The mile was billed as the biggest track event of the season, a duel at Modesto, Calif, between Australia's Herb Elliott, the best in the world, and lanky Dyrol Burleson, the best in the U.S. But five minutes before starting time Elliott withdrew because of a strained knee tendon, and suddenly Burleson was left with no one to whip but a bunch of also-rans, including a distance runner named Jim Beatty, 25, who felt so out of place in the event that he frankly said: "I'm no miler."
Aiming at the 5,000 meters in the Olympics, Beatty had left North Carolina last...
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