Grinnell College Athletics

Charles B. Hoyt '18 is one of the three Grinnell sprinters who blazed their way into the national spotlight during the first quarter of the 1900s. Hoyt's coach, "Doc" Huff '09, and Leonard Paulu '22 were inducted when the Hall of Fame was established in 1995. A native of Greenfield, Iowa, Hoyt as a 16-year-old high schooler earned an invitation to the 1912 Olympic tryouts. On the advice of his mother he decided to wait until the 1916 Games, which were not held because of the war. Nevertheless, Hoyt's record-setting feats as a Grinnellian generated state and national recognition, including election to the Helms Foundation Track Hall of Fame in 1949 and the Iowa Sports Hall of Fame in 1955. Predictions of a brilliant career for "Chuck" came in the 1915 Iowa Conference meet when he ran the 100 in :10 flat on a cinder track and also won the 220. After an interruption for World War 1 service in the Navy, Hoyt reached new heights be setting a curved-track 220-yard dash world record of :22.5 seconds at the Drake Relays, "against some of the classiest sprinters in the nation." In 1917 he continued to win consistently in the sprints, including a 220 victory at the Western Conference Classic in Chicago. Chuck also had a distinguished coaching record at Sioux City Central High School, at the University of Michigan where he produced 13 Big Ten indoor and outdoor championships in eight years, and at Yale, before returning to Woolstock, Iowa, to manage family farms. Hoyt returned to the Grinnell campus in 1966 to receive an Honor G blanket. He died in 1978.