Doris Wahl

 

DORIS WAHL (1942-2018)
A memorial tribute written by Judy Clarke.
 
Track Officials are a different breed.  They do not arrive at a game, shake hands, officiate for 60 or 80 minutes, say good game, and go home.  Track officials can finish a meet in an hour and a half, if there are 4 good officials.  They can work 6 hours, 8 hours, 5 days or up to 10 days, at the Olympics.
 
The big difference between Track Officials and officials of other sports is, we will work through rain, sleet, snow, or 90 degree heat, for however long is necessary, to get hundreds of athletes to enjoy their minutes of competition and fame.  We spend more time with each other, teaching each other, caring about each other, and covering for each other, than in any other sport. 
 
 What I'm saying is, over the years we have not only become excellent track officials, we have grown as a family.  We know about each other's children, attended weddings, and admired each other's grandchildren.  We have likes and differences, but we have a special bond ......and Doris Wahl has been a significant part of all this through many years.
 
I met Doris as a soccer official in 1979.  Doris was a forerunner for women in sports officiating.  Officiating was a good job for a housewife, where you could make $20 a game, and still get dinner on the table.  
 
Doris excelled.  She was the first woman to officiate at the NYS Girls High School Soccer Championships.  Doris worked the States two times, and then declined the honor, even though she had continued to earn that right.  She said, “give others the chance.”  The next few years, after Doris, the only women to officiate the States came from Nassau County and then Suffolk County.  Doris was the first!
 
After I was involved with soccer, Doris said, "have you thought of officiating track and field.  It's easy!"  She didn't tell me that tracks were changing from 440 yards to 400 meters.  I didn't know a yard from a meter.  I didn't know one end of a tape measure from the wrong end of a tape measure, but… Doris was right there saying, "Don't worry, we'll help you."  From that point on, Doris and I became great friends.  From working together at our local and State soccer games and track meets, to standing together, and looking out at the stadium in Atlanta in 1996 and saying, "So this is the Olympics!"  
 
 Most of you only knew Doris out on the track.  My family knew Doris as a good friend.  Doris and I shared good, and not so good, stories while raising our kids.  I will say, all the kids turned out fine, even our younger boys!  
 
Doris didn't have an easy life growing up.  She would share bits and pieces of growing up in Brooklyn, not always having heat in the family apartment, attending Girls High School, where she stood out like a sore thumb, but still, in her Doris way, fit in.  Did you know, Doris was a nurse?  She was an LPN, but again she spoke little about it.  Doris and Bob went on to raise their 4 children.  Yes, she really did love kids!
 
Doris was truly a selfless person, and she held high her fellow track officials.  A more loyal partner, you could not find.  Joe Caruso, I’m not going to mention some of the things she said about you, but she probably said them to your face, anyway.........but one thing she continually said, you were the biggest influence on her becoming the excellent starter she was.
 
Many of us have stories.  Many of us had the honor to work with her, and to be her friend.  She never bragged.  She never said she was the only woman who started at the Milrose Games at Madison Square Garden.  She never said she was the first woman starter at the Olympic Games.  She was just Doris Williams Wahl....the red head!
 
Doris put up quite a fight, her last few months on this earth.  There will still be many a story about her, most being told with a smile on a face.  Doris will remain in many a heart,… but now .....we have a red-headed angel up there.....with a slightly crooked halo!  
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Now …  Allow me to read a poem composed by Doris’ youngest daughter, Margarette Wahl in tribute to her mother
 
Honor – for my Mom, Doris
 
My mom, had a gun
like in westerns or cop movies
a real 22 caliber, sometimes a 32.
My mom, she wasn’t scared
Came from a tough Bed Stuy neighborhood.
Growing up my brothers would tease:
“When mama shoots the gun everyone runs”.
Truth is mom’s gun was more privilege than protection.
Those people who ran from her,
They are the fastest runners in the world.
You see, my mom she had a gun
held it well above her head
arm straight in the air,
at heaven’s reach.
My mom’s shot fire for track and field
over 35 years.
She’s met Diane Dixon, Jackie Joyner Kersee,
Carl Lewis all
at the starting lines and finish lines
My mom, she had a gun
with plaques of citations and rewards.
First United States Woman starter at the Olympic Games
Atlanta, Georgia 1996.
Today, I am just standing here proud
to say I’m her daughter.
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Today it makes all of us proud to install Doris Wahl into our Officials’ Hall of Fame.