Born 1880, Carroll, Ill. Died December 7, 1944.

Major John L. Griffith was appointed commissioner of what is now known as the Big Ten Conference on June 2, 1922 and until his death in 1944 he helped develop the conference into one of the finest track and field leagues in the U.S.

While at Illinois in 1921, Griffith along with famed football coach Amos Alonzo Stagg and Wisconsin track coach Tom Jones (also in the Hall of Fame) helped start the first outdoor championships of the National Collegiate Athletic Association (NCAA). The meet was a success and formed the cornerstone for other NCAA championship events. A graduate of Beloit College in Wisconsin, Griffith was an athletic director at several schools in the early 1900s. He was athletic director at Drake where he founded and managed the Drake Relays. Later in World War I, he developed the military's physical fitness program. In 1919, he headed the physical education program at Illinois before becoming Big Ten commissioner three years later.