Tracy Sundlun

TRACY SUNDLUN currently lives outside of San Diego, CA and is best known as the co-founder of the precedent-setting Rock ‘n’ Roll Marathon Series, but before that there was New York and the Metropolitan Athletics Congress, now known as USA Track & Field New York.  Both are major chapters of the life of this seasoned professional with over 40 years of involvement in virtually every facet of the sports of track and field, road racing, cross country running, and race walking.  

His experience includes everything from coaching to sports administration to event creation, planning, and production; officiating to athlete representation; sponsorship sales to charity fundraising; contract negotiation to television production; event marketing to government relations to budgeting and finance.  

Tracy is a visionary who is not afraid “to take a chance on being great,” and who has been at the forefront of a number of the sports’ innovations and advances over the past 40+ years.  A proven consensus-builder and problem-solver, he is a team player who understands that success has many parents, and does not seek the limelight, but does not run from responsibility.  

His actions, events, and programs have always epitomized his core belief that the sport should impact all of society; be greater than the sum of its parts; is only as strong as its weakest link; and look to include as opposed to exclude, involving all constituencies and athletes of all ages and abilities.  

What most of us can relate to warmly was Tracy’s career here in New York from 1980 to 1997 when he volunteered and eventually commandeered the leadership and energy of the Metropolitan Athletics Congress (MAC), the Metropolitan Association of the Athletics Congress of the USA, and then later USA Track & Field. 

In 1980 he came on as the volunteer Chair of Women’s Track and Field. By 1982, he became MAC’s first Executive Director and used the organization and his sheer energies as a vehicle to execute his vision for the sport here in the New York Metropolitan area. MAC went from a clubhouse attitude to a “we can be the best in the business” attitude very quickly. Herewith is a summary of what he accomplished in those 17 years before heading West.

• Tracy was the first paid Executive Director of a TAC / USATF association in the country.
• Tracy was intimately involved in the creation and/or refurbishment of 13 area track & field and cross-country facilities.  
• Under Tracy’s leadership the MAC became much more active in all aspects of the sport than any other regional association then or since. 
• Tracy grew the MAC from a volunteer office of one to a full-time paid staff of nine, all reporting to him.
• Tracy began payment for officials at MAC / USATF conducted events and started the Junior Officials program where youngsters more interested in officiating than running could get an early start assisting the certified officials at MAC meets.
• Tracy conducted track meets all over the New York metropolitan area and beyond (Princeton, Yale, West Point, Syracuse) in facilities not previously used by the AAU / TAC / USATF, he added high school divisions to the weekly MAC meets and created new event management systems to make his meets more “portable”.
• He engaged the use of a Coach bus to bring athletes and officials to these distant venues if they did not have transportation.
• In concert with the New York Amateur Sports Alliance, the MAC under Tracy’s leadership, created and conducted in-school elementary and junior high school programs for several NYC School Districts.   
• The MAC grew to conduct over 70 events and programs annually under Tracy’s leadership. 
• Tracy was responsible for the design, management, promotion, fund raising and the general administration of all of the programs for the entire region. During this time, he also turned the MAC into a direct youth service organization, which provided supplementary educational, health, and social programs to its thousands of participants using running as the “hook” to get them involved.
• Membership rose 130% to over 15,500 from 1982 to 1997 (1/6 of the entire national membership!), and the budget grew 22-fold to over $1,700,000, both far and away the largest of any TAC / USATF association then or since. 
• Tracy was the first person in TAC / USATF to actively raise money in the foundation / not-for-profit community and from government entities.  Upon leaving the MAC in the fall of 1997, to go to San Diego to create the Rock ‘n’ Roll Marathon, the MAC had some 25 foundation grants totaling close to $600,000 annually, as well as another $600,000+ in New York City and New York State grants to fund its various programs. 
• Tracy created the National Scholastic Indoor Track & Field Championships.  This meet significantly changed the face of high school track and field as it was the first true national track & field championship for high school aged athletes.  Other national high school championship events, currently sponsored by Nike (Nike Cross) and New Balance (New Balance Nationals Indoor and Outdoor), and with which he has stayed involved with through the National Scholastic Athletics Foundation (which he co-founded and is still a Board Member), grew from this event.
• “If you have it – we will host it!” became the mantra of the MAC -- Tracy led the effort to bring the following TAC / USATF National Championships to the New York area and then skillfully conducted them:  Masters Outdoor Track & Field, Youth Athletics Track & Field, Junior, Senior, and Masters Cross Country (twice, and they were the first to provide prize money!), and the 1990 Men’s & Women’s Outdoor Track & Field Championships at Downing Stadium on Randall’s Island, which featured a World Record 100m dash by Leroy Burrell and the stunning Long Jump competition between Carl Lewis and Mike Powell where they traded the lead in one centimeter segments!
• Tracy secured the opportunity, then coordinated and arranged funding for the Women’s Exhibition 400m Hurdles and 10,000m at the 1980 U.S. Olympic Trials and Women’s Exhibition 10km Race Walk at the 1984 U.S. Olympic Trials as a part of the effort to have those events receive national and international exposure and acceptance into championship events and ultimately the Olympic Games. That all eventually happened!
• At TAC / USA’s request, Tracy led the effort to bring the 1987 IAAF Race Walking World Cup to the U.S. and then served as the Chairman of the Organizing Committee and Race Director of the event.  This was a watershed event for the sport as it was the first time the event had been held outside of Europe, and it was the first time that entries weren’t limited and that all countries were welcome to participate. 
• While doing all this, he still found the time to stay engaged in coaching and athlete representation with the Warren Street Social and Athletic Club.

This is what he did while here in New York. We all know of his many accomplishments since then, but especially notable was his contributions as the head Men’s Team Manager for Team USA from 2008 to 2018, including three World Championships, two Pan-American Championships, several NACAC Regional events, and the 2008 and 2016 Olympic Games in Beijing and Rio De Janeiro.

Having some occasional involvement in International Track & Field Championships myself, it was always very comforting to bump into Tracy in faraway places like Instanbul and Beijing. While I may have been starting races for the IAAF, seeing Tracy always made me remember where I got my best formative experiences in learning that job -- right here in New York working at Tracy’s marathon MAC meets. There are literally hundreds of great “Tracy stories” to share (The Syracuse conference call – Mario, Bruce, Tracy, and the Chancellor), but we have some time constraints here, so let’s cut to the chase.

Tracy Sundlun, it is indeed our great honor to welcome you into our USATF New York Officials’ Hall of Fame. Although Southern California may claim you now, to we all here you are still a “New Yawkah” through and through! Thank you for all you have given us.