Walter L. Molineux, Jr. (1976) - Hall of Fame

Walter L. Molineux, Jr.

Induction:
1976
Class:
1953

Walter L. Molineux, Jr. '53
Hometown: Morristown, NJ
Sport: Track & Field
Year Inducted: 1976

Walter L. Molineux, Jr. ’53, one of Brown’s finest distance runners, set University records for the mile (4:08.5) and two-mile (9:18) and was Heptagonal League Mile Champion, both indoors and out. The graduate of Morristown (N.J.) High School and the Peddie School had other credentials: New England Mile Champion, N.E. Steeplechase Champion, N.E. Cross Country Champion, and N.E. AAU Champion. He was also N.E. Half-Mile Champion and took a third place in the National AAU Mile. Walt Molineux’s freshman cross country team was undefeated in dual meet competition and Captain Molineux helped pace the Bruins to their first New England Cross Country Championship in 38 years. In the winter, he finished third in the Columbian Mile behind national champions Fred Wilt and Don Gehrmann. That spring he won the Heptagonals, which were held at Brown, and he set a new Brown record for the two-mile in a special race against Fred Wilt. His time of 9:19 surpassed Norm Taber’s 38-year-old record of 9:31. During the winter of his junior year, Molineux was undefeated in dual meet competition with Harvard, Yale, Dartmouth and Boston University and in the spring he won the N.E. Intercollegiate Mile and was second in the IC4A’s. One of the highlights of his career came on Jan. 29, 1953 in Madison Square Garden before 15,000 fans when he finished second to Villanova’s Fred Dwyer in the Wannamaker Invitational Mile of the Millrose Games, but ahead of Fred Wilt and Don Gehrmann, the latter a four-time winner of the event. He set a Brown record that night with a 4:08.5, only three-tenths of a second slower than Dwyer’s time. Molineux is living in Locust, N.J., and is area commercial manager with New Jersey Bell Telephone Co.