Watch Kevin Foley win the 1981 1,500 meter National Championship
USTFCCCA Hall of Fame Inductees
LA CROSSE, Wis. – Haverford College's Kevin Foley '83 was one of four athletes who was inducted into the U.S. Track & Field and Cross Country Coaches Association's (USTFCCCA) Division III Track & Field Athlete Hall of Fame on Wednesday, May 23.
Wednesday's Hall of Fame banquet, on the eve of the Division III outdoor track & field championship meet at the University of Wisconsin–La Crosse, will make Foley the third Haverford athlete to join to earn this prestigious recognition as he joins Seamus McElligott '91 (inducted in 2013) and Karl Paranya '97 (inducted in 2010). Head coach Tom Donnelly has also inducted into the USTFCCCA Hall of Fame.
Kevin Foley was the NCAA Division III national champion in the outdoor 1,500 meters in 1981, 1982 and 1983. Until 2006 he was the only three-time national champion in the event. At the 1981 national championship Foley's time of three minutes, 46.46 seconds was the NCAA Championship meet record. The next year he broke not one, but two records. In his 1982 trial Foley ran 3:45.55 to break his meet record from the previous year's final and in the final he bested that performance with a winning time of 3:44.50 which still stands as the Division III meet record over a quarter of a century later. Foley won his third consecutive NCAA title in 1983 despite running the race after being on crutches for over a week due to a severe ankle injury.
When describing Foley, Head Coach Tom Donnelly said, "On their best days we've had a few guys who could match Kevin Foley as a competitor, but we've never had anyone who could surpass him."
His Haverford records in the indoor 1,000 meter run (2:24.7) and mile (4:03.3) and the outdoor 800 (1:49.9), 1,500 (3:44.0) and mile (4:02.71) survived for over a decade. During his last three years at Haverford, Foley never lost a track race to a Division III opponent.
Foley was one of the lead runners on Haverford's first championship cross country teams in 1979 and 1982. Haverford won its sole IC4A title in New York's Van Cortlandt Park in 1980 and Foley used the occasion to register his first individual win as a college cross country runner. His effort earned him the distinction as the only Haverford runner to win an individual IC4A cross country title.
Haverford men's and women's outdoor track & field teams will both began action at the 2018 national championships on Thursday.