Prince George Sports Hall of Fame

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Masich No53 5x7.jpg

Tom Masich (1998)

Track & Field Coach,Builder

It is perfect timing that Tom Masich be inducted into the Prince George Sports Hall of Fame in 1998.

Forty years after he began to work with some of Canada’s top athletes – and a quarter century into his involvement in local athletics – 1998 was the year Tom helped bring Canada’s top junior athletes to Prince George.

Tom was a driving force behind the 1998 Royal Canadian Legion National Track and Field Championships, held at Massey Place Stadium in August. The meet, a showcase for the top 17-and-under athletes in Canada, has been a springboard for close to 100 of this country’s Olympians.

“The one athlete that comes to mind as a 17-year-old was Harry Jerome,” Tom recalls of his first experience with the Legion meet. That was in 1958, two years before Jerome would set the world record over 100 metres.

Tom’s involvement with athletics followed him wherever he went. He coached clubs in Kimberley and Prince Rupert before he came to Prince George in 1966. Work commitments kept him “on the fringes” of track until 1973, when he formed the Prince George Track and Field Club.

“Track has always been part of me,” he says. “It’s always been the one thing I have enjoyed. I really enjoy watching kids develop from nine- and 10-year-olds to their teenage years.”

In addition to his tireless efforts with the Prince George club, Tom helped found such city mainstays as the Prince George to Boston marathon – now called the Labour Day Classic – the Prince George Minor Basketball Association and the city’s elementary school relays. Massey Place Stadium, a truly world-class track and field facility, was built in Prince George at least partly because of his efforts and he was instrumental in bringing international athletes to the pre-Commonwealth Games meet in 1994 and to the Spruce Capital Invitational Track and Field meet in 1995.

Tom has been a tremendous role model for many Prince George youth. He has opened doors for some of this city’s top athletes, and he has brought yet more prestige to this city. He is an excellent inductee into the Prince George Sports Hall of Fame.


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