Al Lawrence was born in Australia, on July 30, 1930. As an Australian Olympian, he won the bronze medal in the 10,000-meter race in the Melbourne Olympics in 1956 and competed in the 1960 Rome Olympics.
In 1958 he enrolled at the University of Houston, where he won the NCAA cross-country national championships in 1959 and 1960, and the 1959 and 1960 AAU cross-country national championships, as well. In 1960 he set a world record in the indoor two-mile; six days later he won the AAU indoor three-mile race in another world record time.....
