{"id":28581,"date":"2005-02-01T16:52:19","date_gmt":"2005-02-02T00:52:19","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/trackandfieldnews.com\/?p=28581"},"modified":"2019-03-27T16:53:32","modified_gmt":"2019-03-27T23:53:32","slug":"from-the-editor-january-2005-having-craig-masback-and-bill-roe-set-for-additional-terms-at-usatf-is-a-big-plus-for-the-sport","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/trackandfieldnews.com\/from-the-editor-january-2005-having-craig-masback-and-bill-roe-set-for-additional-terms-at-usatf-is-a-big-plus-for-the-sport\/","title":{"rendered":"From The Editor \u2014 January 2005: Having Craig Masback and Bill Roe set for additional terms at USATF is a big plus for the sport"},"content":{"rendered":"

BASHING CRAIG MASBACK<\/strong> has become a popular Internet exercise in some quarters. And by all accounts there are some inside the world of the volunteer organization that is USA Track & Field that also want his scalp. Fortunately, neither of these radical camps held any particular sway when push came to shove and USATF\u2019s Board Of Directors recently extended his contract as CEO.<\/p>\n

We\u2019re not on each other\u2019s Xmas-card lists by any means, but I do have to admit to a friendly relationship with Craig that predates his involvement with the federation by many years (ahh, the trip to a Eugene movie theater at the \u201980 Olympic Trials to see The Shining, with rowdy athletes rolling beer bottles between the seats), so perhaps I don\u2019t bring a perfectly detached journalist\u2019s perspective to the proceedings. Nor am I a USATF insider in any way; I steer clear of the political side of things.<\/p>\n

But with those two caveats made clear, from where I sit allow me to say that Masback has been the right guy in the right place at the right time.<\/p>\n

The Ollan Cassell era in Indianapolis ended with a feeling that new blood was needed to drive a fading sport into the next century. As a former world-class performer who had stayed intimately in touch with the sport and with a law degree under his suspenders, Masback seemed a perfect fit. He has done nothing to dissuade me that that analysis was wrong.<\/p>\n

Yes, the last few years of incessant drug-scandaling have come on his watch and while it\u2019s true that the buck should always stop at the head man\u2019s desk, my take on that is a simple one: despite all the PR hits the U.S. side of the sport has taken, it would have been only worse without Masback in place. Despite what on the surface might look like fallings-out with the IAAF, I think he has maintained their respect as a valid caretaker for the sport in the U.S.<\/p>\n

His shrewd diplomacy and understanding of how things work in the labyrinthine halls of bureaucracy that make up not only USATF but also the international sporting community as a whole have prevented a real disaster. Without him at the helm, I think the USOC\u2019s threat to decertify USATF may well have come to pass.<\/p>\n

There\u2019s a second strong element required to keep an organization like USATF glued together and that\u2019s a strong President. Not in any way to disparage his predecessors, but USATF has never had as good a prexy as Bill Roe, so it was with great pleasure that I noted his re-election in Portland. As with Masback, allow me to note while Roe too is not on the Xmas list, he and I do share an unbridled passion for Lord Of The Rings, and that doesn\u2019t mean the shot or discus kind.<\/p>\n

But Roe has been absolutely tireless in working for USATF\u2019s best interest, from top to bottom. No matter what age group or how amateur or professional the athletes involved, Roe has taken a deep and incisive look at what\u2019s going on and worked to make it better.<\/p>\n

Best of all, I like the synergy when I see Masback and Roe working in concert. Each understands what belongs in whose bailiwick and whose strengths lie where. Having them both in place at once can mean nothing but good for U.S. track & field, and I\u2019m glad that the people responsible for putting them in place saw fit to do so again.<\/p>\n

#@!2005-01-01#@!2005-01-01#@!10#@!4#@!1#@!0#@!NULL#@!0#@!2007-01-27 09:59:02
\n2393#@!TFN#@!February 2005#@!NULL#@!Meets tend to be unkind towards those who think of the sport as field & track#@!<\/p>\n

