Imagine, then, the commotion caused when one of the living Olympians honored inside the IATCCC Track & Field and Cross Country Hall of Fame and Museum walks in and poses beside his individual display. It happened earlier this month during an open house for the new facility, located in the west wing of the Terre Haute Convention and Visitors Bureau on East Margaret Avenue. Greg Bell, a Terre Haute native who won the long jump at the 1956 Melbourne Summer Olympics, greeted teenage runners in town for the Indiana High School Athletic Association state championships at the LaVern Gibson Championship Course.

Bell, who had a long career in dentistry at Logansport and is a poet and artist, traveled back to his hometown specifically for the open house.

“The kids just gathered around him,” recalled Don Hanson, information specialist at the tourism center. “And, he had his gold medal.”

Bell’s story is as compelling as any of the other 430 Hall of Fame inductees — that will be the total when the latest athletes are inducted early next year — a list that includes 40 athletes who competed in the Olympic Games.

He grew up in rural Pimento in southern Vigo County, the seventh of nine children. Their family home, built by his father, burned down when Bell was an infant. So he, his parents, brothers and sisters lived in what had been their chicken coop … for the next 12 years, until the federal government forced the Bells to sell the farm to make room for a proposed defense plant. They moved to the 12 Points neighborhood in Terre Haute, and Bell starred in track at Garfield High School. Thinking his career ended with his senior prep season, he gave track a second try while in the U.S. Army, stationed in France. Bell won some big meets, but again thought he was done competing. Eventually, urged by a local doctor, Bell rekindled his track passion, enrolled at Indiana University, became a three-time NCAA champ, made the Olympics and won gold.

The rest is history.

Honoring, preserving and retelling that history — as well as the sagas of the 430 other inductees — is the mission of the Indiana Association of Track & Field and Cross Country Coaches Hall of Fame and Museum, which began setting up shop in the tourism center last January. A frame for each inductee’s portrait hangs in a long Honor Hall, and about one-quarter of the pictures are already installed. A large television, perched high on the back wall, soon will allow visitors to click on an inductees name and view that athlete’s biography. Displays highlight school dynasties, such as Gary Roosevelt (with 20 state track championships) and Carmel (with 21 state cross country titles).

An evolution of vaulting poles — from wood to carbon fiber — stands in one corner, along with a smorgasbord of running shoes. Inside a case sits a trophy from 1904. Vintage uniforms cling to mannequins.

And then there’s the Olympians Room. Tall depictions of gold medalists such as Lafayette’s Ray Ewry (who won 10 from 1900 to 1908, surpassed only by swimmer Michael Phelps in 2008), hurdler Lee Calhoun, sprinter Maicel Malone, James Lightbody of Muncie, and Ivan Fuqua of Brazil.

Organizers — a group headed by a core of legendary Hoosier coaches — hope to have the hall and museum complete by autumn 2012, when the IHSAA state finals return to the Gibson Championship Course.

The goal is “just so that when you go through it, you say, ‘What’s next?’ ‘Gee, I didn’t know that.’ ‘Can that be right?’ ‘I’ll go look for more,’” said Marshall Goss, a driving force behind the project.

Goss could narrate the inductees’ life stories by himself, and not just his own. (The Bloomington resident earned Hall of Fame induction as a coach, first at the high school level at Paris, Ill., and Bloomington South, and then at Indiana University.) One of his prize pupils was David Volz, a world-class pole vaulter from Bloomington South who missed the 1984 and ’88 Olympics in his prime due to injuries, and then came out of a two-year retirement to place fifth in the 1992 Barcelona Olympics.

David Volz’s name pops up on a list — one of several Goss has at his fingertips (in computer files) — of Indiana father-son high school state champions. David won the IHSAA pole vault crown in 1979 and ’80, and Drew followed in 2010 and ’11.

At 73 and still working part-time at IU, Goss is a virtual almanac of Indiana track history, and loves sharing it, especially when he comes to the hall and museum. “When we tell the story, the kids say, ‘Is that right?’” Goss said. “It really catches their attention.”

The symbolic IATCCC Hall of Fame has been inducting standout athletes, coaches and contributors for 37 years, Goss explained, but it lacked a physical home. Then, last November, Goss attended the NCAA Division I Cross Country Championships at the Gibson course, and spotted the adjacent Wabash Valley Family Sports Center. “I thought, hmmm — not the best place [for the Hall of Fame], but better than what we’ve got,” Goss recalled.

That led to conversations with course co-founder and donor Greg Gibson and tourism bureau executive director Dave Patterson. They suggested the wing in the tourism center as a better location, and the process moved forward quickly. Among those who Goss has teamed with are former Terre Haute North and Rose-Hulman coach Bill Welch (also a Hall of Famer), Henry Hopkins, Bob Potter, Chuck Koeppen, Bell, former North runner Jim Sullivan, and Terre Haute carpenter, cabinet designer Andy McAleese and Patterson. The IATCCC Track & Field and Cross Country Hall of Fame and Museum Society is a 501(c)(3) nonprofit corporation now.

They’ve added elements to the museum week by week. Sullivan, who ran under Welch at North from 1977 to ’80, is creating the pictorials. McAleese is designing displays, and envisions a replica of a pole vaulter soaring overhead beneath the 17-foot ceilings. “I want to make it a museum people will pull off the highway to see,” McAleese said.

Once the cornerstone ideas — the portraits, multi-media biographies, and displays of all 40 Olympians — have materialized, the facility still won’t be complete. “In this group’s opinion, it’ll never be done,” Sullivan said. “It’s a work in progress.”

They’re asking coaches, communities and athletes’ families to consider contributing memorabilia to the hall and museum. They need photos of the inductees, old equipment like hurdles and starting blocks, pictures of historic track venues, significant trophies and medals, results from longtime events and relays, and contact information for Hall of Fame members.

Already, the place contains some unusual items. That cache includes relics from 1924 Olympian Odia Wayne “Sonny” Johnson of Bloomfield. He ran the rain-drenched 10,000-meter race in the Paris Olympics and did not place. But Johnson came home with stories and relics, including the autographs of every fellow member of the United States Olympic team. Most notable among that group is gold medalist swimmer Johnny Weissmuller, the future star of the “Tarzan” movies. Johnson’s autograph book is under glass in the museum.

With nearly 20,000 visitors coming to the NCAA and IHSAA meets at the Gibson course each fall, Patterson sees Terre Haute as a prime and relevant location for the once-homeless IATCCC Hall of Fame and Museum. Fans could add it to their must-see list while in town. Eventually, the museum will develop its own distinct appeal, Patterson predicted.

“At some point, it’s going to be a draw,” he said.

Mark Bennett
The Tribune-Star Nov 20, 2011 Updated Aug 6, 2014

Mark Bennett can be reached at (812) 231-4377 or This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it..