Belmont Plateau Cross Country Hall of Fame

Go to our new channel on youtube.com (Belmont Plateau Cross Country Hall of Fame). Interview with John Burns (La Salle /Villanova) and new inductee into our Hall of Fame as he discusses his running career and competing at Belmont Plateau Park in the 1970s.

The Belmont Plateau Hall of Fame Classic and HOF Induction Set for Aug 29, 2020

Philadelphia Distance Running History......Wednesday, August 4, 1976.....The Philadelphia Bicentenial Meet of Champions.....Less than 1 week after winning the 1500 meter Gold Medal in the Olympic Games in Montreal, Walker forged his way out of a pack in the last lap at Franklin Field to win the Mile Run in 3:56! Walker ran the race despite suffering the effects of a cold and recovering from Olympics....Paul Wellman (West Germany) was 2nd, followed by Rod Dixon (New Zealand...) and Eamonn Coghlan (Ireland/Villanova)- Coghlan had finished 4th a few days earlier in Olympic 1500...Sad note from that race was Marty Liquori going down in a fall with 300 meters to go. Liquori felt he was tripped by John Walker as Walker fought his way out of a box. The Meet was an incredible undertaking as many world class distance runners competed in the meet including , Dick Quaz, Lasse Viren (Finland)- after winning 5,000, 10,000 and 5th in marathon....Mark Belger, Mike Boit, Dick Buerkle,..and the highlight of the meet was Dwight Stones breaking the World Record in the High Jump (7' 7") less than a week after jumping in the rain in Montreal.....Philadelphia did a great job hosting this meet of champions!! See more

I recently met with Philadelphia Parks and Recreation Commisioner, Kathryn Ott Lovell and presented her with an award from the Belmont Plateau CC Hall of Fame, Kathryn was instrumental in upgrading the signage and support of the annual maintenence to the cross country courses at Belmont Plateau Park.

I was excited to be able to present Nyna Maree with the 2018 Belmont Plateau CC Hall of Fame Induction Award. Nyna was picking up the award for her father, Sydney Maree (Villanova) who was inducted into the Belmont Plateau CC Hall of Fame at last year's ceremony. Sydney is living in his homeland of South Africa these days. Nyna passed along her father's excitement of receiving the honor and he was happy to hear that he is still remembered in Philadelphia. Nyna lives in the Philadelphia area and is an avid runner and swimmer and very proud of her father's athletic career during the 1970s and 80s. His bio and stats on www.belmontplateaucchof.com

This past Saturday (Nov 9), Belmont Plateau hosted the NCAA Div 2 East Region Championship. 29 Men and Women teams came from over 6 states on the East Coast to challenge the 6k and 10k courses to see which teams and individuals moved on to the NCAA National Championship in Sacramento, Ca.t on Nov 23. Pictured is Men Winner, Erza Mutai (American Int) winning in 30:58. He motored over Flagpole Hill (3x), Nursery Hill (2x) and Parachute Hill (1x) to punch a ticket to the NCAA Champs. Robert Weslyn was team champion. Samantha Curtin led her Stonehill University team to first place winning the hilly 6k course in 22:19. This was the first time since 1986 that Belmont Plateau has hosted a NCAA East Region Championship. Jefferson Univ was the host school with Dave Thomas serving as race director.Besides Stonehill,

This Saturday- Belmont Plateau (and Jefferson University) will host the NCAA Div 2 East Region Cross Country Championship. Over 30 teams will be competeting to see which teams in the region (top 3) will go to the NCAA National Championship in Sacramento, Calif. Dave Thomas (Head Coach of Jefferson) will serve as Race Director and laid out the 6k (women) and 10k (men) courses. Women will run Flagpole (2x) and Parachute Hill (1x) and Nursery (1x) and Men will have to compete over the Flagpole (3x), Parachute 1x) and Nursery 2x). The last time the NCAA Div 2 East Champs was back in 1986 when Joe Ryan was the Philadelphia Textile Coach. Anyone interested in seeing the race- Women run at 12 and Men Run at 1:15 on Saturday, Nov 9th.

Pat Devine, long time coach of La Salle High Cross Country/Track & Field informed me this is the 30th anniversery of the 5,000 meter course at Belmont Plateau. Before the cross country season started in 1989, Pat Devine, Coach John Sharp (Archbishop Wood), Joe Ryan (Phila Textile), and Coach Kevin Quinn (St Joseph University) got together and mapped out the extra distance to bring the course used for all high school races from 2.9 distance up to the official 5,000 meterrs of which continues to be used today. For those harriers from the 60s and 70s, remember the original 2.5 course (around the Candy Store to the finish) of which John Jennings of Cardinal Dougherty had the record, then upgraded to 2.9 miles in 1973 and retired in 1979 (of which Joe Abrams/Bishop Egan) to the present 5,000..

The BPCCHOF is saddened to hear of the passing of Philadelphia Marathon Tim Wunsch on Tuesday (Sept 10) after a long battle with cancer. Tim won the Philadelphia Marathon in 1987 in a time of 2:24:08. The runners struggled for 26.2 miles that year as the race was run in cold and rainy conditions. The Marathon started at Independence Mall (about 2000 runners), with the course winding through the city up to Lincoln Drive and Mount Airy section and finishing at Memorial Hall (Please Touch Museum). Tim was a true champion of the sport who had a strong faith in God and one of the top road runners living in the Philly area in the late 1980s early 90s.

Belmont Plateau HOF honored the 1989 Villanova Women Cross Country team with induction into the HOF last Saturday, Aug 24.. The team won the women's first NCAA Title and that team was a "Dream Team" with every runner in the top 6 later went on to national titles, Olympic teams, World Champions in XC, and national and world records. The 1989 team was led by Vicki Huber (winner of individual title), Kathy Franey, Sonia O'Sullivan, Kim Certain, Cheri Goddard, and Kate Fonshell. The 7th runner on that team, Nnenna Lynch, had to drop out from breathing difficulties (was a 5 time NCAA champion and USA XC Trials winner, Rhodes Scholar). "Uncle" Marty Stern came back to Philly and Belmont to represent that 1989 team (his first of 5 in a row) and told stories of those runners accomplishments.

Thanks to Chris Mason (Villanova) who accepted the Hall of Fame Induction award last Saturday for his roomate and relay mate, Marty Liquori. We all know of Liquori's legendary career, but Chris also had a solid career, competing on 2 NCAA National XC teams. He also finished in the top 8 3x in the 1500 NCAA Nats,, was on 8 winning "Championship of America" relay teams at the Penn Relays, and was the 6th runner for Villanova to break the 4 minute mile for Villanova.He also had a solid road race career in Philly after college.

Vic Zwolak-" Villanova Great" from the past inducted into the Belmont Plateau CC Hall of Fame last Saturday at Belmont. Vic (80 yrs young) drove up 95 from his home in Delaware to accept induction from DT and gave a rousing talk on how he defeated Billy Mills (Quantico Marines) at Belmont in a duel meet in 1963 that Villanova won.. Story and more pics on www.belmontplateaucchof.com

A group of past cross country Philadelphia Catholic League runners gathered Saturday, Aug 24, 2019 at the Belmont Plateau CC Hall of Fame Induction Ceremony- starting at the left - John Burns (La Salle- 1975), Pete Heesen (Bishop McDevitt- 1973), 2019 HOF inductee, John JJ Jennings (Cardinal Dougherty- 1973), Mark Gillman (McDevitt-1973), Jim Herzog (Cardinal Dougherty) and Paul Hines (Cardinal Dougherty (1972).