Hall of Fame: John Dye helped take 'provincial' high school track and field national

By Doug Binder, DyeStat Editor

It wasn’t long ago that high school track and field was about the lowest of low tech.

You went to practice after school. You listened to your coach, who held a clipboard with sheets of paper on it. You did your workout.

The day after a meet, you might see some agate in your daily newspaper. Or a weekly collection of local best performances.

For 99.99 percent, the state meet is where dreams ended. Golden West, Foot Locker? Yes, there were a couple of exotic events that you might travel to if you were really, really good. But your paper didn’t cover them, and you if you were fortunate to know somebody who was competing, they would have to tell you about it when they got home.

Results of big meets from around the country? They were out there, somewhere. They were so obscure you didn’t care about them. Or if you did, you’d have to wait a month or two to see them.

You could find your school records, especially if your coach had been around. In some states, statistics annuals arrived once a year and you could see your name on a list.

A little over 20 years ago, almost by accident, John Dye helped to usher in a new era as high school track and field met the digital age. The namesake and founder of DyeStat is among the 29 names that will be enshrined Thursday in the first class of the NSAF National High School Track and Field Hall of Fame at the New York Athletic Club. WATCH LIVE

Dye and his wife, Donna, came to track late in their lives. But they helped give the sport a push into the 21st Century.

Dye worked for the government and lived north of Washington D.C. He was an auditor and financial manager for a variety of federal departments – HUD, Energy, Labor and Small Business Administration.

He worked with numbers and he liked sports. When he was a teen in Indiana he had attended the famous 1954 state basketball final, the one immortalized by the movie “Hoosiers.”

He knew nothing about high school track and field.

Dye’s son and daughter went out for the track team in Middletown MD. His daughter was a pole vaulter, his son a high jumper. They were both pretty good.

It made Dye curious about where they stacked up.  

He had attended a seminar about the World Wide Web and learned a thing or two about building an Internet site. First, he contacted the local coaches and asked for their results so that he could make a list.

Every Monday, after collecting data over the weekend, Dye sent out a newsletter to the coaches in five counties across Western Maryland.

That was the genesis of DyeStat.

“As my kids got better, my area of interest got bigger,” Dye said. “When they won county championships, I wanted to know how they ranked in the state. When they won state championships, I wanted to know how they ranked nationally.”

In 1997, Natalie Dye, a sophomore, won the Maryland Class 2A pole vault. Derek Dye, a junior, won the state title in the high jump.

“The summer after my kids won the high jump and pole vault at the state meet I went out and found all of the other state meet results,” Dye said. “I found out that my daughter was in the 40s nationally and my son was in the 80s. So I decided, ‘OK, I'm going to do national rankings in all events 100 deep to make sure that my kids are on it.’”

One thing led to another. The rankings got popular. Dye added a TrackTalk message board to his site and people began posting on it.

Derek and Natalie Dye graduated. Dye’s interest in the new site he built, which now included some meet coverage, photos and articles, grew.

“By that time I was too caught up in the fun of forging new ground in the sport,” Dye said. “There was little or no national coverage of high school track meets before DyeStat. We came out with results, photos and stories the same day, or certainly by Monday morning.”

All of the sudden, athletes in one state could find out what was going on in the next state over and compare their best performances. Or compare with the best in New York. Or in California. Suddenly a 4:25 mile time didn’t look so good. Look at all the kids running 4:18!

The benchmarks were recalibrated.

On the rise in high school at that time were three supremely talented runners: Dathan Ritzenhein from Michigan, Ryan Hall from California and Alan Webb from Virginia.

The three of them dominated their local competition, but now they could follow each other and stay motivated until they met at a national meet.

Meanwhile, hundreds of people were logging onto DyeStat with their dial-up modems and posting messages and discussing a great many things, including which of the three star  runners was the best. Dye could log on any time of day and find that 400-500 people were actively using the message board.

By 2000, DyeStat was going viral. 

Dye took early retirement and decided to plug away at DyeStat full-time. On Saturdays in the winter, he would catch a 5 a.m. train in Baltimore and go to New York City to spend the day at a meet in The Armory. After the meet he would spend a couple of hours at Coogan’s. Then he got on a midnight train at Penn Station headed back home. 

After Derek and Natalie went off to college, Donna Dye decided to start going with her husband rather than be left behind. She took a camera with her and began to mingle in the stands and take photos of families enjoying themselves at meets. “Donna On The Side” became an instant hit.

Dye was surprised to find the positive reaction whenever he went to a new meet. Strangers knew him because they had seen his picture on DyeStat.

“The first time I went to the Reggie Lewis Center in Boston, Natalie was competing for the University of Maryland that weekend, but the New England Championships were going the night before and I’d never been,” he said. “I hadn’t made any preparations, so when I arrived I asked for the meet director. When I found her, I asked whether I needed a credential and she pointed to the DyeStat logo on my shirt and said ‘That's your credential.’”

Dye steered the site through several makeovers during the 2000s and thought he had really made it when DyeStat was acquired by ESPN.

But instead, the corporate nature of the nation’s largest sports media brand hurt more than it helped. The popular message boards were squashed because ESPN attempted to shoe-horn its high school verticals into a site-wide message board.

In 2012, ESPN decide to cut its high school platforms, including DyeStat.

John and Donna Dye chose that particular moment to move away from the business of high school track and field news and enjoy retirement in the Las Vegas area.

DyeStat continues, without the Dyes, as RunnerSpace’s news hub. BEST MEMORIES

As John Dye enters the Hall of Fame, we, of course, salute him and his innovation.

