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National Track and Field Hall of Fame facts for kids

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Award ceremony for the National Track and Field Hall of Fame at the Jesse Owens Award banquet in 2011

The National Track and Field Hall of Fame is a museum operated by The Armory Foundation in conjunction with USA Track & Field. It is located within the Armory Foundation (the former Fort Washington Avenue Armory) at 216 Fort Washington Avenue, between 168th and 169th Streets, in Washington Heights, in the New York City borough of Manhattan. The stated goal of the Hall is to reflect upon, appreciate, and honor the past by saluting Americans who have made important contributions to the history of Track and Field. Inductees to the Hall of Fame include athletes, coaches, contributors, officials, event directors, journalists and administrators. USA Track & Field has been inducting members into the Hall since 1974. Currently there are 254 people enshrined.

History

The National Track and Field Hall of Fame was founded in Charleston, West Virginia in 1974. The museum moved to Indianapolis in 1985 when it came under the auspices of USA Track & Field, the national governing body for the sport of track and field in the United States. The Indianapolis museum closed in 1996 when the exhibits were moved for the 1996 Centennial Olympics in Atlanta. The exhibits were then displayed in Los Angeles before touring across the nation as a traveling museum until 2002 when The Armory building was chosen as its permanent location.

Exhibits include the original 1976 Nike Waffle Trainers and a singlet and shorts worn by Hall of Famer Steve Prefontaine.

Nomination criteria

The nomination criteria differs for the type of inductee as follows:

Athlete

Only open class accomplishments are considered. In order to be considered, an athlete must have participated in an open competition at least three years prior to consideration, except when an athlete has reached forty years of age, and must fall into one or more of the following criteria:

  • World record holder
  • American record holder
  • World champion
  • Olympic champion;
  • World or American leader in event(s) for three or more years;
  • Winner of four or more USA national open championships; and/or
  • Other outstanding accomplishments at a national open or international open level.

Coach

To be nominated, a coach must have been retired for at least one year from active full-time coaching, except where the nominated person has coached for thirty-five (35) years or more, and must fall into the following criteria:

  • Having compiled an outstanding record of coaching champions at the level coached (e.g. national open, national collegiate, state high school, etc.); and
  • Having compiled an extraordinary winning record or have achieved other outstanding accomplishments; and
  • Having coached for at least twenty (20) years.

Contributor

In order to be nominated as a Contributor, the nominee must have served the Athletics community with special distinction and worked within the athletics community in its best interests in an outstanding manner for at least twenty (20) years. Contributors may also be nominated for having achieved other outstanding accomplishments.

Additional categories

Also under USATF is the Masters Hall of Fame, created in 1996 and the Officials Hall of Fame: http://www.legacy.usatf.org/HallOfFame/Officials/: http://www.legacy.usatf.org/HallOfFame/Officials/ created in 2007. The membership of those two halls are selected by separate committees of those divisions of USATF for separate achievements in those divisions. As such, there is some duplication of names. Those members currently exist as a list of honored names, but have no physical representation at the hall in New York City.

Selection process

Each February, the National Track & Field Board and Screening Committee begins to actively seek nominations which are due by May 1 each year. On May 15, all nominations (including those carry-over nominations from previous years which have not been under consideration for the maximum five (5) years) are compiled by the national staff of USA Track & Field. All nominations are then reviewed by the Hall of Fame Screening Committee which is charged with forwarding the best candidates eligible to the voters. The membership of the committee is confidential. The committee has full authority to make nominations to create the best ballot possible. The Staff Coordinator for the Hall of Fame creates the ballot of ten (10) nominees (the number of nominees may be increased for equity in gender, discipline, and era of competition or service, but will never number more than twelve (12) nominees) and accompanying documentation (biographies, etc.) by June 30. The ballot is then reviewed by the President of the Hall of Fame and chair of the Screening Committee before being forwarded to the voters near the end of July. The voters include inducted Hall of Famers, the Hall of Fame committee members and selected members of the Track and Field Writers of America. Each voter has one vote and any voter who fails to cast a ballot for two (2) consecutive years may be removed from the list of eligible voters until they request and cast a ballot in a subsequent year. All ballots must be returned to the accounting firm responsible for tabulation of votes by August 29. In the beginning of September, Accounting firm, chair of the Screening Committee, and President of the Board review the ballots and declare the inductees who are announced later in the month.

Museum

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Exterior of The Armory Building where the National Track & Field Hall of Fame is located.

