Greg Bell still active, but in different ways

Jun. 26—Before Terre Haute icon Greg Bell and his wife Mary arrived at the Idle Creek Golf Course Banquet Center to be part of the 49th Indiana Track and Field & Cross Country Hall of Fame induction ceremony Saturday evening, he stayed up past his normal bedtime Friday night to watch television.

Until about midnight, which can be pretty late for a 91-year-old man.

Greg Bell wanted to check out the 2022 USA Track & Field outdoor championships taking place in Eugene, Ore. But his eyes occasionally strayed off the outstanding athletes to the beautiful, red all-weather urethane surface at Hayward Field.

"I wanted to both celebrate and cry when I see the surfaces they're competing on now," he said half-jokingly before the induction ceremony of 10 individuals and one relay team was set to begin. A 2013 poem titled "Of Track and Field" — written and read by Bell — provided a highlight to the festivities Saturday.

A 1948 Garfield High School graduate who went on to win a gold medal in the men's long jump at the 1956 Summer Olympics at Melbourne, Australia, Bell ran on cinder tracks while growing up in Terre Haute.

"A lot of times, I was slipping in loose cinders," he recalled. "But everyone else had to compete under the same conditions."

After graduating from Garfield and serving in the U.S. Army, Bell enrolled at Indiana University in the fall of 1954. In those days, freshmen were not allowed to participate in varsity athletics, even older freshmen. So he had to wait until his sophomore year (spring 1956) and his junior year (spring 1957) to capture NCAA titles in the men's long jump. An injury as a senior prevented him from going for a third NCAA championship.

At the 1956 Summer Olympics, Bell was seeded "only" No. 7 out of the 13 athletes who made it out of the 32-man, three-jump qualifying round. But all of the qualifiers would start over for the six-jump finals anyway, so there was no need to panic. On Bell's second attempt in the finals, he leaped 7.83 meters (25 feet, 8 1/4 inches) and nobody else could equal or top that.

The result was a gold medal for Bell, who didn't mind showing it off Saturday. He keeps it in a wood case, shaped like the country of Australia, that he made himself.

----Bell's legendary story of becoming a Logansport dentist — even after a Garfield English teacher once told him that "colored" children could never be awarded a grade higher than a "C" — has been well-documented. He's now retired from dentistry after 50 years of service and he and Mary "downsized" to a smaller house in Logansport to make life a little simpler.

Bell described Logansport as "a quiet town," which is perfect for him.

"There's not much excitement," he added, "and I don't want much excitement."

Although Bell still walks for exercise, he acknowledged: "I don't do it as much as I should, but I'm pretty well able to do what ever I choose to do."

Bell did undergo a heart-valve replacement a few years ago, but he's not complaining about that.

"I don't notice any difference," he told the Tribune-Star with a smile on his face. "I've still got a heart beat up here [pointing to the left side of his chest]."

The first person ever inducted into the Indiana Track and Field & Cross Country Hall of Fame in 1974, Bell has picked up sculpting as a hobby during the last year. "I've been having a ball," he said.

Those inducted into the Hall of Fame from the class of 2022 were Richard Carter (Petersburg), Opal "Shagg" Courtney (Gary Roosevelt) and Otha Ray Thomas (Evansville Central) for the Pioneer Group; Skyler Carpenter (Westview) and Waverly Neer (Culver Academies) for the Female Athletes category; Andrew Bayer (Leo) and Cory Shank (Fort Wayne Northrop) for Male Athletes; the 2003 Fort Wayne Northrop girls foursome of Tamara Adams, Lakieta Rox, Kyndall Carr and Zakiya Robinson for the Relay category; Larry Williams (Bloomington South) for Coaches; and Ron Raver (Batesville) and Ashley Spencer (Lawrence North) for the Contributors category.

In addition, Mike Chastain of Culver Academies was presented with the John McNichols Award.

"I was invited to come here and I wanted to share the evening with these fine people who are being inducted," Bell said, preferring to nudge the spotlight toward those mentioned in the previous two paragraphs.

Earlier Saturday at the Indiana Track & Field & Cross Country Hall of Fame Museum inside the Terre Haute Convention and Visitors Bureau, 2022 winners of the Mr. Indiana Track and Field (hurdler John Colquitt of Brownsburg) and Miss Indiana Track and Field (sprinter Ramiah Elliott of Indianapolis North Central) awards for high school athletes were honored.