Tom Courtney (2025)
Tom Courtney probably had little choice than to take up running. Genealogy almost dictated it.
Tom’s father was an outstanding coach of track and field and cross country at Father Baker High School and St. Francis High School. He had several unbeaten seasons to his credit there. Meanwhile, brothers Terry, Pat, and Kerry also were very good. Pat was an All-Conference choice at Western Kentucky, while Terry and Kerry won multiple all-Catholic honors in high school.
While there’s room for argument on the subject, it was brother Tom who had the most outstanding career in running. Part of the reason was that his life touched on so many areas of the sport.
He was an All-Catholic runner at Father Baker in 1961 and 1962 and then headed south. Tom was the top freshman runner at the Mississippi State University. He left that school and served in Vietnam for the military. After finishing that stint, he turned his talents to coaching at St. Francis. Along the way, he was a top Masters runner in the middle distances in the 1980s. And in whatever spare time he had, he served as the race director for the YMCA Turkey Trot, and the Checkers High School Cross-Country Championships at Elma Meadows. If you don’t take our word for it, listen to the words of the late Bob Ivory. He once called Tom the best Catholic prep runner in Western New York history. That’s an iron-clad case for his induction into the Western New York Running Hall of Fame.