Located at The Armory Foundation, at 216 Fort Washington Avenue in Washington Heights, New York the museum is split into three levels. The first level contains main lobby, the Hall of Fame Theater (featuring a film simply called "Welcome to The Hall of Fame", produced by Peter Frankfurt) and the Hall of Fame History Gallery, where the Olympic Moment film produced by Bud Greenspan can be viewed. The second level holds the Hall of Fame Atrium, the Hall of Fame Champion Gallery and the Fred Lebow Marathon Hall . The third level holds the Hall of Fame Gallery featuring a 40-foot (12 m)-long etched glass wall with the names of all the inductees engraved upon it. Through the glass wall visitors can see the 65,000-square-foot (6,000 m2) arena that is home to the largest indoor collegiate and high school invitational events in the world.

Inductees

The following table lists all persons who have been inducted into the National Track and Field Hall of Fame.

Name Induction Year Category Ref
Abbott, Cleve 1996 Coach
Jesse Abramson 1981 Journalist
Albritton, Dave 1980 Athlete
Andersen, Roxanne 1991 Athlete
Ashenfelter, Horace 1975 Athlete
Ashford, Evelyn 1997 Athlete
Austin, Charles 2012 Athlete
Bakjian, Andy 1986 Official
Banks, Willie 1999 Athlete
Barney Ewell, Norwood 1986 Athlete
Baskin, Weemie 1982 Coach
Batten, Kim 2012 Athlete
Bausch, James 1979 Athlete
Beamon, Bob 1977 Athlete
Beard, Percy 1981 Athlete
Beatty, Jim 1990 Athlete
Bell, Earl 2002 Athlete
Bell, Greg 1988 Athlete
Bell, Sam 1992 Coach
Blozis, Al 2015 Athlete
Boeckmann, Delores 1976 Athlete
Borican, John 2000 Athlete
Boston, Ralph 1974 Athlete
Botts, Tom 1983 Coach
Bowden, Don 2008 Athlete
Bowerman, Bill 1981 Coach
Bragg, Don 1996 Athlete
Brisco, Valerie 1995 Athlete
Brown, Doris 1990 Athlete
Brown, Earlene 2005 Athlete
Brundage, Avery 1974 Administrator
Burke, Thomas 'Tom' 2014 Athlete
Burleson, Dyrol 2010 Athlete
Burrell, Leroy 2017 Athlete
Bush, Jim 1987 Coach
Calhoun, Lee 1974 Athlete
Campbell, Milt 1989 Athlete
Carlos, John 2003 Athlete
Carnes, Jimmy 2008 Coach
Carr, Bill 2008 Athlete
Carr, Henry 1997 Athlete
Cassell, Ollan 2006 Contributor
Cawley, Rex 2006 Athlete
Cheeseborough, Chandra 2000 Athlete
Clark, Jearl Miles 2010 Athlete
Clark, Ellery 1991 Athlete
Clay, Bryan 2017 Athlete
Coachman, Alice 1975 Athlete
Cochran, Roy 2010 Athlete
Conley, Mike 2004 Athlete
Connolly, Harold 1984 Athlete
Conway, Hollis 2015 Athlete
Copeland, Lillian 1994 Athlete
Corbitt, Theodore 'Ted' 2014 Contributor
Courtney, Tom 1978 Athlete
Craig, Ralph 2010 Athlete
Cromwell, Dean 1974 Coach
Cunningham, Glenn 1974 Athlete
Curtis, William 1979 Contributor
Davenport, Willie 1982 Athlete
Davis, Glenn 1974 Athlete
Davis, Harold 1974 Athlete
Davis, Jack 2004 Athlete
Davis, Otis 2004 Athlete
Davis, Scott 2021 Contributor
Deal, Lance 2014 Athlete
Dellinger, Bill 2000 Athlete
DeMar, Clarence 2011 Athlete
Dennis, Evie 2004 Contributor
Devers, Gail 2011 Athlete
Didriksen, Mildred 1974 Athlete
Diggs, Joetta Clark 2009 Athlete
Dillard, Harrison 1974 Athlete
Doherty, Ken 1976 Athlete