IF YOU\u2019RE LIKE MOST FANS, YOU LIKE TRACK MORE THAN FIELD.<\/strong> I tend to be of the opposite persuasion, but the way \u201cathletics\u201d is presented, it\u2019s certainly a lot easier to be enamored of running competitions. It\u2019s simple to appreciate a race\u2014any race\u2014because it really doesn\u2019t matter how far it is or how fast the people are running. Just watching them go head-to-head, running from point A to point B as fast as they can, is about as good as it gets in sporting entertainment.<\/p>\n

<\/p>\n

And you can tune into the action in the middle of a race and still instantly know enough of what\u2019s going on. Would that appreciating jumping and throwing were so easy.<\/p>\n

Can you imagine watching any of the popular ball sports without a scoreboard? No indication of the score, no idea how much time is left in the game? Anybody who tried to sell a sport with that kind of spectator aid would be laughed off the planet.<\/p>\n

Yet that\u2019s just what happens with field events, which not only make up about half the disciplines in the sport, but also dominate the landscape in terms of time of competition. But walk into a track meet at any level\u2014even the World Championships or Olympic Games\u2014and your chance of finding out what\u2019s going on in any of the jumps or throws is almost impossible. Even with all the marvels of modern electronics.<\/p>\n

If you\u2019re lucky enough to be at a high-end meet, there will be high-tech indicators, yes, but they will tell you only what position the current performer is in before giving you the latest mark. So if your attention has been focused on the 1500 final for the previous 5:00 and you turn to the triple jump you\u2019ll be thrilled to see that the guy currently in 9th is on the runway. No clue as to who is the leader, let alone who\u2019s in the medal positions.<\/p>\n

The announcer, no matter how good he is, probably won\u2019t have the time to recap the whole event for you (although the good ones try). The scoreboard? It\u2019s usually too busy with pictures to\u2014heaven forbid!\u2014put up something like field event results until the event is over.<\/p>\n

Not to pick on Stanford, but it provides the best example of how the sport has gotten off-track (no pun intended) in the field-event presentation department. The school has a cutting-edge million-dollar scoreboard that produces fabulous images and has greatly enhanced the average fan\u2019s viewing pleasure, to be sure. But nowhere can you find ongoing field-event results. Yet 50 years ago (!) at the same school, you could. Just look at the photo.<\/p>\n

I can understand that your everyday meet can\u2019t have that kind of aid, but how can the IAAF and USATF run the sport at the international and national championship level without ensuring that the fans know what is going on at all times in all events on the program?<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

