Herbert James Elliott AC MBE (born 25 February 1938) is a former Australian athlete and arguably the world's greatest middle distance runner of his era.

The intense sporting culture at Aquinas provided an ideal grounding for Elliott to reach the highest levels of athletic achievement.

Elliott credited his visionary and iconoclastic coach, Percy Cerutty, with inspiration to train harder and more naturally than anyone of his era.

Cerutty was known to avoid the track, talk about role models outside athletics (such as Leonardo da Vinci and Jesus), and bring his athletes to the unspoiled seaside beauty of Portsea training camp south of Melbourne, where Elliott would sprint up sand dunes until he dropped.

[7] Elliott matriculated at Jesus College, Cambridge, and received a third class in Part I of the natural sciences tripos in 1963.

[15][16] Elliott carried the torch of peace to the MCG when Pope John Paul II visited Melbourne in 1986.

In the Queen's Birthday Honours List of 2002, he was appointed a Companion of the Order of Australia (AC), to wit:For service to community leadership through the development of sport in Australia, continuing involvement in the Olympic movement at national and international levels, and as a supporter and benefactor of community and charitable organisations for youth, health promotion and cultural understanding.He is an Australian Living Treasure.