Canada remembers the first less than 4 minutes of mylar

We are saddened by the passing of an Athletics Ontario Hall of Fame member and the first Canadian to run a mile under four minutes. Dr. David George Bailey, died in London, Ontario. On August 27th he will return to his home at the age of 77.

Bailey is Canadian track and field pioneerin 1966, with a time of 3:59.1, becoming the first Canadian Miler under 4 minutes.

He was a member of nine Canadian track and field teams that competed in the 1965 Budapest and 1967 World University Games in Tokyo. 1966 Commonwealth Games in Jamaica. The 1967 Pan American Games in Winnipeg and he the 1968 Olympics in Mexico City. Bailey won the team his Canadian bronze medal in his 1,500 m at the 1967 Pan American Games in Winnipeg.

Away from the track, Bailey worked on clinical pharmacology studies between antihypertensive drugs and alcohol.In 1991, he discovered abnormal reactions between some drugs and grapefruit juice. If you’ve ever seen a little sticker on a pill bottle that read, “Don’t take this with grapefruit juice,” you’ll probably remember Dr. Bailey.

In 2016, Bailey was inducted into the Ontario Track and Field Hall of Fame and has been inducted twice into the University of Toronto Sports Hall of Fame (1998 individual, 2003 team).