A NYRR Millrose Games Tradition: The Schmertz Family

By Elliott Denman

Howard Schmertz, of course, will always be at The Armory. 

As an inductee, with his famed Dad, Fred, into the National Track and Field Hall of Fame, Class of 2012. 

As the official USA Track and Field bio puts it, "There has never been a running of the iconic Millrose Games, which first started in 1908, that either Fred or Howard Schmertz has not been involved with on some level.

"Fred was one of the founding members of the meet before taking over as meet director in 1934, serving through 1974. At that point, his son, Howard, a New York City lawyer, took over the position until 2003, when he was appointed meet director emeritus. During their run, the Millrose Games have come to be the most enduring indoor international track meet in the world."

And the very good news was that Howard Schmertz - the always "Mr. Millrose" - was back at The New Balance Track & Field Center at The Armory last Saturday for the 107th edition of the classic meet now under the capable reins of Ray Flynn, Dr. Norbert Sander and key Armory staffers. 

Howard Schmertz doesn't get around too well these days. He and wife Judy - his beloved sidekick and the lady behind the man who brought all those wondrous, record-breaking, crowd-pleasing, sold-out celebrations of track and field excellence to Madison Square Garden for so many years - now reside at the Amsterdam Harborside rehabilitation care facility in Port Washington, Long Island, N.Y. 

The years have inexorably slowed him down and a broken hip last fall made things worse. 

"It happened at a hospital," said Judy Schmertz.  "Howard wasn't walking too well to begin with, and he was in the hospital for some tests.  And that's where he had the fall." 

Always looking at the brighter side of things, she said ""If something like that's going to happen, I guess the best place for it to happen is at a hospital." 

Well, after hip surgery, the man who once brought the fastest people on earth to the greatest of all indoor track and field meets, is himself slowed to getting around in a wheelchair. 

But that was no reason for him to pass up last weekend's festivities, either. 

The Schmertzes were honored guests at the NYAC's Salute to Olympians pre-Millrose bash on Friday night, meeting and greeting and relishing the many warm, fond and endearing memories forged with the great people of track and field all those years.  

And then it was up to The Armory on Saturday. 

This was the 107th Millrose Games - now the NYRR Millrose Games - and its third at The Armory, With such notables as Bernard Lagat, Mary Cain, Ajee' Wilson, Kim Conley, Lalonde Gordon, Will Leer, Janay DeLoach Soukup and Michael Mason all turning in top performances, it was one more in the long line of great Millrose productions. 

Lagat, Cain, et al, delivered hot performances at The Armory as yet one more snowstorm of this endless New York area winter raged outside. 

The Schmertzes did lots of meeting and greeting, raising spirits by their very presence. And the honored greats of Millrose Games past - the likes of Eamonn Coghlan and Marcus O'Sullivan - had their own spirits lifted by the chance tore-connect with the Schmertzes. 

"I really don't know how many more Millrose Games we'll be able to attend," said Judy Schmertz. "Getting old is no fun.  But we'll come back - that's for sure - as long as we can do it.  The Millrose Games is in great hands now.  The Armory isn't the Garden but it's a great venue and all the athletes love it." 

Keeping the Millrose tradition alive is always a matter of creating new fans. 

And Daniel Katz, a young runner on the track and cross country teams at Horace Greeley High School in Chappaqua, New York, surely falls in that category. 

Daniel is a Schmertz grandson and already a total enthusiast of the sport.  As he saw great race after great race - in  all the categories, on all the levels the NYRR Millrose Games now presents - roll on at The Armory, he lapped up the whole Millrose Games experience. 

And the several autographs he collected and brought back to Chappaqua were a world-class Millrose bonus. 

####