Let’s Make It Official, Become a Track Official!

Christina Adkins, KTC Secretary & USATF Official

Our cross-country season wrapped up at the Regionals meet on Wednesday, October 25.^th Coaches who did not have teams that qualified for the state meet will give their athletes a short break before conditioning them for track season.

Track season officially kicks off on Saturday, March 2^nd at Farragut High’s Jamboree. Luckily, I do not coach track and will switch over to being a track official in the spring. One of the benefits of being a track official is that you are only responsible for JUDGING. You don’t have to coach any athletes, stay late for practices, fundraise or request sponsors, order uniforms, call around for transportation, NOTHING. You are responsible for being in your assigned area at meets and judging the competition. I’ve also learned that having certified officials at meets can make events run smoother, which impacts the entire atmosphere at the meet.

Because I’m a new track official, I am often paired up with veteran officials to learn how to officiate different field or track events. At the 2023 University of Tennessee Track Invitational, I was paired up with Head Umpire Dick Ledyard to learn how to umpire relays and track events.

He has received several awards from the running community over the years. He received the USATF Outstanding Service Award and was inducted into the Knoxville Track Club Hall of Fame in 2019. The most meaningful award to him was the 2010 Bob Neff Award.  Bob was a special person who really had an impact on track in Knoxville.

Dick served KTC for several years as a board member, membership chair, finish line official, top volunteer, and a USATF Collegiate Official. When I asked him what led him to join the USATF Assocation, he shared that back in 1992, Doug Mooney, KTC’s President at the time asked Dick to help him with the Volunteer Track Classic doing meet management type stuff. While there, Stanley Underwood introduced himself and asked if Dick would like to come back the following weekend and help the track officials work a college track meet. He took him up on it and has been coming back to officiate for the past 32 years.

His first year as an unofficial official, he worked for Chuck Pate tracking finishes using a stopwatch. Two years later, Tennessee switched their timing over to the fully automatic timing (FAT) systems. That fall, Dick became a certified official. He has worked in the Indoor and Outdoor NCAA Championships for Divisions I, II and III. He’s officiated in Alabama, Georgia, Kentucky, Louisiana, Mississippi, Missouri, North Carolina, Ohio, South Carolina, Tennessee and Wisconsin. Dick’s mentors over the years were Stanley Underwood and Harold Jacobs. Stanley got him started and taught him what he needed to know. Harold provided opportunities and reinforced the same principles that Stanley did. Over the past 32 years, he’s met a lot of wonderful people and helped meets be successful.

He enjoys the running events more than the field events, but there’s no event that’s boring to him. In field events, you’re more likely to interact with the athletes than you would runners in the track events.  His second favorite area is the throws, but he prefaced you must be alert.  A lot of officials have been injured by thrown implements, particularly the hammer and javelin.

Dick shared some fond memories he’s had over the years as an official. In 2018 when Tennessee hosted the SEC Championships, Kathy Nash accidentally walked out in front of Grant Holloway of Florida when he was warming up for the 110M Hurdles final.  He could have run over her since he was a big guy, but he put her on his left hip and ran a few more steps with a huge smile on his face. Kathy wasn’t smiling, though she laughed when he put her down. Another embarrassing memory occurred when Tennessee hosted an international multi-event meet between the US and Germany. He was helping Bruce Borden with the women’s javelin, recording and acting as flight director. Some guy kept looking over Dick’s shoulder. The guy kept talking into a microphone stating who was up and how they were doing. Dick couldn’t hear the other official Bruce since he’s deaf in the left ear and the guy was talking in his right. Dick told the guy to get lost. Later, he found out the guy was Dan O’Brien, former Olympic Decathlon Champion.

Thank you, Dick Ledyard, for taking the time to share your story with me! I love preserving the wisdom and memories of our Officials Association Members and hope you enjoy learning about these fine folks too. We need more officials for this upcoming season! Reach out to Steve Luper steveluper74@gmail.com for more information on how to become a USATF official.