Joe McDowell - Nyack 1956-1985
When Joe McDowell’s artwork was displayed in a one-man exhibition at Nyack’s Hopper
House back in 1982, he was quoted in The Journal-News as saying, “I express myself through art and athletics, but what I hope to express most is my joy with being alive.”
Joe’s intrinsic joy was conveyed not only in the countless works of fine art he produced but also in the way he mentored students and athletes during a 31-year teaching and coaching career in the Nyack school district.
“Good coaches have good records,” wrote Jim Clyde, a Nyack distance runner under Joe’s
tutelage, on the occasion of Joe’s induction into the Rockland County Sports Hall of Fame in 1995. “Great coaches have good records, make the work fun, and impart useful skills and develop good character in team members. This is precisely what you did.” Joe built an enduring legacy as a successful track and cross country coach, revered art teacher and district art coordinator, renowned artist, humanitarian and sportsman.
Joe came to Nyack in 1952 on a student teaching assignment. