Jack Dailey - Tappan Zee 1960
In the 1950s, Tappan Zee was the gold standard in Rockland County cross country, and the end of the decade saw the rise to prominence of Jack Dailey, whose exploits both on the hills-and-trails and track oval earned him the moniker “The Piermont Zephyr.”
Three of the four representatives from the ’50s on the Rockland County Cross Country All-Century Team are from Tappan Zee: Gene Martin, the ’54 New York State and Eastern States champion and 2005 Rockland Track & Field Hall of Fame inductee; his younger brother, Dennis Martin, the State runner-up in ’57; and Jack Dailey, the 1959 New York State Class B titleholder.
The Piermont Zephyr whooshed through Rockland on a two-year tear of success that included back-to-back victories in both the Rockland cross country championships and the mile run in the County spring track meet, a Section 9 Class B cross country title and a runner-up placing (losing by a half-second) the year before, numerous course records at venues throughout Rockland, and the lead role in the Flying Dutchmen’s pair of County and Section 9 titles in cross country.
It was on the statewide stage, however, that Jack shone brightest. After finishing fifth in the State cross country meet as a junior, he returned to Colgate University’s 2.5-mile championship course in the fall of ’59, assumed the lead in the first quarter-mile of the Class B race and never looked back. Jack won by 15 seconds – almost 100 yards – in 13 minutes 18.5 seconds, the fastest time of the day for the two races. Led by Jack’s full-throttle effort, Tappan Zee finished second as a team behind Ossining.
The Class B race was billed as a showdown between Jack and Bill Straub of Fox Lane, who were monopolizing the Rockland-Westchester sports headlines that season. But Jack was far superior on that day as Straub wound up fifth, some 26 seconds in arrears.
“It was a good day for me,” Jack remembers. “I felt great the whole way. The father of my then-girlfriend probably should have run the race himself, he had so many good photos of me. The course was in good shape and we were wearing pin spikes because there wasn’t much pavement on the course.”
Believe it or not, cross country and track were not Jack’s first athletic options. As a freshman at Tappan Zee, he wanted to go out for the football team – “I was an elusive runner in flag football,” he recalls – but his parents would have none of it, fearing his 130-pound frame was unsuitable for the rough-and-tumble gridiron. So he joined cross country and learned how to pace himself for 2.5 miles. Coach Chuck Koulias instructed Jack to shadow No. 2 harrier Maury Wallace, but soon he was beating Wallace and by his junior year had taken over as No. 1 after Dennis Martin graduated.
Bolstered by his cross country success, Jack charged into spring track season his junior year with Gene Martin’s county mile record of 4:29.7 dead in his cross hairs. Under the guidance of track coach Ray Bader, Jack captured the County meet title but just missed the record, clocking 4:30.4.
Although the record escaped him, Jack was optimistic he could seize it the following year. What he didn’t count on, though, was a case of walking pneumonia that sidelined him for almost three months and seriously jeopardized his track season. While taking a school physical to complete requirements for accepting a full scholarship to Syracuse University, a spot on his lung was detected and it was feared he had contracted tuberculosis. After multiple tests and a week’s confinement at the Summit Park sanatorium in Pomona, doctors at Summit Park determined the problem was brought on by the earlier bout with pneumonia.
Jack was cleared to run, but time was short. He ramped up his training and managed to repeat as County mile champ, clocking 4:31.9 ahead of his brother, Bill, with their mom and dad proudly cheering on the Dailey boys in the night meet at Nyack High School. With a couple more weeks of solid training under his belt, he went on the finish third at the State meet.
At Syracuse, Jack was an integral part of a talented freshman class of runners who went undefeated in frosh competition. In the IC4A (Eastern) freshman division race, Jack placed eighth to lead the Orangemen to a fifth-place team showing. He went on to earn three varsity letters in cross country, finishing in the top five individually in most dual meets, and two varsity letters in track.
Upon graduation from Syracuse in 1964, Jack chose to remain in the Syracuse area. He accepted a position with a metals distribution company in September 1964 and, in October 1968, joined a competitor in the same industry, Murphy and Nolan. He accepted a transfer around 1980 to become Rochester branch manager for the company and steadily advanced through the firm, earning promotion to vice president in the mid-1990s.
Jack just retired in February from full-time work at Murphy and Nolan. He is staying on for a short period to ensure a smooth transition for his successor. He has thus spent 41 years with the same company and his career has spanned almost 45 years with only two companies.
Jack lives in the Rochester suburb of Fairport with his wife of 33 years, Carolyn. He has one son from a previous marriage, Matthew, 37, and three daughters with Carolyn – Meghan, 31, and twins Maureen and Jennifer, 30.
At 66, Jack plays golf, enjoys walking and still gets out to run three or four times a week, four to five miles at a clip, often opting for a soft-surface route near the Erie Canal to preserve his legs. Competitively, he entered 10 marathons during a 20-year period, posting a personal best of 2 hours 48 minutes at Boston while still a student at Syracuse. He’s also competed several times at major road races such as the Cherry Blossom 10-Miler and Utica Boilermaker 15K.
Jack’s competitive road-racing career ended about five years ago when he had the first of two arthroscopic knee surgeries. “I’m not pounding races anymore,” says Jack, whose mother, Margaret Eleanor Dailey, 92, lives in West Haverstraw. “I did that for 50 years. Now I’m just taking it easy. I’m not setting any records.”