BASHING CRAIG MASBACK has become a popular Internet exercise in some quarters. And by all accounts there are some inside… Read More<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":7,"featured_media":2850,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[12],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-28581","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-features"],"acf":[],"yoast_head":"\nFrom The Editor \u2014 January 2005: Having Craig Masback and Bill Roe set for additional terms at USATF is a big plus for the sport - Track & Field News<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/trackandfieldnews.com\/from-the-editor-january-2005-having-craig-masback-and-bill-roe-set-for-additional-terms-at-usatf-is-a-big-plus-for-the-sport\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"From The Editor \u2014 January 2005: Having Craig Masback and Bill Roe set for additional terms at USATF is a big plus for the sport - Track & Field News\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"BASHING CRAIG MASBACK has become a popular Internet exercise in some quarters. And by all accounts there are some inside... Read More\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:url\" content=\"https:\/\/trackandfieldnews.com\/from-the-editor-january-2005-having-craig-masback-and-bill-roe-set-for-additional-terms-at-usatf-is-a-big-plus-for-the-sport\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:site_name\" content=\"Track & Field News\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:published_time\" content=\"2005-02-02T00:52:19+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:modified_time\" content=\"2019-03-27T23:53:32+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:image\" content=\"https:\/\/trackandfieldnews.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/04\/from-editor-feat.jpg\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:width\" content=\"1000\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:height\" content=\"526\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:type\" content=\"image\/jpeg\" \/>\n<meta name=\"author\" content=\"E. Garry Hill\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:card\" content=\"summary_large_image\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:label1\" content=\"Written by\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data1\" content=\"E. Garry Hill\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:label2\" content=\"Est. reading time\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data2\" content=\"6 minutes\" \/>\n<script type=\"application\/ld+json\" class=\"yoast-schema-graph\">{\"@context\":\"https:\/\/schema.org\",\"@graph\":[{\"@type\":\"WebPage\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/trackandfieldnews.com\/from-the-editor-january-2005-having-craig-masback-and-bill-roe-set-for-additional-terms-at-usatf-is-a-big-plus-for-the-sport\/\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/trackandfieldnews.com\/from-the-editor-january-2005-having-craig-masback-and-bill-roe-set-for-additional-terms-at-usatf-is-a-big-plus-for-the-sport\/\",\"name\":\"From The Editor \u2014 January 2005: Having Craig Masback and Bill Roe set for additional terms at USATF is a big plus for the sport - Track & Field News\",\"isPartOf\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/trackandfieldnews.com\/#website\"},\"primaryImageOfPage\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/trackandfieldnews.com\/from-the-editor-january-2005-having-craig-masback-and-bill-roe-set-for-additional-terms-at-usatf-is-a-big-plus-for-the-sport\/#primaryimage\"},\"image\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/trackandfieldnews.com\/from-the-editor-january-2005-having-craig-masback-and-bill-roe-set-for-additional-terms-at-usatf-is-a-big-plus-for-the-sport\/#primaryimage\"},\"thumbnailUrl\":\"https:\/\/trackandfieldnews.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/04\/from-editor-feat.jpg\",\"datePublished\":\"2005-02-02T00:52:19+00:00\",\"dateModified\":\"2019-03-27T23:53:32+00:00\",\"author\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/trackandfieldnews.com\/#\/schema\/person\/e25ae5ec4da129731e15df3e9c327e79\"},\"breadcrumb\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/trackandfieldnews.com\/from-the-editor-january-2005-having-craig-masback-and-bill-roe-set-for-additional-terms-at-usatf-is-a-big-plus-for-the-sport\/#breadcrumb\"},\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"ReadAction\",\"target\":[\"https:\/\/trackandfieldnews.com\/from-the-editor-january-2005-having-craig-masback-and-bill-roe-set-for-additional-terms-at-usatf-is-a-big-plus-for-the-sport\/\"]}]},{\"@type\":\"ImageObject\",\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/trackandfieldnews.com\/from-the-editor-january-2005-having-craig-masback-and-bill-roe-set-for-additional-terms-at-usatf-is-a-big-plus-for-the-sport\/#primaryimage\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/trackandfieldnews.