Extremely precious WAVA newsletters (1980-82) are posted
USATF’s online museum, mastershistory.org, now features seven rare newsletters from the early years of the World Association of Veteran Athletes. How rare? Only 375 souls subscribed to this official publication between 1980 and its demise in 1982. Low-tech but high-minded, this Canadian-based quarterly succeeded the better known Veteris magazine out of Britain. The WAVA newsletter also came with or contained some of the first world masters rankings — by a Dutchman named Gijs Knoppert.
In the final issue, Gijs printed outdoor rankings
from 1980 and wrote: “It is a pity to declare that nothing was sent to
me from the USA, Canada, Australia, New Zealand, Africa, South America
and the not-mentioned European countries. Till now this is a most
ridiculous way to come to serious statistics.”
We learn a lot from
these issues, including details of the first masters track club, in London, formed as the Veteran Athletic Club on September 12, 1931! (It didn’t last.)
Masters marathon legend Ed Whitlock was the hero who saved these newsletters for posterity — and lent them to USATF’s Historical Archive Committee for online posting.
One Response
Ken and Ed,
Thank you for preserving more of the
Masters past. Great job! Looks great.
-Jeff Davison
Chair – Masters T&F Historical Archive Committee
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