Although books have been written on the history of masters track, the raw stuff of this history — results, articles, movies — is available to only a few. Enter Andy Hecker of Ventura County, north of L.A. He suggests the obvious: Let’s get this material online for all to access! In the wake of an Indy convention that celebrated Masters Hall of Famers going back 30 or more years, Andy writes: “We would like to recapture the history of our sport. We are looking for the stuff you or one of the old guys in your club might have put away in a box in the garage. Nobody will see it there. We want to create a permanent online museum to the accomplishments of our predecessors, and of course build a system so things are not lost in the future.”

Andy continues:
“I am also hoping to recruit volunteers to help process what we are able to find into a viewer-friendly presentation. This could involve anything from scanning or retyping results and articles (if you are online, you know how to type), taking pictures, editing photos into a nice layout with nice captions or identifications, or more technical html layout.
“Is there any old video or film out there? I’d love for someone else to even take the lead on this project, if you are so inspired. Until an interested historian is found, I will try to guide this effort. This museum will become whatever we are able to make of it.
“Currently, as we go back in time, it is harder to find old results online. Our LOCs are not contracted or obligated to hold onto results of our National Championships for any length of time, so it is only through the courtesy of masterstrack.com that some fairly recent results were copied and survive. Lesser meets have a progressively less chance of surviving (so they need more of our attention).
“National Masters News did a good job of documenting our sport from its inception in 1977. Jeff Brower has processed many of the National results into searchable pdf files. Randy Sturgeon has given us access to the NMN archive once it moves to Sacramento.
“Courtesy of Suzy Hess, I have previously copied what I could in a little over an hour of blitzing through the Eugene office. But much more can be done from that one source. And before 1977, much less exists. That is where we really need help.
“If you know anybody who was around when the sport started, see if you can get access to their box of old stuff, their photo albums, their news clippings, their medals and trophies. Capture what you can, preferably electronically, and send it to me.
“My contact is:
Andrew Hecker”
info@trackinfo.org
Me again:
Progress continues on my own history project — putting all world WAVA meet results online as searchable PDF files. In addition to the meets I’ve already posted online, I just received in the mail (from a German source) the official results books from 1981 Christchurch, 1983 Puerto Rico, 1987 Melbourne and 1993 Japan (a HUGE results book because of the marathon).
I need to photocopy these books first, then scan and post as searchable PDFs.
Jeff Brower of Texas, who also serves as the masters liaison to the USATF Web site, has made a monster contribution already, of course, by scanning results from National Masters News.
American masters pioneer David Pain in San Diego has boxes and boxes of memorabilia, including early masters track magazines from Europe (some of which have folded). He originally had hoped that a genuine Masters Track Hall of Fame would take this material fof his hands, but we don’t even have a presence in the National Track & Field Hall of Fame in the NYC Armory yet!
WMA has an unofficial Historical Committee led by Bob Fine, but other than asking for copies of the stuff I post, I don’t know what progress he’s made in preserving the hard copies of our shared past. Given that WMA turns 30 in 2007, now would be a great time to ramp up the effort to save such material an copy it to digital media for universal distribution.
Of course, a Masters Track Museum needs small stuff as well as big stuff. How about scanning your masters track club newsletter from its inception? How about scanning prints, negatives or slides of local masters in action?
Where this material will eventually reside online has yet to be determined, but there’s no debating the need for such an archive.
Please support Andy’s quest (and Bob’s) by writing him about what you might have gathering dust in the attic and basement. We owe it to ourselves — and the pioneers who gave us the sport.