Fifty years ago, on May 6, 1954, England's Roger Bannister ran a mile in less than 4 minutes. The feat was one that some experts at the time believed was an impossible human achievement. However, Bannister’s 3:59.4 time was surpassed 46 days later by Australia's John Landy, who ran the distance in 3:57.9 on a track in Finland.

While rivals in the press, the two had never faced each other in a race until the 1954 British Empire Games in Vancouver, British Columbia. This was to provide the stage for what came to be known as “The Miracle Mile”, when the ‘racer’ and the ‘runner’ would meet for the first time and, for the first time in history, the 4-minute barrier would be broken in competition.

In addition to Bannister and Landy, the Miracle Mile featured Canadian Rich Ferguson and ‘Miler Milligan’ from Northern Ireland. Bannister beat Landy with a winning time of 3:58.8. Landy’s time was 3:59.6. Ferguson finished third with a time of 4:04.6. Victor Milligan finished fourth, with a personal best time of 4:05 and set a record for Northern Ireland that stood for 20 years.

Not long after this remarkable event, the key participants retired from competitive running and continued with very productive lives. Roger Bannister finished his medical studies at Oxford and became a Neurologist. John Landy became a Botanist, a scholar, a senior manager at Shell and ultimately became the Governor of Victoria in Australia. Rich Ferguson became the President of Adidas Canada. Victor Milligan finished his engineering studies at Purdue University and in 1960, at the urging of their friend Larry Soderman, co-founded Golder Associates Ltd. with Dr. Hugh Golder.

The 50th anniversary of the Miracle Mile was August 7, 2004. This provided Golder Associates with an opportunity to recall a remarkable and historic human achievement and to celebrate the participation of our company’s co-founder. Each office in Golder Associates worldwide was encouraged to organize their own running of “The Milligan Mile”. All staff were invited to participate and bring family, friends and clients. In addition, employees were encouraged to support a charity as part of their Milligan Mile event. Each running of The Milligan Mile was constrained only by the innovation and enthusiasm at each office. And so The Milligan Mile was run along a beach in Brazil, along a tailings dam in Ontario, on the sidewalks of Minneapolis — wherever Golder folk live, work and play.

Golder Associates, the company, owes much of its success to Milligan, the man. When asked recently in conversation to reflect on the meaning of success, Victor suggested that “Success is like a moving target that you can never quite achieve. The journey is the most important. It’s a small world. Live with passion. Do the best you can in all you do. Measure yourself against the best. Be on a constant search for excellence.”

Victor is a great believer in the apprentice and mentor model, and was an enthusiastic apprentice to his mentor, Hugh Golder, whose “intellectual honesty” formed the basis of excellence. Their approach to clients was always simple and pragmatic: “If they could do it themselves, they wouldn’t hire us. Treat them like people first and clients second.”

Victor’s ideals shaped our company and continue to influence our culture, our relationships with our employees, clients and business partners and our standing in our communities.

Thank you, Dr. Milligan.

The employees of Golder Associates

More information about the history of the Miracle Mile can be found at the following web site: www.harryjerome.com