Current Nominees

• Contributor

Along with Fran Errota and Don Nash, Hugh Gardner, meticulously compiled the national high school track statistics and national records, the original data that we still use to this day. Hugh recorded everything on thousands of 3x5 cards and routinely mailed tear-away postcards to his contacts around the country, his way of checking on the veracity of performances. Gardner's most concentrated period was the 1960s, when he lived in an SRO in Redwood City, Calif. Gardner, a native of Indiana, passed away anonymously in 1971, his lifetime of track and field possessions and unique card file sitting on the sidewalk, put there by the building superintendent. Bert Nelson, then the owner of Track & Field News, heard of this and hurriedly drove to Redwood City to retrieve this invaluable material before the trashmen arrived.