Robert Simpson

Robert Simpson (Robert Ingalls Simpson; born May 25, 1892) was an American hurdler and track and field coach who held the world record in the 120-yard high hurdles at 14.6 seconds and won two gold medals at the 1919 Inter-Allied Games. A USA Track & Field Hall of Famer from Bosworth, Missouri, he competed for the University of Missouri and later served as the school's head track coach from 1920 to 1926.¹

Early career

At the University of Missouri he developed into one of the school's finest athletes, and in 1917 he also won the Missouri Valley Conference long jump at 23 ft 3.75 in (7.10 m).⁶

His first brush with the world record came in 1915. At the Missouri Valley Conference meet at Rollins Field on May 29, 1915, he won the high hurdles in 15.0, equaling the world record held by Fred Kelly, the 1912 Olympic champion, and he repeated the time at the Western Intercollegiate Conference meet on June 5.²

1916: the world record

Simpson reached his peak in 1916. He won the high hurdles at the Penn Relays in 15.0, again equaling Kelly's world record despite a slow grass track, and took the college title there again in 1917 at 15.4.⁴ That year he also set a world record of 23.6 seconds in the 220-yard hurdles run on the straight.³

The defining mark came at the Missouri Valley Conference meet on May 27, 1916, where he ran 14 3/5 (14.6) for the 120-yard hurdles, breaking the record of his brother-in-law, the Canadian hurdler Earl Thomson, by two tenths of a second; he repeated 14.6 at the Western Intercollegiate meet on June 3.^{2 • 1} The 14.6 mark stood for four years before Thomson reclaimed the record with 14.4 in 1920.¹

1917 and the war years

Simpson captained the Missouri Tigers track team for the 1917 season. He won the National AAU high hurdles title in 1916 while still in school.¹

1919: Inter-Allied Games and Scandinavia

In June 1919, at the Inter-Allied Games held at Pershing Stadium near Paris for military athletes of the Allied powers, Simpson won both the 110 m hurdles and the 200 m hurdles; an IAAF history of the period notes that he completed a feat similar to Charley Paddock's 100 m and 200 m sprint double at the same meet.^{1 • 5} That year, representing the Illinois Athletic Club, he won a second National AAU 110 m hurdles title.¹

In the fall of 1919 he toured Scandinavia with four other American athletes, including Fred Murray.

Coaching career

Simpson was head track coach at the University of Missouri from 1920 to 1926, where he tutored the future Hall of Famers Brutus Hamilton and Jackson Scholz. He later coached at Iowa State University.¹

Record rivalry with Earl Thomson

The exchange of the 120-yard hurdles world record between Simpson and Earl Thomson framed American and Canadian hurdling during World War I. Thomson, competing for Dartmouth College, was the first athlete to break 15 seconds for the high hurdles, running 14.8 in 1916, and lost the record to Simpson later that year.⁷ Thomson regained it with 14.4 in 1920, a mark that lasted 11 years, and won the 110 m hurdles gold medal for Canada at the 1920 Olympic Games in Antwerp.^{7 • 8}

References

1. Robert Simpson, USA Track & Field Athlete Bio
2. Progression of World Athletics Records, World Athletics (IAAF)
3. World Record Evolution, Athletics Weekly, Vol. 17 No. 48 (November 30, 1963)
4. College Men's Individual Champions, Penn Relays
5. Athletics in the First Half of the 20th Century, IAAF competition history
6. Men's Track and Field Record Book (Big Ten)
7. Earl Thomson, USA Track & Field Athlete Bio
8. Earl Thomson, EBSCO Research Starters

Topic: Encyclopedia › Sports, games, and recreation › Individual sports and outdoor recreation › Athletics, gymnastics, and strength sports › Athletes of track and field and road running › Sprinters and hurdlers › Hurdlers › Early 20th-century hurdlers

Initially written Oct 21, 2026 · Edited: Oct 25, 2026

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