Hollywood, California and raised in Ventura, Larrabee was a young running talent in the mid-1950s. In 1952, his athletic performances earned him a scholarship at the University of Southern California, from which he graduated as a geology major. A series of injuries hampered his running career, causing him to miss out on the 1956 and 1960 Olympics
, but he had his best season in 1964.
He won his only
Los Angeles. In the Tokyo Olympics final, Larrabee was in fifth place going into the final turn, then passed everyone in front of him with a burst of speed to win the gold medal in 45.1. Larrabee also ran the second leg on United States gold medal winning 4 × 400 m relay
team that won in the world record time of 3:00.7.
After the Tokyo Olympics Larrabee worked as a mathematics teacher at James Monroe High School, ran a beverage distributing company with his brother and worked part-time as Adidas’ U.S. shoe representative to track and field, a position that allowed him to travel and keep connected to the sport.
Larrabee remained physically active well after his running career had wound down, taking up