Dragila, Stacy 2014 Athlete
Drake, Elvin 2007 Coach
Duffey, Arthur 2012 Athlete
Dumas, Charles 1990 Athlete
Dunaway, James 2010 Journalist
Eastman, Ben 2006 Athlete
Easton, Millard 1975 Coach
Edelen, Buddy 2016 Athlete
Elliot, James 1981 Coach
Ellis, Larry 1999 Coach
Evans, Lee 1983 Athlete
Ewry, Ray 1974 Athlete
Faggs, Mae 1976 Athlete
Farmer-Patrick, Sandra 2019 Athlete
Ferrell, Barbara 1988 Athlete
Ferris, Dan 1974 Administrator
Feuerbach, Al 2016 Athlete
Flanagan, John 1975 Athlete
Forman, Ken 2009 Coach
Fosbury, Dick 1981 Athlete
Foster, Greg 1998 Athlete
Frederick, Jane 2007 Athlete
Fuchs, Jim 2005 Athlete
Giegengack, Bob 1978 Coach
Gill, Harry 2015 Coach
Godina, John 2013 Athlete
Gordien, Fortune 1979 Athlete
Gray, Johnny 2008 Athlete
Greene, Charles 1992 Athlete
Greene, Maurice 2011 Athlete
Griffith, John 1979 Administrator
Griffith Joyner, Florence 1995 Athlete
Hahn, Archie 1983 Athlete
Hall, Evelyne 1988 Athlete
Hamilton, Brutus 1974 Athlete
Hammond, Kathy 2018 Athlete
Hardin, Glenn 1978 Athlete
Harrison, Kenny 2013 Athlete
Haydon, Ted 1975 Coach
Hayes, Billy 1976 Coach
Hayes, Bob 1976 Athlete
Haylett, Ward 1979 Coach
Held, Franklin 1987 Athlete
Hersh, Bob 2018 Contributor
Higgins, Ralph 1982 Coach
Hillman, Harry 1976 Athlete
Hines, Jim 1979 Athlete
Houser, Bud 1979 Athlete
Hubbard, DeHart 1979 Athlete
Huntsman, Stan 2004 Coach
Hurt, Edward 1975 Coach
Hutsell, Wilbur 1975 Coach
Jackson, Nell 1989 Athlete
James, Larry 2003 Athlete
Jenkins, Charles 1992 Athlete
Jenner, Caitlyn 1980 Athlete
Jennings, Lynn 2006 Athlete
Johnson, Allen 2015 Athlete
Johnson, Cornelius 1994 Athlete
Johnson, Michael 2004 Athlete
Johnson, Rafer 1974 Athlete
Jones, Hayes 1976 Athlete
Jones, Thomas 1977 Coach
Jordan, Payton 1982 Coach
Joyner-Kersee, Jackie 2004 Athlete
Kelley, John 1980 Athlete
Kingdom, Roger 2005 Athlete
Kiviat, Abel 1985 Athlete
Kraenzlein, Alvin 1974 Athlete
Laird, Ron 1986 Athlete
Larrabee, Mike 2003 Athlete
Larrieu, Francine 1998 Athlete
Larsen, Bob 2013 Coach
Lash, Don 1995 Athlete
Laskau, Henry 1997 Athlete
Lebow, Fred 1994 Event Director
Lewis, Carl 2001 Athlete
Lewis, Steve 2019 Athlete
Lindgren, Gerry 2004 Athlete
Liquori, Marty 1995 Athlete
Littlefield, Clyde 1981 Coach
Long, Dallas 1996 Athlete
Long, Maxey 2021 Athlete
Mann, Ralph 2015 Athlete
Manning, Madeline 1984 Athlete
Marsh, Henry 2001 Athlete
Marsh, Michael 2021 Athlete
Mathias, Bob 1974 Athlete
Matson, Randy 1984 Athlete
Matthews, Vincent 2011 Athlete
McCluskey, Joe 1996 Athlete
McDaniel, Mildred 1983 Athlete
McDonald, Pat 2012 Athlete
McDonnell, John 2005 Coach
McGrath, Matt 2006 Athlete
McGuire, Edith 1979 Athlete
McMillan, Kathy 2021 Athlete
Meadows, Earle 1996 Athlete
Meredith, James 1982 Athlete
Metcalfe, Ralph 1975 Athlete
Milburn, Rod 1993 Athlete
Mills, Billy 1976 Athlete
Moakley, John F. 1988 Coach
Montgomery, Eleanor 2013 Athlete
Moore, Charles 1999 Athlete
Moore, Tom 1988 Event Director
Morris, Glenn 2007 Athlete
Morrow, Bobby 1975 Athlete
Mortensen, Jess 1992 Coach
Moses, Edwin 1994 Athlete
Murphy, Mike 1974 Coach
Myers, Laurence 1974 Athlete
