National Athletic Champion over 7 decades!Possible??

patcopas1 · 29-06-2017 8:15pm #1

Love quizzes,especially ones on sport.Friend(?) asked "who is the Irish athlete reg with the Internationally recognised bodies who since the 1950s on most years but certainly every few years has won national senior titles in the 1950,60s,70s & masters (vets) titles 70s,80s,90s,00s,and now teens.?Must be a national if not indeed international record.Am I been scammed?If such person exists and still alive they must be in their late70s if not indeed 80s or 90s.HELP!

El Caballo · 29-06-2017 9:21pm

patcopas1 wrote: »

Love quizzes,especially ones on sport.Friend(?) asked "who is the Irish athlete reg with the Internationally recognised bodies who since the 1950s on most years but certainly every few years has won national senior titles in the 1950,60s,70s & masters (vets) titles 70s,80s,90s,00s,and now teens.?Must be a national if not indeed international record.Am I been scammed?If such person exists and still alive they must be in their late70s if not indeed 80s or 90s.HELP!

At a guess, I'd say Jim McNamara would be a likely candidate. I know he had an individual 5000m title in the early 60's. Donore owned the National XC title during the 50's, 60's and 70's so I would not be surprised if he had a National senior team title from the 50's. He was also the most dominant masters athlete this country has ever produced holding loads of masters WR's and still competing at an international level this decade before his death. The timeline matches up with him becoming a masters athlete in the 70's

RacoonQueen · 29-06-2017 9:36pm

patcopas1 wrote: »

Love quizzes,especially ones on sport.Friend(?) asked "who is the Irish athlete reg with the Internationally recognised bodies who since the 1950s on most years but certainly every few years has won national senior titles in the 1950,60s,70s & masters (vets) titles 70s,80s,90s,00s,and now teens.?Must be a national if not indeed international record.Am I been scammed?If such person exists and still alive they must be in their late70s if not indeed 80s or 90s.HELP!

I'd say Jim Mc too. Was running with Donore from the 50's to 2016.

Sadly, passed away in March last year at 76. Still running internationally 4 months before he passed.

Murph_D · 29-06-2017 10:12pm

No mention of Jim McNamara before 1964 in the AAI Honour Roll though.

El Caballo · 29-06-2017 10:14pm

Murph_D wrote: »

No mention of Jim McNamara before 1964 in the AAI Honour Roll though.

He possibly has a senior team title from the 50's. Donore won everything around them during that timeframe

Murph_D · 29-06-2017 10:15pm

Possibly. Just saying the AAI seems to have no record of it, so maybe neither has the person posing the original quiz question! It does list Donore as Cross Country Champions in 1956, 58 and 59, but no team members listed.

patcopas1 · 30-06-2017 12:47pm

Not Jim Mac.Wins were all individual events.Dont think Jim won individual titles in 50s 60s or teens

youngrun · 30-06-2017 2:19pm

Would it be this man? http://european-masters-athletics.org/news-overview/1230-tadgh-lynch-2014-recipient--pat-naughton.html

Dubgal72 · 30-06-2017 3:19pm

patcopas1 wrote: »

Not Jim Mac.Wins were all individual events.Dont think Jim won individual titles in 50s 60s or teens

Definitely not Jim, he didn't join Donore until 1963. I have the pa on the case - he reckons it has to be a field eventer. Both athletes mentioned in youngrun's link; Hugh Gallagher (dec. early this year and Pat Naughton look like they could have the credentials

Edit: not Hugh Gallagher, a broken back kept him out of competition for a couple of decades.

patcopas1 · 30-06-2017 9:54pm

Not that fine athlete Pat Naughten.My friend(?)specified athlete was a member of an internationally body.Pat was a member of the NACA in the 50s and probably up to amalgamation around 1969 or 1970 and unsure if he won national titles around then.I see national masters on this weekend.If person concerned is still competing or indeed alive ! we might get the answer.Otherwise I give up.

Dubgal72 · 01-07-2017 12:33pm

patcopas1 wrote: »

Not that fine athlete Pat Naughten.My friend(?)specified athlete was a member of an internationally body.Pat was a member of the NACA in the 50s and probably up to amalgamation around 1969 or 1970 and unsure if he won national titles around then.I see national masters on this weekend.If person concerned is still competing or indeed alive ! we might get the answer.Otherwise I give up.

But NACA still held national competitions. He won the senior national decathlon titles in '57, '59 and '60.

I've been combing through Michael Gygax's 'A Golden Era' and getting very excited about athletes - female and male - who might fit the profile only to find they had a hiatus or stopped competing. So far, Naughten fits the bill but still have a few more athletes to read about. I'm attaching some extracts below.

https://us.v-cdn.net/6034073/uploads/attachments/516716/421207.jpeg

El Caballo · 01-07-2017 12:45pm

Dubgal72 wrote: »

But NACA still held national competitions. He won the senior national decathlon titles in '57, '59 and '60.