Three of the four representatives from the ’50s on the Rockland County Cross Country All-Century Team are from Tappan Zee: Gene Martin, the ’54 New York State and Eastern States champion and 2005 Rockland Track & Field Hall of Fame inductee; his younger brother, Dennis Martin, the State runner-up in ’57; and Jack Dailey, the 1959 New York State Class B titleholder.
The Piermont Zephyr whooshed through Rockland on a two-year tear of success that included back-to-back victories in both the Rockland cross country championships and the mile run in the County spring track meet, a Section 9 Class B cross country title and a runner-up placing (losing by a half-second) the year before, numerous course records at venues throughout Rockland, and the lead role in the Flying Dutchmen’s pair of County and Section 9 titles in cross country.
It was on the statewide stage, however, that Jack shone brightest. After finishing fifth in the State cross country meet as a junior, he returned to Colgate University’s 2.5-mile championship course in the fall of ’59, assumed the lead in the first quarter-mile of the Class B race and never looked back. Jack won by 15 seconds – almost 100 yards – in 13 minutes 18.5 seconds, the fastest time of the day for the two races. Led by Jack’s full-throttle effort, Tappan Zee finished second as a team behind Ossining.
The Class B race was billed as a showdown between Jack and Bill Straub of Fox Lane, who were monopolizing the Rockland-Westchester sports headlines that season. But Jack was far superior on that day as Straub wound up fifth, some 26 seconds in arrears.
“It was a good day for me,” Jack remembers. “I felt great the whole way. The father of my then-girlfriend probably should have run the race himself, he had so many good photos of me. The course was in good shape and we were wearing pin spikes because there wasn’t much pavement on the course.”
Believe it or not, cross country and track were not Jack’s first athletic options. As a freshman at Tappan Zee, he wanted to go out for the football team – “I was an elusive runner in flag football,” he recalls – but his parents would have none of it, fearing his 130-pound frame was unsuitable for the rough-and-tumble gridiron. So he joined cross country and learned how to pace himself for 2.5 miles. Coach Chuck Koulias instructed Jack to shadow No. 2 harrier Maury Wallace, but soon he was beating Wallace and by his junior year had taken over as No. 1 after Dennis Martin graduated.
Bolstered by his cross country success, Jack charged into spring track season his junior year with Gene Martin’s county mile record of 4:29.7 dead in his cross hairs. Under the guidance of track coach Ray Bader, Jack captured the County meet title but just missed the record, clocking 4:30.4.
Although the record escaped him, Jack was optimistic he could seize it the following year. What he didn’t count on, though, was a case of walking pneumonia that sidelined him for almost three months and seriously jeopardized his track season. While taking a school physical to complete requirements for accepting a full scholarship to Syracuse University, a spot on his lung was detected and it was feared he had contracted tuberculosis. After multiple tests and a week’s confinement at the Summit Park sanatorium in Pomona, doctors at Summit Park determined the problem was brought on by the earlier bout with pneumonia.
Jack was cleared to run, but time was short. He ramped up his training and managed to repeat as County mile champ, clocking 4:31.9 ahead of his brother, Bill, with their mom and dad proudly cheering on the Dailey boys in the night meet at Nyack High School. With a couple more weeks of solid training under his belt, he went on the finish third at the State meet.
At Syracuse, Jack was an integral part of a talented freshman class of runners who went undefeated in frosh competition. In the IC4A (Eastern) freshman division race, Jack placed eighth to lead the Orangemen to a fifth-place team showing. He went on to earn three varsity letters in cross country, finishing in the top five individually in most dual meets, and two varsity letters in track.
Upon graduation from Syracuse in 1964, Jack chose to remain in the Syracuse area. He accepted a position with a metals distribution company in September 1964 and, in October 1968, joined a competitor in the same industry, Murphy and Nolan. He accepted a transfer around 1980 to become Rochester branch manager for the company and steadily advanced through the firm, earning promotion to vice president in the mid-1990s.
Jack just retired in February from full-time work at Murphy and Nolan. He is staying on for a short period to ensure a smooth transition for his successor. He has thus spent 41 years with the same company and his career has spanned almost 45 years with only two companies.
Jack lives in the Rochester suburb of Fairport with his wife of 33 years, Carolyn. He has one son from a previous marriage, Matthew, 37, and three daughters with Carolyn – Meghan, 31, and twins Maureen and Jennifer, 30.
At 66, Jack plays golf, enjoys walking and still gets out to run three or four times a week, four to five miles at a clip, often opting for a soft-surface route near the Erie Canal to preserve his legs. Competitively, he entered 10 marathons during a 20-year period, posting a personal best of 2 hours 48 minutes at Boston while still a student at Syracuse. He’s also competed several times at major road races such as the Cherry Blossom 10-Miler and Utica Boilermaker 15K.
Jack’s competitive road-racing career ended about five years ago when he had the first of two arthroscopic knee surgeries. “I’m not pounding races anymore,” says Jack, whose mother, Margaret Eleanor Dailey, 92, lives in West Haverstraw. “I did that for 50 years. Now I’m just taking it easy. I’m not setting any records.”