The track and field team at BYU began in 1899. The first annual BYU Invitational Track Meet was in 1911. The team won its first conference championship in 1929. The track teams were successful in the 1930s; they won conference championships in 1935 and 1936. Clarence Robinson began coaching the BYU track team in 1950. Robinson had been a former BYU track athlete and participated in the 1948 U.S. Olympics. After working with his inexperience track team, Robinson built the team to win eight straight conference championships since 1955. The teams finished second in the conference after the creation of the Western Athletic Conference (WAC). The team finished in the top ten in the nation from 1964 to 1967. The team finished second in the nation in 1966. BYU hosted the NCAA championships the following year. The BYU team won its first WAC championship in 1968, and again in 1969. They won second place in 1970, but rose again to first place in 1971. The 1970 Men's track and field team tied with Oregon and Kansas to win the outdoor national championship. In 1970, Ralph Mann set a world record in the 440 high hurdle in Des Moines with a time of 48.8 seconds, winning him a second NCAA title. Paul Cummings was the first BYU athlete to achieve a sub-four-minute mile, earning him an NCAA championship in 1974.