Burke was born in
Massachusetts in 1875. He competed for the Suffolk Athletic Club in South Boston and the
Boston Athletic Association (BAA). Burke, a student at
Boston University School of Law, was a reputed runner in the 400 meters and 440 yards, having won the
AAU title (440 yards) in 1895. He had no such reputation for the first event he entered in the
inaugural modern Olympic Games in
Athens, 1896. With many top sprinters absent, Burke surprisingly won the 100 meters. He was also noted for his "
crouch start", which was uncommon at that time but in standard use now. His time in the final was 12.0 seconds. In the preliminary heat, he had an even better time – 11.8 seconds. At the same Olympics, Burke also won the 400 meters, his top event. His times for that event were 58.4 seconds in the preliminary heats and 54.2 seconds in the final, in both of which Burke finished first. Later in his career, Burke specialized in the longer distances, winning
IC4A titles in the 440 and 880 yards events. In 1897, he was one of the initiators of the annually held
Boston Marathon, inspired by the success of the
marathon event at the 1896 Olympics. Burke later became a lawyer, but was also an athletics coach and a part-time journalist, writing for
The Boston Journal and the
Boston Post. During
World War I, at an age when most soldiers had long since retired from active duty, Burke earned his aviator’s wings at 43, making him the oldest man in the U.S. military to achieve this distinction. Burke died in 1929, aged 54. ==References==