Wheaton College Athletics

Ray Buker, a 1947 graduate, pushed his way through college in three years, and in that time, had a phenomenal career in cross country and track. Ray won his first ever college cross country meet by 100 yards in a meet at Notre Dame. At this time, there was only one division and he was competing against the best university runners from all over the nation. In track as a sophomore, Buker tied Lyndon Hess’ college record of 4:24.6 for the mile and set a new two-mile record of 9:32. Ray continued to set records in the one, two and half mile events and established himself as one of the all-time great runners in Wheaton history.