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Jack Monument, who was known to his friends as "Baldy Jack" or "Old Baldy," (despite being only 24 years old when he joined the club), was a British mid-distance runner who competed for the I-AAC from 1910 to 1912.
On October 15th, 1910, Monument won the one-mile championship at the Amateur Athletic Union’s National Outdoor Championships held in New Orleans, adding to the I-AAC victory by 1 point over the NYAC. The following month at the AAU’s National Indoor Championshps held at Madison Square Garden, he won the two-mile race with a time of 9:36 1-5.
When the First World War broke out in Europe, Monument returned home and joined the ranks of the Fourth Dragoon Guards, Squadron A of the British Expeditionary Forces in France. In May of 1915 he sent a hastily written note to his friend Johnny McHugh of the Public School Athletic League, on a scrap of paper torn from a Dieges & Clust catalog. The note ended with the words: "Will be seeing you as soon as the war is over, if I am still alive."
Four months later, Monument was presumed dead or captured by the Germans.
"Jack Monument, the blond-haired Briton – what little hair that fringes the sides of his bald pate is blonde – certainly is proving a valuable man to the Irish-American A.C. Since Lawson Robertson whipped him into condition, Jack has made good in almost every start for the Winged Fist men. Jack has improved and is running in much better form than when in England.
"Jack was a classy man on the other side of the pond, but never succeeded in being anything more than a near track champion. He finished third in the half-mile event at the English championships of 1908. That was as near as Jack came to capturing track laurels in England. Under the tutelage of Lawson Robertson, however, Jack has developed into one of the greatest milers in the world and undoubtedly could go home to England now and make a cleaning-up.
"Though Jack is only 24 years old, he has been running more or less successfully since 1904. In 1906, he won the famous Morbeth road race, covering the distance, only a few yards short of 15 miles, in the grand time of 1:20:27, the record for the course. Jack started as a long distancer, but later found the middle distance events more to his liking.
"Monument was brought up in classy company, but did not strike his gait till Lawson Robertson whipped him into condition here in New York. Jack began to get into the limelight early last July. His race that month against Abel Kiviat in Newark, when the pair came down the long home stretch as if tied together, Kiviat winning only by an eyelash in the last desperate drive for the worsted, made sport followers sit up and take notice. A few days later at the junior Metropolitan Championships in Celtic Park, Old Baldy captured the mile event in 4:24 3-5, not only hanging up new figures for a junior championship mile, but smashing the track field as well.
"Jack suffered boils after the junior championships and had to go up on the Maine coast to recuperate. He had only a little training behind him when he faced the barrier for the senior mile Metropolitan Championship, but he succeeded in getting home in third position. In the Canadian mile championship Monument ran second to Kiviat, giving the stocky Staten Islander a terrific race. Jack has struck his gait again now and great things can be expected of him.”