Listing my picks for the USATF Masters Hall of Fame

Coach Ross Dunton, who spun off his original Web site, has launched another, called athleticsinfo.org (no relation to Andy Hecker’s trackinfo.org.) Not much posted yet, but he’s done us a favor by listing nominees for the 2007 Class of the USATF Masters Hall of Fame. Good work. The same 25 names (12 women and 13 men) were printed in the August issue of National Masters News — but without their events or hometowns. So this is nice. Inductees will be named at the November USATF convention in Hawaii. If I had a ballot, these would be my top five choices:

Nadine O’Connor because she’s amazing, and keeps on challenging herself (and nearly every record out there) while winning annual Athlete of the Year honors — and especially taking the women’s vault to incredible heights. (If she wins, she’ll be the second Hall of Famer in the household, along with Bud Held.)
Carol Finsrud — because she’s been near unbeatable for many years. Her four golds at Riccione are just the first of her W50 campaign.
Alfred Guidet — because this sprinter and scholar was a legend among the pioneers of our sport.
Charley G. Miller — because his hurdling speed and skills took my breath away. I saw him set an M60 record in 1998 at Maine nationals. Been a fan ever since.
And Jim Selby — because he’s helped many masters excel through his coaching, encouragement and inspiration. He models what an M75 human can do (competing in six or seven events per meet). He would have set many more records had he focused on just one or two running or hurdling events. But he did ’em all!

A dozen were chosen for the Class of 2006, but I guess the number inducted depend on how many appear on the majority of ballots of the two voting committees and past Hall of Famers, who were supposed to get ballots this month.
The nomination critera are given here, and the selection process is detailed here.
Also, in his latest newsletter, Ross offers this “personal update”:

As most of you know, I have Alzheimer’s. To manage Alzheimer’s one needs to: 1) take the proper medication, 2) increase blood/oxygen flow to the brain, 3) keep the brain as active as possible. I am taking Aricept and Namenda as well as running three or four times each week.
However, I have been having trouble finding something to occupy my mind more. Last week I decided that I should open a new website, so I have just launched www.athleticsinfo.org It is a very easy to manage system which does not require mush experience or special software.
It has a number of pages including one for Alzheimer’s, one for Track and Field and one with short bios of the nominees for the 2007 USATF Masters Hall Of Fame. It is very easy for me to add info to a page or add a new page, so let me know if you would like for me to add any special info.
On October 9th I will have a cataract removed from my left eye and replaced with an intraocular lens. On October 30th the same procedure will be performed on my right eye. Because of this, the newsletters will be hit and miss during October and November. RKD

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September 22, 2007

4 Responses

  1. Juan Bustamante - September 22, 2007

    My strong support for Jim Selby, great competitor and nice person. I hope he makes it this time.

  2. Doug Smith - September 22, 2007

    I agree with “Dr. Juan” and his endorsement of Jim Selby. Jim is the consummate athlete and gentleman.

  3. Andrew Hecker - September 24, 2007

    Thanks for the mention of my site, home of the North American All Comers Meet Directory.
    I would hope Nadine and her massive list of accomplishments would be a shoo in.
    For folks who have not seen the remarkable Mr. Selby participate in a meet, let me tell what I have heard and seen.
    First, Jim does his prescribed warm up before leaving his home. He has a specific number of laps . . . of his living room to do before he gets in the car with his daughter to drive upwards of three hours to a meet I might be involved in.
    When he arrives, he hits the ground running. He will enter just about any running event. I have literally watched him go by a start line in the process of finishing, say, a distance race like a 1500 or 3000. As I line up the runners for the 100 (oldest to youngest), here he is again standing on the start line. Sometime I think he doesn’t even break stride as he runs to the next event. His range of versatility is something to be envied by people one quarter of his age.
    If he ever stands still, his coaching advice or words of encouragement help every person who takes the time to listen.

  4. Free Article Directory - December 7, 2009

    Aw, this was a really quality post. In theory I’d like to write like this too – taking time and real effort to make a good article… but what can I say… I procrastinate alot and never seem to get something done.

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