Canadian athletes can help pick nominees to Masters Hall of Fame

Up north, masters middle-distance great Diane Palmason is chairing Canada’s Masters Hall of Fame Committee. And her group isn’t assuming (like America’s HoF committee) that all wisdom resides in their little group. Diane writes: “On behalf of all the members of the CMAA Hall of Fame committee, I am inviting all Canadian masters athletes to assist us in gathering data on Canadian masters who have excelled in the past -– and in many cases continue to do so -– in Athletics and/or in Road and Cross-Country running.”

In a note circulated via email to 1,700 subscribers, Diane continued:

For 2010 our criteria are as follows:

Athletes who were active from the 70s to early 90s and/or are at least 70 years old.

For 2010 we are planning to induct 12 athletes and two persons active in administration. The latter can be, or can have been, participants as well, but may most deserve recognition for their contributions to masters athletics overall: as members of boards or committees, directors of events, officials, and/or coaches. (It’s inspiring how many masters athletes wear multiple “hats” as they participate in our sport).

To date we have a list of over 20 athletes who fit these criteria. We have complete nomination forms on seven athletes and one administrator. We need your help in two ways: Bring names of deserving athletes who meet these criteria to our attention:

For these athletes complete our nomination form with as much data as possible

Assist us in completing nomination forms for the following:

Percy Duncan

Stan Egerton

Ivy Granstrom

Cliff Hall

Judith Kazdan

Les Leyland

BJ McHugh

Lenore Montgomery

Alex Oakley

Karl Trei

We do have complete forms on the following: Lenore Marven, Emil Muller, Art Obokata, Maurice Tarrant, Helly Visser and me. Harold is working on Sverre Hietanen’s form, and I’m working on Bob Moore’s (he’ll be 70 in November). We also have good data for completing a nomination form for Ken Richardson in the Administration category.

Please feel free to add your comments and input on ALL of these masters athletes. We want our Hall of Fame process to be as open and transparent as possible, with opportunities for all of you to contribute. I look forward to hearing from you. I can be contacted at dpalmason@msn.com.