DALLAS MASTERS TRACK and FIELD CLUB

 

JANUARY 2007

 

I’m sure most of you are wondering where I have been and why haven’t I written a newsletter before now.  Well, I haven’t been anywhere except home and at the track and I don’t really have a reason for not writing a newsletter except laziness.  Sprinters are known for being lazy.  As a rule, we walk slow, talk slow and are slow to get anything done until the gun goes off on the track.  Then we try to get our work done as quickly as possible so we can go sit down some where. 

 

ANNUAL MEETING

 

Our annual meeting will be held on January 16 at Moody Coliseum on the SMU campus.  The meeting will begin at 7:00 PM.  We will have a short business meeting and then hear from our speaker.  This year’s invited speaker is Mischal Berger from UTA.  Mischal is one of the assistant coaches at UTA and is one of the top 10 women 800 runners in the country.  Most of her time she wants to use in a question and answer format, but this lady is very knowledgeable in training techniques and rules.  I urge you to come out and hear her, visit with each other show your support for our club.  We need all of you to help make us a strong entity in our sport.  We will also be electing officers for the coming year.  If no one steps forth to take part as a leader, then you will have to abide the current leaders for another year.  Current president is Lester Mount, vice-president is Roger Conboy and Wayne Bennett is your secretary-treasurer.  Nominations will accepted from the floor.

 

DR. FRED WHITE

 

Many of you are aware of the fact that Dr. White was one of the founders of the Dallas Masters.  Many of you may not know that he passed away on October 6, 2006.  I tried to notify those closest to him as soon as I knew.  Dr. White was an inspiration to all who ever met him.  In addition to being a great masters track star, he was instrumental in starting Dallas Baptist College and has a building on that campus named in his honor.  He also published a couple of books and if you have one of those, treasure it.  The one I have is called “A Tiger by the Tail” and is delightful reading and I’m proud to say that he autographed it for me.  In his career as a Dallas Master, he attended several world games and also set some world records.  We are trying to amass his feats so that we can get him into the USATF Masters Hall of Fame.  My fondest memories of Dr. White are of a small, white haired man with a smile, a quick laugh and a good word for everyone around him.  He was totally unselfish and always told me what a good job I was doing, whether I was or not.  He was a great encourager.  In the years after his heart attack and strokes, he often took the time to write letters encouraging others to keep up the good work they were doing for the club and for the Lord.  He never let you forget what he thought was most important.  God always came first and track was second.  I regret that I did not take more time to visit this great human being. 

 

CONGRATULATIONS

 

Congratulations are in order for Mr. Courtland Gray.  Courtland was elected to the USATF Masters Hall of Fame in December.  He also served as president of the Dallas Masters for three years.  He has several world records to his name and claims to have never been beaten in the long hurdles since he began masters competition.

 

MISCELLANEOUS

 

Let me remind you that if you have not renewed your membership for 2007, now is the time to do that. 

This month begins a new way of communicating with a lot of you.  For all of you that I have e-mail addresses for, you will receive this news letter via that form.  This is an effort to cut expenses as I will only have to pay postage and envelopes for about one third of our members. 

We have fixed the dates for our Texas Masters Championships and the Southwestern Association meet.  They are July 21st and June 16 respectively.  The sites are to be determined.  Coppell is not available in June and I am trying to get a corporate sponsor to allow us to return to UTA for our meet in July.  The approximate cost for UTA is $3-4000.  I’m hoping to nail this down pretty soon.  Luke’s has expressed an interest or if your company would be interested in doing this, please let me know.

 

There is an indoor meet in Lubbock on January 13.  Entry forms are available at TTU.edu.  they have named the meet the Paul Johnson Memorial meet.  It will follow the same format as in the past, but may not be the Southwest Regional Indoor Championships. 

 

WE LOOK FORWARD TO SEEING YOU ON THE 16TH OF JANUARY AT SMU’S MOODY COLISEUM, NORTHEAST CORNER OF THE BUILDING.

 

SEND IN YOUR RENEWAL IF YOU HAVEN’T DONE SO.

 

 

 

WAYNE BENNETT