From Walt Murphy. Shared with permission (with minor editing from Fan Hub admin). Walt produces an info-rich daily ”This Day in T&F” newsletter. Contact him at waltmurphy44@gmail.com if you’d like to join his distribution list.
From Walt:
I was on my way yesterday to a Celebration of Life for Ed Bowes, an old friend who died in 2020, when I received an email from Donna Dye, letting me know that another old friend, her husband John, had passed away the night before.
Both men had a tremendous impact on high school track. Ed, a miler at Bishop Loughlin H.S.(Brooklyn,NY) and Manhattan College, was the long-time director of two major meets—the Bishop Loughlin Games at NY’s Armory, and the Manhattan College X-Country Invitational at Van Cortlandt Park, an event he revived in 1973 and which will celebrate its 50th edition next Saturday. He was also a strong advocate for the development of high school track for girls in NYC in the 1970s.
John Dye, of course, was the creator of DyeStat, the ground-breaking website that brought the high school T&F community together like it never had before (with help from “Donna on the Side”, his wife’s photo displays on the site/see below for more).
As we often did when John was in NY to cover a meet, we took a break from a long day at the Armory to have lunch (and a beer or two) at Coogan’s, which was right around the corner. We were walking down 169th Street when a young runner, warming up on the streets outside the Armory, came towards us and stopped dead in his tracks and said, “Oh my god, it’s John Dye”! (John had recently posted his photo on DyeStat). It was confirmation that John had become a star and an inspiration in the world of high school track.
John, a runner himself during his own H.S. days, was recognized for his contribution to the sport by being named to the inaugural class of inductees into the National H.S. T&F Hall of Fame in 2018.
From his son Derek: We have set up a memorial page* that you can contribute memories or pictures in the comments section. I know he would want this moment as a celebration of life instead of as a sad moment, so please approach it as such!
