Mike Slack- A Short Profile

Mike Slack in the glasses

Only once EVER has a sub-4 minute mile been ran on North Dakota soil. The man who did it was Mike Slack. In 1974 while competing unattached (he had ran for the NDSU cross country and track teams), he ran a 3:59.7 at the Bison Sports Arena in Fargo.
 http://www.gobison.com/sports/2013/3/9/586073399.aspx?path=mtrack

Researching a little bit about him, there is an interesting backstory (much like with any person).

Mike was from East St. Paul in the Twin Cities area and grew up into a major era of milers in Minnesota. While attending Harding High School, Slack got into cross country and track fairly late, not getting serious about running until his junior year. Gary Bjorkland was in high school the same time as Mike, and Slack took second to him on numerous occasions, one of which was Bjorkland's 4:05 high school state record performance. As far as I can glean, Slack had a high school PR of 4:12, which was not too shabby. Unfortunately he was still in Bjorkland's shadow, and that ended up being a theme throughout his career- generally running very fast, but others running faster.

While Bjorkland went to the University of Minnesota, Slack went to North Dakota State University, where he made a huge impact on the team and program. Under Hall-of-Fame Coach Roger Grooters, Slack flourished. Until the year 1973, there was no "D1, D2, and D3" national cross country championship races, but rather a college and a university division. In 1971 and 1972, he won the college division national championship as an individual, and in 1971 he took 3rd individual in the university division in a stacked race that included the likes of Steve Prefontaine (one of the most famous U.S. distance runners of all time), Gary Bjorkland, and Dave Wottle (future gold medalist in the 800 meters at the 1972 Munich Olympic Games).
http://www.trackandfieldnews.com/images/stories/NCAA_XC_PDFs/1971-men.pdf

He also won individual titles in the 1971 and 1972 NCC cross country championships, one of which NDSU won in 1971 (they also took second at nationals in the college division in 1971 and first in the college division in 1972). He went on to become a force in the 3-mile and 6-mile (precursors to the 5k and 10k) races, being D-II All-Americans in both. He later tried marathons, which he had trouble finishing, but was routinely WAY ahead of his competitors before having to drop out. Even more, for a short time he had the American record in the 20k at 59:58.

Not bad for a miler.

The real talent of Mike Slack was found on the track. After Slack graduated, he became one of the U.S.A.'s best milers. Proving his leg speed, he was able to run mid-to-high 1:40s for the 800, and sub-4 in the mile. His biggest breakthrough came a year after finishing up at NDSU, when he ran the 3:59.7 mile at the indoor track in Fargo. A week later he ran 3:58 in Houston, which allowed him to start being invited to bigger and better meets. Eventually he ran in races for the U.S.A in Europe, and in 1977 at an AAU meet, he ran a 3:37 in the 1500 for third place (3:37 converts to roughly a 3:55 mile). Slack was known to train with Bjorkland in the Twin Cities, where they had a running store. They were known to run lots of miles and generally hammer out workouts and easy runs alike. They went to races all over the midwest, dusting anybody that showed up to race. It was some of the fasting racing from Minnesota both before and after they ran.

After the stopping the big-time running scene due to injuries, Slack worked in business for a while and ultimately ended up in Leadville, Colorado, where he coached high school cross county. For the purposes of this blog, the main point is that he is still the faster miler in the state of North Dakota ever. He can say that no person has ever ran 8 laps around an indoor track in North Dakota faster than him. Some would say that the 70s and 80s were the prime-time for distance running in this area. There may be some legitimacy to that, and the evidence begins with great milers like Mike Slack, 45 years ago.

Links I used to help me:
http://downthebackstretch.blogspot.com/2014/05/mike-slack-takes-on-all-challenges-big.html
http://www.letsrun.com/forum/flat_read.php?thread=364406&page=0
http://www.letsrun.com/forum/flat_read.php?thread=3918766&page=0
http://www.gobison.com/hof.aspx?hof=177&path=&kiosk=
http://www.gobison.com/hof.aspx?hof=142&path=&kiosk=

Feel free to correct me or add anything!