Myricks, Larry 2001 Athlete
Nehemiah, Renaldo 1997 Athlete
Nelson, Albert 1991 Contributor
Nelson, Cordner 1988 Contributor
Nieder, Bill 2006 Athlete
O'Brien, Dan 2006 Athlete
O'Brien, William 1974 Athlete
Oerter, Al 1974 Athlete
Osborn, Harold 1974 Athlete
Owens, Jesse 1974 Athlete
Paddock, Charley 1976 Athlete
Patton, Mel 1985 Athlete
Peacock, Eulace 1987 Athlete
Pennel, John 2004 Athlete
Phillips, Andre 2009 Athlete
Phillips, Dwight 2018 Athlete
Powell, John 2019 Athlete
Powell, Mike 2005 Athlete
Prefontaine, Steve 1976 Athlete
Price-Smith, Connie 2016 Athlete
Prinstein, Meyer 2000 Athlete
Ray, Joie 1976 Athlete
Remigino, Lindy 2017 Athlete
Reynolds, Butch 2016 Athlete
Rice, Greg 1977 Athlete
Richards, Bob 1975 Athlete
Ritter, Louise 1995 Athlete
Robinson, Arnie 2000 Athlete
Robinson, Elizabeth 1977 Athlete
Rodgers, Bill 1999 Athlete
Rose, Ralph 1976 Athlete
Rosen, Melvin 1995 Coach
Rudolph, Wilma 1974 Athlete
Ryun, Jim 1980 Athlete
Ryan, Patrick 'Pat' or 'Paddy' 2014 Athlete
Salazar, Alberto 2001 Athlete
Samuelson, Joan 2004 Athlete
Santee, Wes 2005 Athlete
Schmertz, Fred 2012 Contributor
Schmertz, Howard 2012 Contributor
Schmidt, Kate 1994 Athlete
Scholz, Jackson 1977 Athlete
Schul, Bob 1991 Athlete
Scott, Steve 2002 Athlete
Seagren, Bob 1986 Athlete
Seidler, Maren 2000 Athlete
Sheppard, Mel 1976 Athlete
Sheridan, Martin 1988 Athlete
Shiley, Jean 1993 Athlete
Shorter, Frank 1989 Athlete
Silvester, Jay 1998 Athlete
Sime, Dave 1981 Athlete
Simpson, Robert 1974 Athlete
Slaney, Mary 2003 Athlete
Smith, Calvin 2007 Athlete
Smith, Tommie 1978 Athlete
Snyder, Larry 1978 Coach
Squires, Bill 2017 Coach
Stanfield, Andy 1977 Athlete
Steers, Les 1974 Athlete
Steele, Willie 2009 Athlete
Stephens, Helen 1975 Athlete
Stones, Dwight 1998 Athlete
Sullivan, James 1977 Administrator
Taylor, Frederick 2000 Athlete
Temple, Ed 1989 Coach
Templeton, Dink 1976 Coach
Tewksbury, Walter 1996 Athlete
Thomas, John 1985 Athlete
Thompson, Fred 2019 Coach
Thomson, Earl 1977 Athlete
Thorpe, Jim 1975 Athlete
Timmons, Bob 2011 Coach
Tolan, Eddie 1982 Athlete
Toomey, Bill 1975 Athlete
Torrance, Jack 2015 Athlete
Torrence, Gwen 2002 Athlete
Towns, Forrest 1976 Athlete
Trammell, Terrence 2021 Athlete
Tyus, Wyomia 1980 Athlete
Van Wolvelaere-Weirich, Patty 2017 Athlete
Virgin, Craig 2011 Athlete
Walker, LeRoy 1983 Coach
Walsh, Stella 1975 Athlete
Warmerdam, Cornelius 1974 Athlete
Watson, Martha 1987 Athlete
Wefers, Bernie 2008 Athlete
White, Willye 1981 Athlete
Whitfield, Mal 1974 Athlete
Wilkins, Mac 1993 Athlete
Williams, Archie 1992 Athlete
Williams, Randy 2009 Athlete
Williams, Steve 2013 Athlete
Wilt, Fred 1981 Athlete
Winter, Lloyd 1985 Coach
Wohlhuter, Rick 1990 Athlete
Wolcott, Fred 2005 Athlete
Wolfe, Vern 1996 Coach
Woodruff, John 1978 Athlete
Woods, George 2007 Athlete
Wottle, Dave 1982 Athlete
Wright, Stan 1993 Coach
Wykoff, Frank 1977 Athlete
Yancey, Joe 1984 Coach
Young, George 1981 Athlete
Young, Kevin 2006 Athlete
Young, Larry 2002 Athlete
Zarnowski, Frank 2016 Contributor
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