posted on 12/28/2011

Armory College Track & Field Director Jack Pfeifer, Armory Foundation Chairman of the Board Michael Frankfurt, 2012 Saplin Awardee Elliott Denman, Armory Foundation President Norb Sander. Mike Fitelson photo.

Ever since Elliott Denman walked his way to the Olympic Games as a young man in the 1950s, he has been serving the sport of track & field.

Now the Bronx native will be the 2012 recipient of the Stan Saplin Sports Media Award, presented annually by the Armory Foundation to a journalist, public relations professional, executive, filmmaker or broadcaster who has made a significant contribution to the promotion of the sport. He will be feted at Tuesday's Eastern States Championships at The Armory.

"Elliott Denman is one of the icons of those who have covered our sport over many, many years. Even better he remains one of the best active reporters who we can count on to be at every major track & field event worldwide," said Dr. Norbert Sander, the President of the Armory Foundation.

Denman — who will receive the Saplin Award at the Eastern States Championships on Feb. 28 — has been writing about track & field and playing an active role in the sport since his days at William Howard Taft High in the Bronx, N.Y., where he covered the Taft track team for the school newspaper and did double duty as manager of the track and field team.

He'd done some running in PAL meets and ventured into the Junior Mets indoor and outdoor mile walks in January and June of 1953, but everything multiplied when he became a full-time student at New York University in the fall of '53. He joined the track team under legendary coach Emil Von Elling and came under the coaching wing of racewalking great Henry Laskau and NYU alumnus Bruce MacDonald.

He began medaling in major racewalks, was elected captain of the NYU indoor team as a senior in 1956, won the initial IC4A mile walk at Madison Square Garden and began training for the longer Olympic racewalking distances.  All the while, he continued covering the sport for NYU's Commerce Bulletin.

In September 1956, following graduation (with a degree in business administration) and now competing for the NY Pioneer Club, he beat very long odds by qualifying for the USA Olympic team in the 50-kilometer (31.1.-mile walk) at the trials event held in Baltimore, Md. Amazingly, this was the first 50k race of his life; he'd never competed in a race beyond 40k.

At the Melbourne Olympic Games of 1956, he placed 11th in the 50k walk as the second American finisher. On a brutally hot day Down Under, he toughed it out in a race won by Norman Read of New Zealand.

Following Army service — where he was a member of the All-Army team — he returned to civilian life in January 1959 and won National AAU titles at the longest and shortest events on the annual calendar — the 3,000-meter event in Boulder, Colo., and the 50k race in Pittsburgh, Pa.

By December 1960, he was a full-time journalist based in New Jersey, first as a staff writer and sports editor at the Long Branch Daily Record, then moving to the Asbury Park Press as a writer and columnist in July 1964, as the paper grew into one of the nation's top 80 in circulation. Denman covered all sports and was honored four times as New Jersey's sportswriter of the year. He was also honored with "Jesse Abramson Memorial" awards presented by the Track and Field Writers of America, the U.S. Olympic Invitation Meet and the Penn Relays.

Along the way, he has covered every Summer Olympic Games (excepting 1980) since 1968 and the Winter Olympic Games of 1988 and 1994. All this plus numerous World Series, NCAA Final Fours and major college football and basketball. The first edition of the World Outdoor Track and Field Championships was held in Helsinki in 1983 and he has covered all 13 of the world meets, including the most recent in Daegu, South Korea.

He was also a founding father of the "new" Shore Athletic Club in 1964, and has seen the club's athletes go on to an array of major achievements, many Olympic berths and team titles. He also ventured into longer distance events and set an American citizen's record for the 52.5-mile London to Brighton walk in England. He continues to compete as a racewalker in local and Masters events, and has racewalked the NYC Marathon for 33 straight years, every edition since 1979. He stays active as an official at high school, college, national and international meets; and is a former member of the IAAF panel of international racewalking judges.

For many years, he has also been a director of the N.J. International Track & Field Meet, the Asbury Park Polar Bear Races, the USATF National 40k Racewalk and the Shore AC Summer All-Comers Series. He also served as first track and field coach at Monmouth College (now Monmouth University) 1966-68 and his top athlete, Augie Zilincar, won Penn Relays. NAIA and NCAA College Division hammer titles with record throws.

He served as president of Track and Field Writers of America 1996-98, and continues his busy role as a writer, including reporting for ArmoryTrack.com. Elliott and Jo Denman, who live in West Long Branch, N.J., will celebrate their 50th wedding anniversary in July 2012.  They are the parents of three married daughters and grandparents of eight.

Denman is the sixth recipient of the Saplin Award, named after the late athletics journalist and statistician Stan Saplin who died in 2002. The previous recipients were writers Frank Litsky and Bill Miller of the New York Times; photographer Bill Moore of the New York Amsterdam News; New Jersey Track editor Ed Grant and Eastern Track founder Walt Murphy.