Garnett Merrill Wikoff was born on November 12, 1886, in Thornville, Ohio.[1] He was the oldest of six children of Catharine and William Wikoff, a public school teacher.[2] He attended North High School in Columbus[3] and while there became friends with future Olympian Carl Cooke.[4]
Athletic career
After graduating from high school, Wikoff began attending Ohio State University (OSU) with Cooke.[4] He ran three years on the Ohio State track team, being declared ineligible for one due to having competed with the professional Cleveland Athletic Club.[1]
Wikoff was described in the MakiO as having been one of "the most remarkable men ever" at Ohio State.[5] He was one of the best two-mile racers in the country,[6] and broke the school's indoor and outdoor records for the event in 1910, and then repeatedly broke his own records the following year.[5] He was the track team captain as a senior,[1] and was given a gold medal by the OSU Athletic Board in 1911.[5] At the Amateur Athletic Union tournament in 1910, he took first place "easily" against 13 of the best runners in the country.[5] Over 90 years following his time at OSU, Wikoff was named to the school's track and field All-Century team in 2002.[7]
To have the money to attend college, Wikoff delivered newspapers.[4] It was this that was credited for his talents in long-distance running, with an article from the Norwalk Evening Herald saying,
He has a route and it is a large one, covering territory of nine or ten miles. This has to be traversed each morning before breakfast and school. It is to this work that Wikoff owes his successes and fame as a long-distance runner, and from this work, he also earns enough to pay for his education. For two years, he has had the route and has carried papers in rain or shine, in heat or cold. Each morning, the young man is up at an hour when most of his schoolmates are asleep. Daily, he began to quicken his pace. First, he adopted a brisk walk, then a dog trot, and now he runs at full speed, stopping only to deliver his papers.[4]
After the Olympics, Wikoff graduated from Ohio State and competed for the Chicago Athletic Association.[9] He also officiated track meets and coached track at Ohio State for a time.[10][11] He served in the United States Army Corps of Engineers during World War I[1] and his brother, Walter, later captained the Ohio State cross country team.[6] Following the war, Wikoff worked at an insurance company in Columbus and married Laura Evans in 1923. The couple moved to California[1] and he died childless in California in November 1959, at the age of 72.[12]
