Thursday, April 14, 2011

DES MOINES, Iowa--Four officials were added this year to the Drake Relays Officials Wall of Honor including Mike Holderness, Mike Mahon, Bill Patton and John Wolff.

The Wall of Honor was established in 1993, thanks to the family of Ray McAdam, a 40-year Relays official who died in 1993. His son, Scott, has been a Drake Relays official since 1969 and currently serves as chief judge of throwing events.

Holderness started his Relays chores in 1984 and served mostly in the records certification area. Last year he was involved with field events. After finishing college at Wayne State he was head football and track coach at Underwood (Iowa) High School for two years. Then he began a 42-year career in the insurance industry, the last 16 of which he was president and CEO for the Hawkeye Life Insurance Group.

Mahon was Sports Information Director at Drake from 1988 until his retirement last fall. He served as Drake Relays media coordinator for that period of time. Mahon also headed up the media staff for both the 2008 NCAA Track & Field Championships and the 2010 USA Track & Field Championships held in Drake Stadium. He also was the first college SID to receive the Sam Skinner Award from the USA Track & Field Writers Association for his outstanding cooperation with media who cover track and field. Mahon has served the U.S. Olympic Committee as press officer for the U.S. Games and Pan America Games.

Patton got his taste of track and field as a track and cross-country runner at Grinnell College. His start at the Relays came in 1979 because of his friendship in the Navy Reserve with Bob Karnes, former Drake coach and Relays director. Patton was vice president at Stitzel Electric supply for 27 years. Most of his years at the Relays consisted of him being a timer. He retired in 2001.

Wolff is in the corporate tax department with MidAmerican Energy following his collegiate training at Upper Iowa University. In moving from Chicago to Ankeny he became acquainted with Fred Smith and Scott Osborn, along with a friendship with the late Nolan Laird of the Iowa Girls High School Athletic Union, and the rest is history. He started as a timer in 1984, and then switched to clerking after automatic timing was introduced.