated money toward education, in particular for York County Day School in York Pennsylvania where he eventually settled down.

The Record that Wouldn’t Fall

By 1912 Teddy Meredith of Mercersburg Academy in PA had taken the scholastic world record down to 1:55. The summer after Meredith graduated high school he won Olympic gold in the 800 meters (4 meters shorter than the half mile) in a world record 1:51.9.

As the years went on however, one mark remained. Whiteley’s 1906 time continued as the school record at Lawrenceville Prep. By 1956 his record had hit the 50 year mark.

By the late 1950s Ed Poreda took over as head coach at Lawrenceville. Poreda himself was a sub 2 minute half miler who had won 2 state championships for Trenton Central in 1943 & 1944. With Poreda’s experience the athletes at the storied track school were sure to benefit in middle distance training. But despite Poreda’s excellent coaching, the 1960s arrived and Whiteley’s school record stubbornly remained.

In 1964 Lawrenceville Prep’s Tom Callahan ran 1:55.4 at the NJ Prep State Championships to become the fastest half miler in the history of the school. His time was 2 seconds faster than Whiteley. The problem however was that it was at the indoor state meet. Whiteley’s was an outdoor mark set in the spring season.

A few months later the official record finally fell to Callahan. The record breaking event occurred in the spring of ’64 at an outdoor dual meet against The Hill School with Callahan running 1:56. He soon topped that mark at the 1964 NJ Prep State Meet, posting a 1:55.8 to win the spring state championship.

By comparison, Callahan’s title as the fastest in school history wouldn’t last nearly as long as Whiteley’s did. His #1 status ended after 9 years when future Mercer Track Hall of Famer Merrell Noden hit a 1:54 in 1973 to take over the top spot in the Lawrenceville record book.

The Legacy

George Henry Whiteley Jr passed away at 86 years old in 1973. He was survived by his wife and four children.

Whiteley’s track career ended as abruptly as it started. From the first time he took to a starting line to the last time he crossed a finish was a total of only 4 years plus 3 months.

*Whiteley at age 67 holding the bib number he wore when he set his high school record.*

Whiteley ran in the days where the tracks were dirt or cinder, where equipment was crude, and training wasn’t as advanced. Yet the record time he ran at Lawrence Prep would still be relevant today. His 1 min 57.4 seconds as a high schooler would have won the last 3 NJ Prep A State Championships—from 2023-2025. One wonders what times athletes from his era would have run if they had access to better surfaces, with better shoes.

He did have the following advice for young runners well after his athletic days had ended. He said, "If you want to do a good job, train conscientiously, take your work seriously, and don't break training. Diligence will ultimately pay off."

Visit Historical Era Biographies to learn more about some of the best Mercer County track & field athletes from the pre-1960 era.

The Unlikely Career of G.H. Whiteley