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Jerry Banks Named To USATF Foundation BOD
USATF News
Friday, October 17, 2008
News & Notes, Volume 8, Number 61
Jerry Banks named to USATF Foundation Board of Directors
Jerry Banks, Founder and CEO of MLC Intellectual Property, LLC, has been named as a Director of the USA Track & Field Foundation Board, USATF Foundation Executive Director Tom Jackovic and Chairman Bob Greifeld announced today.
The USATF Foundation provides a means to attract and guide funds to new and innovative track and field programs with an emphasis on providing opportunities for youth athletes, emerging athletes and anti-doping education.
"Jerry is a track fanatic and is actively involved in the sport both as a runner and coach," said Jackovic. "His expertise and perspective makes him an excellent addition to the Foundation Board."
MLC Intellectual Property, LLC, was founded to develop innovative technologies that reduce the cost of electrically alterable non-volatile memory (e.g., Flash) and allow higher density memories to be manufactured.
In his spare time, Banks coaches track and cross country at Saratoga High School, where his son runs competitively. Banks does running and strength training with 2008 Olympic Trials 1,500m finalist and Foundation grant recipient Steve Sherer. The training helps Banks develop new approaches in coaching his high school athletes. A holder of 29 U.S. patents, Banks takes a scientific approach to running and enjoys researching new training techniques and the science behind them.
Banks will begin his term on the Board in January, 2009.
For more information or to contribute to the USA Track & Field Foundation, visit www.usatffoundation.org
Olympian Al Hall dies
Four-time Olympian hammer thrower Al Hall died in Tonopah, Nev., on October 9 from complications of Alzheimer's disease. He was 75.
The national hammer throw champion in 1962 and 1963, Hall won the Olympic Trials in 1956 and 1960. The closest he came to winning an Olympic medal was his fourth-place finish in Melbourne, Australia, in 1956. He was a member of the first U.S. track teams to compete in the Soviet Union in the late 1950s and China in 1974.
"My father was the only American to lose to a Chinese athlete - a big blacksmith - on the first day of the meet, but then he hoisted the man on his shoulders and paraded him around the stadium, encouraging the audience to react to the rare victory," Mr. Hall's son, Shawn told The Boston Globe.
"He loved being a US athlete and being an ambassador of the sport. He especially enjoyed the pageantry of the opening ceremonies at the Olympic Games and mingling with athletes from around the world. He made many friends throughout the world while competing, and he treasured their friendship."
Hall was a three-time heptagonal track and field champion at Cornell, where he was the team captain in 1955-56. A four-time U.S. Indoor 35-pound weight throw champion, Hall missed making his fifth Olympic Team in 1972 by a matter of inches, despite throwing a personal best at the trials of 67.86 meters/222 feet 8 inches.
Hall will be buried in Fern Hill Cemetery in Hanson, Mass., following a private service. A service celebrating his life is planned for next summer in Hanson.
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