Track & Field News The Bible Of The Sport Since 1948 from the Founded by Bert & Cordner Nelson E. GARRY HILL — Editor ED FOX — Publisher

editor EDITORIAL STAFF Sieg Lindstrom ...... Managing Editor Jeff Hollobaugh ...... Associate Editor BUSINESS STAFF Janet Vitu ...... Executive Publisher BACK IN JANUARY OF 2014 this space was dedicated to the concept “Te IAAF & USATF Halls Of Fame Need More Members.” Wallace Dere ...... Offce Manager What was true then has become even truer today, but in this column I’ll just talk about the Teresa Tam ...... Art Director more important of the two Halls, the IAAF’s, which hasn’t been well handled from the get-go, WORLD RANKINGS COMPILERS and almost 5 years after its inaugural class Jonathan Berenbom, Richard Hymans, Dave was inducted still numbers a mere 48 (31 The IAAF’s Hall Of Fame Johnson, Nejat Kök, R.L. Quercetani (Emeritus) men, 17 women). Still Doesn’t Have Nearly How we got to those 48 still gripes me. SENIOR EDITORS When the IAAF did its inaugural class of Bob Bowman (Walking), Roy Conrad (Special Projects), Jon Hendershott (Emeritus), Bob Hersh Enough Members 24 in November of ’12, it ensured that all (Eastern), Mike Kennedy (HS Girls), Glen Mc- geographical areas and all event groups were Micken (Lists), Walt Murphy (Relays), Jim Rorick represented. Tat’s wonderfully PC and even (Stats), Jack Shepard (HS Boys) makes some decent marketing sense, but it ofends my sense of what a HOF is all about. And what the frst class named is all about, which is the honor of being super-special. U.S. CORRESPONDENTS Te criteria for the frst class selected also mandated that the athletes must have at least 2 gold John Auka, Bob Bettwy, Bret Bloomquist, Bill Buchalter, Tom Casacky, Pete Cava, Gene Cherry, medals from the Olympics and/or World Championships. So if you were an athlete in an event Keith Conning, Cheryl Davis, Elliott Denman, that didn’t allow doubling, or your career was before the WC were invented, or you were boycot- Peter Diamond, Charles Fleishman, ted out of a Games or were from an era where there were no Olympics at all, or were from an era John Gillespie, Becca Gillespy-Peter, Rich Gon- where many/most Olympic gold medalists promptly retired, you need not apply. zalez, Ed Gordon, Ed Grant, George Grenier, Ben Two more sets of 12 were added in ’13 & ’14. “But what about the classes of ’15 & ’16,” you Hall, Sean Hartnett, Mike Hubbard, might well ask? Big ball-drop by Monaco on those. Instead of using the Hall as a spectacular Dave Hunter, Tom Jennings, Roger Jennings, Tom tool to create good memories at a time when the federation has been mired in the muck of frst Jordan, Kim Koffman, Don Kopriva, Dan Lilot, the Diack scandal and then the Russian doping melodrama, it choose simply to ignore the Hall. Charlie Mahler, Paul Merca, Larry Newman, Lee One hopes the IAAF will get back on track this year, but even if it does I have to ask, “Why Nichols, Jack Pfeifer, Shawn Price, hasn’t there been any publicity about it?” Other sports manage to make hay with their Halls for Harv Rentschler, Kirk Reynolds, Brian Russell, many months of the year. Why not a list of say 100 candidates at the start of each year, cutting Rich Sands, Kevin Saylors, Charles Shaffer, Jim that to 50 quarterfnalists at mid-year when the Diamond League goes on its inevitable hiatus Spier, Jesse Squire, and then to 25 semifnalists a month or two before the class proper is introduced? Don Steffens, Larry Story, Paul Swangard, Carol Speaking of the invisibility of the Hall, should you want to know who is currently in, the R. Swenson, Gary Trigueiro, Jules Trigueiro, word “fame” appears nowhere on the IAAF’s home page. Instead, you need to go to a row of Steve Vaitones, Howard Willman, David Woods links at the top and fgure out that the Hall is listed under the pull-down menu titles “Athletes.” INTERNATIONAL CORRESPONDENTS Color me selfsh, but before I shufe of this mortal coil I’d like to see a truly representative Steven Downes, Matti Hannus, Ian Hodge, Jonas international HOF with all the names that “belong” there. Hedman, Atsushi Hoshino, Mike Hurst, Mirko Simple made-up-on-the-spot-math: let’s conservatively say that each of the 22 standard men’s Jalava, Paul Jenes, Alfons Juck, events should average 5 HOF members each. And—through no fault of their own, but a shorter A. Lennart Julin, Duncan Mackay, Peter Mat- history is a shorter history—let’s say the 21 women’s events should average 3. Tat makes for a thews, Phil Minshull, K. Ken Nakamura, Bob “proper” total of 173 members. Subtract the 48 already in and that means at least 125 are missing. Ramsak, Sergey Tikhonov, Chris Turner, Mel At a dozen a year it’s going to take 11 years before the HOF even gets current with those Watman athletes who are eligible now (retired in ’06 or earlier). And 11 years from now there will have PHOTOGRAPHERS been another 20 years of newly eligible people (can you say , class of ’27?). Te Hall: Claus Andersen, Errol Anderson, Greg Arm- strong, John Burke, Gladys Chai, Rich Clarkson, Men—, , , Seb Coe, , , Harrison Giancarlo Colombo, Tony Duffy, Don Gosney, Dillard, , Vladimir Golubnichiy, Michael Johnson, , Kip Keino, Jeff Jacobsen, Anthony R. Jones, , , , Janis Lusis, , , , , Dan O’Brien, Parry O’Brien, , , , Yuriy Kirby Lee, Bill Leung, Andrew McClanahan, Syedikh, , Daley Tompson, Lasse Viren, Dutch Warmerdam & Emil Zátopek. Jiro Mochizuki, Kevin Morris, David Peterson, Women—Iolanda Balas, Fanny Blankers-Koen, , Babe Didrikson, , Marjorie Victor Sailer, Mike Scott, Mark Shearman, Kim Jackson, Jackie Joyner-Kersee, , , , , Marie- Spir, Cheryl Treworgy José Pérec, , -De La Hunty, Irena Szewińska, & Junxia Wang.

4 — August 2017 Track & Field News

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