The phone call came in December from Eamonn Coghlan, the legendary indoor miler, to Howard Schmertz, the meet director emeritus of the Millrose Games.

Between 1986 and 1989 Marcus O'Sullivan was the king of the indoor milers.

Eamonn Coghlan, O'Sullivan's boyhood hero, who is also from Ireland, preceded him as a Villanova hero and then the best indoor miler.

Eamonn Coghlan, the king, or former king, of the indoor milers, is 34 years old.

Ran Fastest Indoor Mile Coghlan, with his roaring finishes, may be the most popular indoor miler since Cunningham.

It helps when that someone is 40-year-old Eamonn Coghlan, the Villanova graduate from Ireland who became the fastest and most successful indoor miler in history.

The best indoor milers are typically lean and wiry, nimble enough to generate speed in tight quarters.

But Lumpp also realized that the mile was the meet's major attraction, and Coghlan is the indoor miler the public wants to see.

He has won the race five times, and his career best of 3 minutes 50.94 seconds, run at the Meadowlands in 1988, makes him history's fourth-fastest indoor miler.

Julius Achon, a sophomore from Uganda who was the world's fastest indoor miler this year, ran the 1,600-meter anchor leg.