I've been combing through Michael Gygax's 'A Golden Era' and getting very excited about athletes - female and male - who might fit the profile only to find they had a hiatus or stopped competing. So far, Naughten fits the bill but still have a few more athletes to read about. I'm attaching some extracts below.

https://us.v-cdn.net/6034073/uploads/attachments/516716/421207.jpeg

He doesn't have a senior title in the 70's though which counts him out. I'm beginning to think there's no one out there that matches it. I've went through the roll of honour dozens of times and can't find anyone who won senior titles in the 50's, 60's and 70's never mind continuing the streak as a master,

Dubgal72 · 01-07-2017 12:50pm

Dubgal72 · 01-07-2017 12:58pm

patcopas1 wrote: »

Not that fine athlete Pat Naughten.My friend(?)specified athlete was a member of an internationally body.Pat was a member of the NACA in the 50s and probably up to amalgamation around 1969 or 1970 and unsure if he won national titles around then.I see national masters on this weekend.If person concerned is still competing or indeed alive ! we might get the answer.Otherwise I give up.

Do you mean recognised internationally? In which case, the person would have to be in an AAU club, the only internationally recognised body at the time. Or of course, - oops - part of the NIAAU. If the former, it would be a Dublin club as the six affiliated AAU clubs were in Dublin. BLE wasn't formed until 1967.

Dubgal72 · 01-07-2017 1:16pm

If somebody *El caballo* wants to trawl through results, they could do worse than look here: http://www.irishathleticshistory.ie/results/aau/

RacoonQueen · 01-07-2017 1:40pm

Dubgal72 wrote: »

Definitely not Jim, he didn't join Donore until 1963. I have the pa on the case - he reckons it has to be a field eventer. Both athletes mentioned in youngrun's link; Hugh Gallagher (dec. early this year and Pat Naughton look like they could have the credentials

Edit: not Hugh Gallagher, a broken back kept him out of competition for a couple of decades.

Woah, no fair, that's cheating.

Dubgal72 · 01-07-2017 1:48pm

RacoonQueen wrote: »

Woah, no fair, that's cheating.

Performance Enhancing Dad :pac:

patcopas1 · 01-07-2017 7:28pm

Athlete would have to be a member of AAU,then BLE,then AI.Quizzer r when I mentioned NACA athletes.Said did you read Q."I cannot revise Q to accommodate possible A.".Must have been internationally recognised body.Pat Naughten a very fine athlete but unfortunately does not qualify.
Will wait for Masters results.Then if no wiser.I Give up.

Murph_D · 02-07-2017 4:56pm

Dubgal is offline but suggested race walker Con Hearty of Civil Service Harriers.

He checks out - national senior and masters titles in every decade since the 1950s. Here's a sample of results:

1958 1 mile walk 7:27 (AAUE)
1960 1 mile walk 6:55 (AAUE)
1961 1 mile walk 7:12 (AAUE)
1972 20 km walk 1:40:14 (BLE)

(the above from AAI Roll of Honour 1873-2014)

1986 5,000m walk National Veterans Track & Field Championships (from Irish Times, 25 Aug 1986 p4)

1999 5,000m walk (M65) 31:48 Link

2002 5,000m walk (V6) 33:08 Masters Championships of Ireland Tullamore, 10th August, 2002.

2017 3k walk National Masters Indoor (M80) Link

QED!

I'm sure he has many more titles, just looked for one from each decade.

EDIT: Apparently he's DSD now, I'm sure DG can fill us in..

Dubgal72 · 02-07-2017 6:57pm

^^^ good work, Watson. See, all that foostering around, PhDing, finally came in useful

RacoonQueen · 02-07-2017 9:18pm

Race walkers don't count as athletes...

*puts on armour*

Murph_D · 02-07-2017 9:30pm

National titles over a 59 year period is quite something. Especially a race walker - that sport must take a terrible toll on the body!

patcopas1 · 04-07-2017 12:19am

My friend(?)quizzer says such athlete still exists and was a winner.at the Nat Masters cships Sun.last 2nd July.And was winner in 50s 60 s70s etc.Looked it up but am no wiser.HELP.

Murph_D · 04-07-2017 6:42am

Your friend(?) is correct.

SnappyDresser · 10-03-2020 10:52am

I can confirm that the individual has now won 8 decades national championships - 50s,60,70,80,90,naughtees,teens,20s!

Murph_D · 11-03-2020 12:54am

i008787 wrote: »

I can confirm that the individual has now won 8 decades national championships - 50s,60,70,80,90,naughtees,teens,20s!

Hearty congrats to him.

National Athletic Champion over 7 decades!Possible??

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