Rex Harvey

Rex J. Harvey (born 1946 in Dexter, Iowa) is an American decathlete. He has designed and holds patents of several nozzles for aircraft engines. Also, he helped design several nuclear reactor power plants. Harvey is a native of Redfield, Iowa and currently resides in Mentor, Ohio.

High school career

Harvey helped his Dexfield high school track and field team win two back to back state team championships in 1963 and 1964 under the legendary coach Dean Roe. While in high school, Rex won many state titles as a pole vaulter and a member of several relay teams.[1]

College career

Harvey received a bachelor of science degree in mechanical engineering from Iowa State where he was a scholarship athlete in track and field. He received four invitations to U.S. NCAA Division I Championships for track and field. He later earned a master of science degree in systems management from the University of Southern California.[2]

Professional career

He represented the USA in six international track and field teams competing in Italy, Brazil, Sweden and the Middle East, and in decathlon team competition with the Soviet Union and Canada. In 1976, he was an Olympic Trials finalist in the decathlon, finishing 13th.[3]

Masters career

At one time, Harvey had won 13 straight national decathlon championships. He also has several pentathlon championships as well as other national championships in the pole vault, relays, etc.[2]

He has won several World Association of Veteran Athletes (WAVA) world championships including the decathlon in 1989 and 1991, where he set a WAVA world record in M45 that still stands. He won the World Masters Athletics Championships pole vault in Japan in 1993 and was a member of the world championship 4X100 and 4X400 relays in 1991.[2]

On June 20, 1982, he scored 7280 points to set what was then the American record for the Men's Decathlon for the M30-39 age group. On July 18, 1991, he scored 7780 points to set what was then the World record for the Men's Decathlon for the M40-49 age group.[4]

He was USATF outstanding male masters combined-events athlete of the year in 1989, 1991, and 1996.[5] In 2000, Rex Harvey was inducted into the USATF Masters Hall of Fame.[6]

Age-Graded Tables

Beginning in 1989, he collaborated with Alan L. Jones and several others to develop tables for grading athletic performances based on sex and age.[7] The 1989 booklet Masters Age-Graded Tables by the National Masters News and the World Association of Veteran Athletes (WAVA) was later followed by the 1994 booklet Age-Graded Tables by National Masters News, P.O. Box 2372, Van Nuys, CA 91404. More recently, in 2004 Rex collaborated with Alan L. Jones and others to release an improved set of age-graded tables. The most recent version of the tables were published in 2010, still crediting Rex Harvey.[8] These tables have been used extensively by both WAVA, which later became the World Masters Athletics (WMA), and USA Track & Field (USATF).[9]

Public Official

Rex Harvey was appointed to the WAVA (WMA) information technology (IT) as a coordinator and has served as a Vice President (Stadia) of WAVA (WMA).[2]

In 2007 at Osaka, Japan, during the 46th Congress of the International Association of Athletics Federations (IAAF), he was elected to the Master's Committee of the IAAF as a representative from the United States.[10]

See also

References

  1. ↑ http://www.iahsaa.org/track/09Track_Stat.pdf retrieved July 10, 2009.
  2. 1 2 3 4 "Archived copy". Archived from the original on 2009-07-22. Retrieved 2009-07-10. retrieved July 10, 2009.
  3. ↑ http://www.usatf.org/statistics/champions/OlympicTrials/HistoryOfTheOlympicTrials.pdf
  4. ↑ http://www.overthehilltc.org/records.htm retrieved July 10, 2009.
  5. ↑ "Archived copy". Archived from the original on 2009-10-06. Retrieved 2009-07-10. retrieved July 10, 2009.
  6. ↑ http://www.mastershistory.org/history/halloffame.html retrieved July 10, 2009.
  7. ↑ "Archived copy". Archived from the original on 2009-11-08. Retrieved 2009-07-10. retrieved July 10, 2009.
  8. ↑ http://www.world-masters-athletics.org/files/laws_rules/age-grading-table.pdf
  9. ↑ "Archived copy". Archived from the original on 2009-02-20. Retrieved 2009-07-10. retrieved July 10, 2009.
  10. ↑ http://www.iaaf.org/history/WCH/season=2007/eventCode=3653/news/kind=100/newsid=40344.html retrieved July 10, 2009.
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