About a dozen kick-butt athletes were named to the USATF Masters T&F Hall of Fame today. My source may have missed a star or two, but here is the bulk of the Class of 2006: Miriam Gordon, Courtland Gray, Jim Mathis, Max Springer, Jack Starr, Sumi Onodera-Leonard, Mary Storey and, among the old-timers, Avery Bryant, Burt DeGroot and Shirley Kinsey. These were among 25 candidates considered by a Hall of Fame Committee that met earlier this week at the USATF annual meeting in Indianapolis. Congrats to all!

USATF masters delegates today chose Clermont, Florida, to host the 2009 masters national outdoor championships, beating a bid from Mt. SAC east of Los Angeles, reports a delegate at the Indianapolis USATF annual meeting. The national indoor meet in 2009 returns to Boston — because nobody else entered a bid. (Correction: Nope, Boston won’t do 2009.) The Clermont bid was a surprise to most in the room. Apparently only the executive board of Masters T&F knew about the bid. Clermont is the home of the National Training Center, and its Eurotan track looks fast. However, the nearest school dorms are said to be a half-hour away, so most athletes will have to book motel and hotel rooms.

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Indy made it official today, announcing that Bill Collins has been named USATF Male Masters Athlete of the Year. Of course, it would have looked a little funny to name someone else after WMA brought Bill to Monaco last month as the IAAF Best Master of the Year. The real mystery is: Who will be the USATF Female Masters Athlete of the Year? The choice has already been made by now, but I haven’t gotten the results. Also waiting on picks for the 2009 masters national indoor and outdoor meets. Mt. SAC appears to be the only candidate for the outdoor meet. Have no clue about indoor candidates. Stay tuned.

Patches should stay. The mile record should stay. But overhaul masters hurdle specs and spacings? Not this year. These are among the recommendations of masters delegates at a long meeting yesterday in Indy, where USATF delegates got to say yea or nay to a slew of rules-change proposals that the wider USATF Rules Committee will take up this weekend. The masters delegates pretty much guarantee a rule change involving masters is dead meat if it doesn’t get support in the masters meetings.

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Suzy Hess’ resignation as vice chair of the USATF Masters T&F Committee might have been expected, since she also has sold ownership of National Masters News to Randy Sturgeon — and appeared to be clearing the decks for retirement after recently turning 65. But it still caught people off guard at Indy today at the USATF annual meeting. Suzy says she came to Indy not knowing whether she’d resign.

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A little before noon today, Indianapolis time, masters delegates to the USATF annual meeting twice picked Gary Snyder of Massachusetts to serve the remainder of George Mathews’ unexpired term as chairman of the Masters T&F Committee. Gary led the voting in a first round that included Mark Cleary of Southern California and Bob Fine of Florida. (The vote tally was Gary 25, Mark 18 and Bob 16.) Then Gary beat Mark in a runoff 37-20 to become the first masters chair from the East Coast in decades. A shocker followed: Suzy Hess resigned as vice chair of the committee, and a vote was held to pick her successor, reports a meeting witness.

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Joy Upshaw-Margerum has decided to drop out of the race for USATF Masters T&F Committee chair. She says she attended today’s meeting of the Masters T&F Executive Board and realized she’s not yet ready to tackle the chair job. Afterward, she and fellow candidate Gary Snyder of Boston went to lunch, and they ended up talking for two hours, she says. In their chat, they realized they shared a lot of the same ideas and management beliefs. So Joy is backing Gary for the job. Joy also may seek election to the Executive Committee as active athletes representative — in hopes of learning more about board politics.

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The team that won the past two national masters outdoor meets is spiking track. Randy Sturgeon, the new owner of National Masters News, writes: “Fleet Feet Sacramento has decided to focus (its) team and no longer support track and field and cross country. They also no longer wanted to retain me as a head coach. So I have resigned effective with the end of the season with the Cross Country Club Nationals. I will continue to be very involved in coaching and, of course, supporting track and field and cross country. Teamwise, . . . I am not sure what I will do just yet, but I am looking at some possibilities.” According to one Fleet Feeter, that might include starting a new club. And dozens might join Randy.

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I like Bob Fine. I really do. But I’m having a hard time respecting him in the run-up to Thursday’s election to fill the two-year unexpired seat of Masters T&F Chair George Mathews. Bob is a candidate for that office. But not willingly, it seems. He just thinks the caliber of his rival candidates is so poor that he has no choice but to jump in and be the savior of the masters program. Gimme a friggin’ break! I give him this, however: He’s consistent in his public pooh-poohing of his competition. In his interview he says straight out: “I am running because two of the announced candidates have never been involved in the Masters T&F Executive Committee, WMA or the regions.”

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It’s not Shakespeare, but it’s a serviceable summary of USATF Masters T&F in 2006. Along with other committee chairs, acting masters chair Suzy Hess reports to the wider Indy audience on what the geezers in USATF were up to this year. She begins by noting the resignation of Chairman George: “The resignation of George Mathews as chair of the Masters T&F committee, September 13, 2006, will prompt an election for a new chair during the annual meeting in Indianapolis. Meanwhile, I will try to do a brief report for the committee.”

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