Announcing mastershistory.org — a dream realized!
 mastershistory.org contains thousands of pages of material in PDF format, dating to the earliest days of the masters track movement.
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Until this month, if you wanted to read back issues of David Pain’s legendary USMITT newsletters, you had to journey to San Diego and rummage through cardboard boxes in a rental unit. Until this month, if you wanted to review Veteris magazine, a British-based WAVA publication, you had to search dusty attics in the UK. And until this month, if you wanted to see virtually all major USA national and WMA world meet results, you’d have to do a whole lotta Web searching. No more. We now have mastershistory.org! Thanks to an idea by Andy Hecker, contributions from David Pain and National Masters News publisher Randy Sturgeon and the laborious efforts of Jeff Davison, an online museum of masters track history now belongs to the world.
With a $1,200 budget from the USATF Masters Track & Field Committee and support by chairman Gary Snyder and others, a Web site to preserve our rich history has been launched.
It’s a work in progress. Grand ambitions include a photo gallery of old-time masters photos and videos. We also hope to post biographies of all members of the USATF Masters Hall of Fame. And we’re working toward cataloging the complete contents of the site.
When all this is done, you would be able to use this search tool, plug in a name or meet, and immediately display links to all relevant documents archived on the site.
To view the PDF contents of mastershistory.org, however, you have to have Adobe Acrobat Reader installed on your computer. Most computers come with this program already installed, thank goodness. But if you’ve deleted yours or it’s gone bad — no problem! Just go to this site and download the latest version. It’s free!
Another caution: Some of the PDF files archived on mastershistory.org are humongous. A so-called dial-up connection to the Net won’t cut it. Only broadband access will do. Most folks these days have Internet access through a cable provider, so download speed is not an issue.
But we’re aware that not everyone has the fastest connection, so we’ll work to decrease file sizes (while not degrading the resulting image). We’re also working on making every file searchable.
The site itself was designed by moi (with help from a free-template site). And the banner logo across the top was created by my webmaster son, Robert Stone, and webmaster friend Andy Hecker.
The site doesn’t have easter eggs (yet), but it does have a riddle. Who is the silhouetted figure sprinting at the right of the logo? The first person outside the committee to email me the correct answer will win a prize.
As a site under continual construction, we’ll be looking for feedback and contributions. Jeff Davison of California is the point person for potential content donors. So write to Jeff if you have something to say or loan.
The site was revealed publicly for the first time in the February issue of National Masters News (see Jeff’s article on Page 7). But now that the secret is out, spread the word! Share the link with your masters friends, send it to your local sportswriter. Be loud and proud. Your history is now at your fingertips!
Go explore.
6 Responses
I have some material which might be of interest.
Where do I send it?
Bob
This looks great. Can I subscribe to it or do I just log on?
Hi Bob and others that would like to contribute,
please feel free to contact myself or one of the other committee members. Thank you for your support.
Regards,
Jeff Davison
P.O. Box 8031, Laguna Hills, CA 92654
email: jad-calif@cox.net
Is that the Randy Sturgeon that ran the last 5 mi’s of the old Half-Moon-Bay-to-Belmont in the godawful heat with me all those years ago?
Jim
Marc “Dr. Track” Grasso, a historian of our sport, was the first (and so far only) to identify the sprinter in silhouette.
Quick clue: It’s the younger version of the older gentleman sprinting on the left side of the banner logo.
Of course, it’s the iconic Payton Jordan!
Marc recognized it as Payton on a cover of Life Magazine many years ago, and later wrote me:
Found it. The photo was the cover shot for the June 19, 1939 Life Magazine. Title line: Captain of Champions.
From the Life Magazine web site: http://www.life.com/Life/cover_search/view?coverkeyword=&startMonth=6&startYear=1939&endMonth=7&endYear=1939&pageNumber=1&indexNumber=2
This is recorded as “USC Sprinter” on the above web page.
The photo is by Gjon Mili.
Me again: Marc’s prize will be announced shortly.
Hi All,
There has been a request to add the National Weight Pent. Championship results to the new website. I was able to track down 2005 and 2007 this morning on the web. Does anyone have suggestions where to locate the balance?
USA Masters Weight Pentathlon Championships:
2007:
http://www.usatf.org/events/2007/USAMastersWeightPentathlonChampionships/results.asp
2006:
http://www.usatf.org/events/2006/USAMastersWeightPentathlonChampionships/
http://www.weightpentathlon.org/
2005:
http://www.usatf.org/events/2005/USAMastersWeightPentChampionships/results.asp
Regards,
Jeff Davison
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