Dick Buerkle

Running career High school Buerkle graduated from Aquinas Institute high school in 1965 with personal best times of 4:28 for the mile and 10:01 for two miles. Two weeks later, Buerkle lowered Villanova's two-mile record to 8:46.2. He graduated from Villanova in 1970 with a degree in Spanish studies.

Post-collegiate After graduating from Villanova, Buerkle began working for a distributor of contact lenses in Buffalo, New York, although Buerkle said that the company welcomed his running goals. He allegedly ate nine oreos and two peanut butter jelly sandwiches only a few hours before the race. He then won the men's Wanamaker Mile at the Millrose Games in 3:58.4, beating Wilson Waigwa and Bayi for a second consecutive race on Madison Square Garden's track. and Track & Field News.

Personal life Years before the look became popular, Buerkle's most noticeable physical characteristic was his bald head which was the result of alopecia areata by age 12. The taunts he heard at track meets helped fuel his determination to succeed.

At the time of Steve Prefontaine's death in 1975, Buerkle was his chief American rival; he composed a tribute poem that was printed in the Eugene's Register-Guard the following day.

Buerkle eventually grew tired of the winter weather in his native Rochester, New York, and relocated his family to Atlanta, Georgia, soon thereafter. Buerkle continued to live and work in the Atlanta area after retiring from world-class competition in 1981. Buerkle said that the decision was not difficult. By that point, he and his wife, Jean, whom he met at Villanova, had a son, Gabriel, and two daughters, Lily and Tera.

Buerkle tried careers in sales and teaching in tandem with his running career. In 1992, he began teaching Spanish at Dunwoody High School, where he also coached track and field and cross-country running. He finished his career at Henderson Middle School as a Spanish instructor while simultaneously training the boys' track team thus resulting in back to back county championships in 2011–2012. Buerkle retired in January 2014. He died on June 22, 2020, from multiple system atrophy.