Ben Eastman was the premier quarter and half-miler for The Olympic Club during the early 1930s. He attended Stanford University, running under the tutelage of The Olympic Club and Stanford coaching legend, Dink Templeton. In the spring of 1932, he made arguably the most impressive performance of his career, posting a 46.4 time to eclipse the world 440-yard record, which he already shared, by an entire second. Eastman followed this performance in June by posting two world records in a single run: a 1:50.9 for the 880y, which was timed en-route at 1:50.0 for 800m. Eastman’s accomplishments earned him an appearance on the cover of the July 11, 1932 Time magazine in the run up to the 1932 Los Angeles Olympiad.
Though he qualified, Eastman declined to run the 800m during the Olympic Games on the advice of Coach Templeton, who determined that the program for the two events, which included seven races in five days, would be too grueling. Eastman focused instead on the 400m, which pitted him against rival Bill Carr from the University of Pennsylvania. Carr, a strong closer, had passed him to win three big 400m races earlier in the year. The race, and the rivalry, captured the attention of the track world.
70,000 attended the 400m final at the Los Angeles Coliseum, during which Eastman ran out to an early lead and led the race by at least three meters into the home stretch. As was Carr’s style, he ran down Eastman in the final few strides to break Eastman’s world record and claim the gold medal, running 46.2 to Eastman’s 46.4. Eastman won the silver medal.
Eastman continued to run for several years after the 1932 Olympics, mostly at longer distances. In 1933, he set world indoor records for 500 meters at 1:02.0 and the 600-yard dash at 1:09.2 and won the 800m at the AAU Nationals. In the spring of 1934, Eastman bested the world record mark in the 880 at the Fresno relays with a time of 1:51.3. Later that summer, Ben again beat his own world record, shattering the mark at the Princeton meet with a time of 1:49.8.
In all, between 1931 and 1934, Eastman set world records at six distances. After his athletic career ended, Eastman worked in San Francisco and New York before moving to western Colorado to own and operate an orchard. Eastman was married for 63 years, had three sons (Ben Jr., Gary and Peter), seven grandchildren and four great-grandchildren. He died in 2002 in Hotchkiss, Colorado. He was previously inducted into the Stanford Athletic Hall of Fame and the U.S.A. Track and Field Hall of Fame.
