Hall of Fame
John Divine can be credited with propelling the Washington State track and field distance program to national prominence long before the spikes of Gerry Lindgren and Henry Rono graced the hills and dales of the Palouse. Divine was WSC’s first collegiate distance champion, winning the NCAA title in the two-mile run in 1925 as a sophomore. The lone Cougar at the 1925 NCAA Championships, Divine set the school record time of 9-minutes, 22.8 seconds in Chicago. That same year, he won all four dual meets he entered and placed fourth in the Pacific Coast Conference. During his junior season, Divine had three dual wins in the two-mile and finished third at the PCC meet. As a senior on the 1927 Cougar track team, dubbed a “weak sister” by the Chinook (WSC’s yearbook), Divine was second in the mile and third in the two-mile at the Northern Division meet. The Chinook also described Divine as “infallible.”