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/04\/from-editor-feat.jpg\",\"contentUrl\":\"https:\/\/trackandfieldnews.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/04\/from-editor-feat.jpg\",\"width\":\"1000\",\"height\":\"526\"},{\"@type\":\"BreadcrumbList\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/trackandfieldnews.com\/from-the-editor-january-2005-having-craig-masback-and-bill-roe-set-for-additional-terms-at-usatf-is-a-big-plus-for-the-sport\/#breadcrumb\",\"itemListElement\":[{\"@type\":\"ListItem\",\"position\":1,\"name\":\"Home\",\"item\":\"https:\/\/trackandfieldnews.com\/\"},{\"@type\":\"ListItem\",\"position\":2,\"name\":\"From The Editor \u2014 January 2005: Having Craig Masback and Bill Roe set for additional terms at USATF is a big plus for the sport\"}]},{\"@type\":\"WebSite\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/trackandfieldnews.com\/#website\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/trackandfieldnews.com\/\",\"name\":\"Track & Field News\",\"description\":\"The Bible of the Sport Since 1948\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"SearchAction\",\"target\":{\"@type\":\"EntryPoint\",\"urlTemplate\":\"https:\/\/trackandfieldnews.com\/?s={search_term_string}\"},\"query-input\":{\"@type\":\"PropertyValueSpecification\",\"valueRequired\":true,\"valueName\":\"search_term_string\"}}],\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\"},{\"@type\":\"Person\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/trackandfieldnews.com\/#\/schema\/person\/e25ae5ec4da129731e15df3e9c327e79\",\"name\":\"E. Garry Hill\",\"image\":{\"@type\":\"ImageObject\",\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/trackandfieldnews.com\/#\/schema\/person\/image\/\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/87682d0818027d3414f300b41922b0e18153bac55ebc6e160b5a7a78d480029f?s=96&d=mm&r=g\",\"contentUrl\":\"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/87682d0818027d3414f300b41922b0e18153bac55ebc6e160b5a7a78d480029f?s=96&d=mm&r=g\",\"caption\":\"E. Garry Hill\"},\"url\":\"https:\/\/trackandfieldnews.com\/author\/garry\/\"}]}<\/script>\n<!-- \/ Yoast SEO plugin. -->","yoast_head_json":{"title":"From The Editor \u2014 January 2005: Having Craig Masback and Bill Roe set for additional terms at USATF is a big plus for the sport - Track & Field News","robots":{"index":"index","follow":"follow","max-snippet":"max-snippet:-1","max-image-preview":"max-image-preview:large","max-video-preview":"max-video-preview:-1"},"canonical":"https:\/\/trackandfieldnews.com\/from-the-editor-january-2005-having-craig-masback-and-bill-roe-set-for-additional-terms-at-usatf-is-a-big-plus-for-the-sport\/","og_locale":"en_US","og_type":"article","og_title":"From The Editor \u2014 January 2005: Having Craig Masback and Bill Roe set for additional terms at USATF is a big plus for the sport - Track & Field News","og_description":"BASHING CRAIG MASBACK has become a popular Internet exercise in some quarters. And by all accounts there are some inside... Read More","og_url":"https:\/\/trackandfieldnews.com\/from-the-editor-january-2005-having-craig-masback-and-bill-roe-set-for-additional-terms-at-usatf-is-a-big-plus-for-the-sport\/","og_site_name":"Track & Field News","article_published_time":"2005-02-02T00:52:19+00:00","article_modified_time":"2019-03-27T23:53:32+00:00","og_image":[{"width":1000,"height":526,"url":"https:\/\/trackandfieldnews.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/04\/from-editor-feat.jpg","type":"image\/jpeg"}],"author":"E. Garry Hill","twitter_card":"summary_large_image","twitter_misc":{"Written by":"E. Garry Hill","Est. reading time":"6 minutes"},"schema":{"@context":"https:\/\/schema.org","@graph":[{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https:\/\/trackandfieldnews.com\/from-the-editor-january-2005-having-craig-masback-and-bill-roe-set-for-additional-terms-at-usatf-is-a-big-plus-for-the-sport\/","url":"https:\/\/trackandfieldnews.com\/from-the-editor-january-2005-having-craig-masback-and-bill-roe-set-for-additional-terms-at-usatf-is-a-big-plus-for-the-sport\/","name":"From The Editor \u2014 January 2005: Having Craig Masback and Bill Roe set for additional terms at USATF is a big plus for the sport - Track & Field News","isPartOf":{"@id":"https:\/\/trackandfieldnews.com\/#website"},"primaryImageOfPage":{"@id":"https:\/\/trackandfieldnews.com\/from-the-editor-january-2005-having-craig-masback-and-bill-roe-set-for-additional-terms-at-usatf-is-a-big-plus-for-the-sport\/#primaryimage"},"image":{"@id":"https:\/\/trackandfieldnews.com\/from-the-editor-january-2005-having-craig-masback-and-bill-roe-set-for-additional-terms-at-usatf-is-a-big-plus-for-the-sport\/#primaryimage"},"thumbnailUrl":"https:\/\/trackandfieldnews.