Here is a collection of additional thoughts and stories about John Dye’s impact on high school track and field: 

Alan Webb, high school mile record holder

“I remember hearing about DyeStat my sophomore year, during indoor track. I was amazed to see Andy Powell — now the coach at Oregon — break nine minutes for two miles. When John Dye created DyeStat, it gave high school athletes the ability to follow each other across the country in something close to real time. It also made runners into celebrities, which increased our marketability, eventually helping the professional aspect of the sport. It gave people interested in track and field a place to really be a fan. When I had the pleasure of seeing John and Donna at various meets, I would always think of the word: ‘kind.’” 

Curtis Beach, record-breaking high school decathlete

“DyeStat was my (browser) homepage for the longest time while I was in middle school and high school. Opening the site and seeing guys like Terry Prentice and David Klech helped me see what was possible in high school track, which inspired me to work as hard as I did over the years. I can’t emphasize enough how much that fueled my motivation. Besides the articles, the legendary Forum and the “Donna on the Side” photo series were among my favorites. I’m so grateful for John, Donna, and the DyeStat staff for bringing the high school track community together and for highlighting all the amazing stories. It made my high school track experience so much more fulfilling.” 

Ryan Hall, Big Bear CA, Class of 2001

“I remember being a junior in high school during the winter, hearing about some phenom high school runner from Michigan named Dathan Ritzenhein. I was on DyeStat following his results, along with the ever-growing population of DyeStat users across the country. Before DyeStat, I would have to wait until the print version of Track and Field News came out to get results from around the country, but not anymore. Thanks to DyeStat, I was able to get instant results and instant inspiration for training.  When I’d read that Dathan or Alan Webb had just popped a big mark, it would make me want to train harder. It also made me feel like it wasn’t that big of a deal to break barriers that had been holding American distance running back for so many years.  I really do feel like DyeStat has been part of the reason American distance running has had such a resurgence. I’m so thankful for John’s work; it made me and so many other runners better.” 

Peter Walsh, Coogan’s Irish Pub and Restaurant

“When you think of John Dye, you can’t help but see ‘Donna on the Side.’ They were like Nick and Nora, hopping planes, ships and cars to discover the mystery of track and field and expose it to the world. When there was a bar nearby, such as Coogan’s, John would set up shop and rat-a-tat-tat the stats, stories and the spirit of our great sport. It’s amazing what the smell of hops can do to get the job done! But it was his understanding heart that revolutionized high school track and field.  Kids, families, coaches, and the rest of the world could see what our athletes were doing in the speed of a computer tap. He took our pristine high school sport and put it back on the map. And along with Donna, he humanized the family of running from the track to the stands. John has been the guiding light for all who have followed in the world of modern track reporting. Yes, track and field has Heart and Soul! I just call it John and Donna.” 

Aisling Cuffe, 2010 Foot Locker National Champion

“John Dye took the sharing of track results to the next level, with the sharing of stories. Not only did I use DyeStat as a source for results from cross country and track meets across the country, I opened every link to a story on the site as a means of finding out the why and how behind every result I saw. The high school level of the sport took a big step forward when results could be shared instantaneously via the Internet, but I’d like to think a large part of the step forward was due to sharing of stories. Things like the training behind the 1500m national record, the lifestyles of Foot Locker All-Americans, and what the top cross country programs around the country were doing differently than everyone else. Thanks to John Dye, I didn’t just have results to chase, I had people that I could learn from, to chase, too.” 

Marcus Dunbar, Coach of Kodiak HS, father of Nike pro Trevor Dunbar

“Coaching in Kodiak, Alaska, or really anywhere in Alaska, you can sometimes feel pretty isolated and removed from much of what happens in the rest of the U.S.A. DyeStat changed all of that for us. The wonderful coverage on this site gave us much more detailed and current information about teams and individuals around the country. My Kodiak athletes, such as Trevor Dunbar and Levi Thomet, set much higher goals for themselves because of the constant information they were able to get through DyeStat. Our whole team improved because of it. I was really amazed when I met John Dye at a meet we attended, only to find out he was a dad of a (track athlete) just like me, saw the void of information in our sport and decided to create the Web site. It’s amazing the difference it has made for so many athletes and programs everywhere. I would just like to say, ‘Thank you, John.’” 

Jordan Hasay, 2-time Foot Locker Champion, Nike pro

“DyeStat was extremely monumental in helping me develop a passion for track and field during my high school days. I cannot imagine my time without looking up stats, stories and inspiration from the site’s incredible coverage of high school track and field and cross country. I have fond memories of both John and Donna Dye. In particular, Donna’s photography to complement John’s insightful articles and race coverage. As a developing athlete, my mom would print out all of the photos and articles. It was this pride and support that allowed me to have so much fun with the sport and continue on now to the professional level. I am so thankful for John, DyeStat, and all he has done for the sport! 

Josh Rowe, NSAF National High School Track and Field Hall of Fame coordinator, former marketing executive at Nike and New Balance

“John Dye truly changed the sport. I think that the resurgence since the turn of the century of American distance running is attributable to three factors: An incredible group of athletes coming up, you have the advent of DyeStat in the late 90s and early 2000s, and a real push for national competitions. On a national level, what the NSAF did, what Nike did, the push for national meets, it encouraged kids to go compete against the best in the country. So you had the events, the athletes and John Dye shining the light so everybody could see them. That was as a big a factor as anything in the industry pushing the U.S. to compete at the international level.”