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Hall of Fame Dad

Posted by Stuart at 10:38 AM on September 26, 2005

One of my most prized possessions is a small, 30-year old notebook where I used to record my jogs through the neighborhood. The first entry is sometime in 1974. I was only four years old, but I made it on one half-mile loop around the block. I continued to use this book to record my runs (more or less) all through track seasons in middle school and track and cross country in high school. Not only does this one book hold my first run, it also holds my last and fastest high school run -- a 15:58 three-miler at the Florida State Championships.

But this post is not about me, it's about my Dad. This past weekend, he was inducted into the Forrest City High School Sports Hall of Fame. I think he was the most proud of the fact that he was the first runner inducted.

Since I wasn't around in 1958 to watch him run, this is what the local Forrest City Times-Herald had to say about his career earlier this week:

A 1957 graduate of Forrest City High School, Stuart Towns was one of the state's early pioneers in distance running, lettering with the Mustang track team for three years and also running cross country during his senior year.

Towns also played basketball for two seasons.

As a sophomore, he finished second in the District 880-yard run and was third in the state in the 880 event. He won the district 440 title during his junior year at FCHS and went on to finish third in the state meet.

As a senior, Towns finished second in the state cross country championship meet becoming the first Forrest City High School student to run cross country. Self-coached in cross country, Towns finished third at the University of Arkansas Invitational Cross Country Meet and third at the Little Rock Invitational Meet.

During his senior year, he won the District 440, 880 and mile finishing first in the state in the mile run and third in the state 440. He also anchored the mile relay team at the state meet.

Towns attended the University of Arkansas where he lettered in both track and cross country for three years. He was a member of the Arkansas cross country team that won the Southwest Conference title in 1959 and finished second in 1960.

After college, Towns competed with the U.S. Modern Pentathlon team and was a first alternate for the Pre-Olympic World Meet in Tokyo and other Olympic trials.

Towns helped establish the men's cross country and track programs at the University of West Florida in 1985 and coached the two teams until 2000.

His teams qualified for the NAIA National Cross Country Championship meet nine times. He was named NAIA District 27 Coach of the year several times.

Towns was a professor on staff at the University of West Florida and at Appalachian State.

Currently he is on staff at Southeast Missouri State University.

I am so proud!