Fresno State To Receive
New Indoor Track

Thursday, August 3, 2006

 

Fresno State To Receive
New Indoor Track

Thursday, August 3, 2006

Here's the story at The Fresno Bee (requires registration)

From The Fresno Bee - By Ken Robison
Fresno State will announce today that Fred Arnold, a longtime track and field official and retired construction company owner from Southern California, will pay for a track for use at indoor meets at the Save Mart Center.

The announcement will come at a 2 p.m. news conference at the arena. Arnold is making the donation in memory of his wife, Madeleine, who died last year.

Arnold's Fresno connection involves Fresno State coach Bob Fraley, whom the Arnolds first met a few decades ago when Fraley's son, Doug, traveled to track meets throughout California.

Arnold is a longtime pole vault official who worked at the 1984 Olympic Games in Los Angeles.

The Arnolds have officiated at Fraley's annual North American Pole Vault Championships in Clovis, and Fred Arnold said he admires Fraley for keeping pole vaulting alive.

Arnold, who lives in Hollywood, will arrive in Fresno today for the news conference and then will officiate at Friday's Clovis vaultfest.

He will finance what Fraley said will be a track with a rubberized running surface to attract the best runners for the Run for the Dream indoor track meet on the Martin Luther King Day holiday. Arnold said he won't know the cost until the track is built.

Last year, Fraley rented an old wooden track from the Los Angeles Sports Arena for $10,000 and paid $7,200 to transport it.

Having a track in Fresno will help keep costs down, Fraley said.

"Not only that, it will be state of the art," Fraley said. "U.S. Track and Field is interested in making [Run for the Dream] part of the Visa Series, the highest level of track and field in the U.S.

"That means ESPN or somebody will broadcast it and you'll get the world's best athletes."

That evoked thoughts of the old West Coast Relays, when that Fresno meet annually drew the best athletes.

"This is our best shot to replace the West Coast Relays," he said. "The whole Valley loves the [Save Mart Center]. You can get the great athletes into a beautiful arena."

Fraley said the track, which he expects will run 10 laps to the mile, would be constructed of wood and metal with a rubber surface. It could be loaded onto pallets, stored in a warehouse and trucked to the arena for competition.

Arnold, 85, said he plans to ask for donations from Valley track supporters to help with the project.

"I want to carry this on for my wife and myself," he said. "It's a matter of what you want to do with your life. You don't have to wait until you die to give your money away.

"I look forward to putting in the track, whatever it costs. If we get help from locals, they can be part of it. If not, I have an adequate amount of money to do it. I'll see that it gets paid for.

"I can't think of anything I'd I rather do than [fund] Madeleine Arnold Memorial Track."

The inaugural Run for the Dream drew 5,806 fans last year to the Save Mart Center. That was below the 9,000 Fraley had hoped would come to watch world-class athletes on a national holiday.

"I think this could be a big meet in the USA if the word gets out," said Coby Miller, a two-time Olympic sprinter.

The reporter can be reached at [email protected] or (559) 441-6279.