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/04\/from-editor-feat.jpg","datePublished":"2005-02-02T00:52:19+00:00","dateModified":"2019-03-27T23:53:32+00:00","author":{"@id":"https:\/\/trackandfieldnews.com\/#\/schema\/person\/e25ae5ec4da129731e15df3e9c327e79"},"breadcrumb":{"@id":"https:\/\/trackandfieldnews.com\/from-the-editor-january-2005-having-craig-masback-and-bill-roe-set-for-additional-terms-at-usatf-is-a-big-plus-for-the-sport\/#breadcrumb"},"inLanguage":"en-US","potentialAction":[{"@type":"ReadAction","target":["https:\/\/trackandfieldnews.com\/from-the-editor-january-2005-having-craig-masback-and-bill-roe-set-for-additional-terms-at-usatf-is-a-big-plus-for-the-sport\/"]}]},{"@type":"ImageObject","inLanguage":"en-US","@id":"https:\/\/trackandfieldnews.com\/from-the-editor-january-2005-having-craig-masback-and-bill-roe-set-for-additional-terms-at-usatf-is-a-big-plus-for-the-sport\/#primaryimage","url":"https:\/\/trackandfieldnews.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/04\/from-editor-feat.jpg","contentUrl":"https:\/\/trackandfieldnews.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/04\/from-editor-feat.jpg","width":"1000","height":"526"},{"@type":"BreadcrumbList","@id":"https:\/\/trackandfieldnews.com\/from-the-editor-january-2005-having-craig-masback-and-bill-roe-set-for-additional-terms-at-usatf-is-a-big-plus-for-the-sport\/#breadcrumb","itemListElement":[{"@type":"ListItem","position":1,"name":"Home","item":"https:\/\/trackandfieldnews.com\/"},{"@type":"ListItem","position":2,"name":"From The Editor \u2014 January 2005: Having Craig Masback and Bill Roe set for additional terms at USATF is a big plus for the sport"}]},{"@type":"WebSite","@id":"https:\/\/trackandfieldnews.com\/#website","url":"https:\/\/trackandfieldnews.com\/","name":"Track & Field News","description":"The Bible of the Sport Since 1948","potentialAction":[{"@type":"SearchAction","target":{"@type":"EntryPoint","urlTemplate":"https:\/\/trackandfieldnews.com\/?s={search_term_string}"},"query-input":{"@type":"PropertyValueSpecification","valueRequired":true,"valueName":"search_term_string"}}],"inLanguage":"en-US"},{"@type":"Person","@id":"https:\/\/trackandfieldnews.com\/#\/schema\/person\/e25ae5ec4da129731e15df3e9c327e79","name":"E. Garry Hill","image":{"@type":"ImageObject","inLanguage":"en-US","@id":"https:\/\/trackandfieldnews.com\/#\/schema\/person\/image\/","url":"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/87682d0818027d3414f300b41922b0e18153bac55ebc6e160b5a7a78d480029f?s=96&d=mm&r=g","contentUrl":"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/87682d0818027d3414f300b41922b0e18153bac55ebc6e160b5a7a78d480029f?s=96&d=mm&r=g","caption":"E. Garry Hill"},"url":"https:\/\/trackandfieldnews.com\/author\/garry\/"}]}},"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/trackandfieldnews.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/04\/from-editor-feat.jpg","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/trackandfieldnews.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/28581","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/trackandfieldnews.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/trackandfieldnews.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/trackandfieldnews.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/7"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/trackandfieldnews.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=28581"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/trackandfieldnews.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/28581\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":28582,"href":"https:\/\/trackandfieldnews.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/28581\/revisions\/28582"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/trackandfieldnews.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/2850"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/trackandfieldnews.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=28581"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/trackandfieldnews.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=28581"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/trackandfieldnews.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=28581"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}