Elected in 2011

USA Triathlon National South Midwest Region Representative

I did my first Triathlon Aug 1980, the Heart of Dixie Triathlon in Philadelphia, MS. At the time I was a member of the U.S. Air Force. I then left for 7 years of overseas service where I competed in Nice Long Course Tri twice.  While overseas in Italy, I produced my first Triathlons for the Air Force. I produced 3 in all.  Retired in 1987, went to ASU in San Angelo, did the first of 4 Hawaiian IronMan. Worked for the YMCA and produced my first Professional Triathlon, the Wool Capital Tri in 1988.  Now one of the 20 oldest events in the USA and the oldest Olympic Distance Tri in Texas.

 In 1989, Ester and I went to our first Frost yer Fanny at Texas A&M.  There we met Rick Margiotta and Dave Rainey. I was also elected to the Regional Board, then known as the Texas Triathlon Association then became Tri-FedUSA/Texas and finally Tri-Fed/South Midwest. For the next 8 years I served as its Treasurer, Vice President and President for 3 years.  It was Ian Pattie, Roger Price, Dave Rainey and myself that developed the present ranking system  that has lasted for nearly a quarter of a century.  Ian did the most work developing the program, still used today to rank the athletes.  Later Dave Rainey and I wrote the first regional handbook the blue print for all the other regions and today’s operating platform within USAT. In 1990 I was asked by USAT to organize and help start the second oldest region within USAT: USAT/Mid Atlantic.

In 1993, I was given the opportunity to produce the Duathlon World Championships at Joe Pool Lake in Grand Prairie.  It was the first World Championship of its kind ever to be hosted in Texas.  We drew over 600 athletes from 23 countries, including 150 pros. At that time, Duathlon, according to many in the sport was in trouble as a sport.  Our event according to those same folks saved the sport. For our efforts I was selected as Triathlete Magazine’s Race Director of the Year. It was also at that our event that we initiated the practice of the mount dismount line to promote safety and fairness.  It immediately caught on and is now standard practice at almost all sanctioned events.  In 1994, we initiated the swimmer accountability system using numbered swim caps and “tongue depressors”.       

In 1997 I was elected the USAT National Board of Directors, the first of 3 consecutive terms.  I was again elected in 2004 and served an additional 2 years.  During my time on the Board I served as its treasurer 4 years which saw the Federation’s budget grow from 1 million dollars to over 5 million dollars. As a Board member I wrote 43 enacted resolutions many of which are still in effect today.  Some of those established the Duathlon Commission, the present one day fee rates, the standard for Regional Federations, the regional championship selection process, the Clydesdale/Athena standards to name a few. After my time on the Board I served 4 years as the Federation’s Chair of the Race Director’s Commission.

E-mail:  ironjack@ironheadrp.com