Jeff Brower

M60 hurdler Jeff Brower , shown at 2005 masters nationals in Hawaii, has cleared most bureaucratic barriers as well.

General January 2, 2021

Jeff Brower steps down as masters records czar; modernized process for 6 years

For six years, Jeff Brower of Texas has been chair of the USATF Masters T&F records committee. He cleaned up a holy mess left by Sandy Pashkin, whose failures I noted over the years (including a 2006 post headlined “Sandy Pashkin, as roadblock to records, has to go.”) Sandy inherited an index-card system from Pete Mundle, a booger beyond belief. Jeff also helped update the MTF website, finally adopting a WordPress design. (Easier to use.) And in 2020, according to his annual report, Jeff didn’t take a dime from his $3,000 budget. Now Jeff is stepping down. Our fourth records…

Dan King's mile WR was celebrated on Runner's World. But without a meet sanction, it will never go into the books.

Rants September 26, 2020

Was Dan King cheated of M60 mile WR? Meet may have lacked USATF sanctioning

In late August, 61-year-old Dan King of Boulder, Colorado, traveled 1,600 miles to Columbia, South Carolina, and came away with a mile mark of 4:49.08 (see results) — crushing the listed M60 world record of 4:51.85 by Kiwi Tony McManus in 2012 and American record of 4:53.01 by Nolan Shaheed the same year. On Runner’s World, Sarah Lorge Butler wrote: “Behind two pacers—Jackson Neff and John Minen, who earlier in the meet had run the open mile—King clicked off 72-second laps, going hard from the gun.” (The actual splits were 73.57, 71.31, 72.29 and 71.91.). She quoted Dan as saying:…

General October 31, 2019

Tying my record for Press Club awards and trying out Jeff Brower’s new records site

I tied my PR on Tuesday night. Not for the 100 or high jump, but for awards at the San Diego Press Club journalism contest. First in 2017 and again this year, I picked up 14 awards for a variety of posts on Times of San Diego, including a photo of indicted Rep. Duncan D. Hunter and a video of a crazy anti-LGBT trio from Westboro Baptist Church in Topeka. Are you experiencing any side effects while taking Clomid? We understand that your well-being is of utmost importance! Our team of experts is here to guide and support you through…

Bernard "Kip" Lagat, shown in 2010 Berlin race, is listed M40 WR man but still doesn't hold listed American record.

Records November 29, 2018

Revelations in masters reports: Pete Taylor comeback, $10,000 for John Seto, missing Lagat records

Masters track subcommittee reports have been posted in the USATF annual meeting Document Library. Interesting stuff. We learn, for example, that John Seto was paid $10,000 for maintaining top-25 USATF masters rankings (actually seasonal lists) at his amazing site. We also hear from USA Team Manager Phil Greenwald (I assume) about the Malaga relay issues. Here’s what the team manager report says: Following the meet, there has been discussion in various blogs and social media about the M65 to M80 teams in the 4×100 and the M65 and M70 in the 4X400. The M65/M70 selections were discussed with the people…

General November 14, 2018

Help save our memories: Contribute materials to 10-year-old mastershistory.org

I must have been napping. But I failed in February to mark the 10th anniversary of mastershistory.org — our worldwide geezertrack museum. This year’s updates have been slim, however, since we’ve exhausted the Al Sheahen archive. So now we’re launching an effort to crowd-source materials from others. Masters History subcommittee chair Jeff Davison recently visited national masters chair Rex Harvey in Arizona, who is making available some of his papers, including newsletters of the Over The Hill Track Club in Ohio. And yet some basic materials are still missing. For example, USATF Masters T&F Records czar Jeff Brower needs complete…

Rants August 15, 2018

Usatfmasters.org — our official portal — being redesigned with WordPress modernity

Jeff Brower, our USATF masters webmaster and records czar, is working hard behind the scenes to freshen up our official website. It hasn’t been publicly unveiled (until now), but its WordPress theme (aka design) is adapted by masters media maestro (aka MMM) Sandy Lee Triolo “in collaboration with Jovette Jolicoeur,” says the site, which can be seen here. The old design — full of ancient HTML affectations and overly busy graphically — doesn’t do justice to our hip vibe. WordPress also allows Jeff (and anyone else with the password) to easily update a page. The old site required coding chops….