VERMONT SPORTS HALL OF FAME

Photo Credit: USOC

Track and Field
Springfield
Inducted 2012

Raised in Andover and Springfield, Vermont, Albert Gutterson competed in several sports for Springfield High School including track and field and was the 1906 and 1907 Green Mountain Interscholastic Athletic Association (Vermont and New Hampshire) champion in the high jump while medaling in the 220 yard dash, discus and long jump both years.

Gutterson went on to the University of Vermont where as a track standout in 1911, he had a legendary home meet versus Maine at Centennial Field when he accounted for 33 of Vermont's 52.5 points, winning six events and finishing second in another. He also captured several New England collegiate and AAU indoor and outdoor titles in the long jump, discus and low hurdles. He capped his standout career at UVM by winning the long jump at the prestigious Penn Relays in 1912 with a personal best leap of 24' 3/4", also the best jump in the U.S. that year.

After qualifying for the U.S. Olympic Team with a sore heel, Gutterson became Vermont's first and only track and field gold medalist winning the long jump at the 1912 Stockholm Olympics. His leap of 24' 11 3/4" (7.60 meters) on July 12, 1912 was nearly a foot farther than his personal best and was a half inch off the world record to set a new Olympic mark that stood until 1928. 

Gutterson returned to Springfield after his athletic career was over and was an executive in one of the town's machine tool companies. The hockey arena at the University of Vermont's athletic-physical education complex is named to honor his achievements and his generosity and service to his alma mater. He was an original inductee of the UVM Athletic Hall of Fame in 1969. Gutterson passed away in Burlington on April 6, 1965.

In 1999, Sports Illustrated magazine ranked Gutterson fifth on its list of the Top 50 Vermont athletes of the 20th Century.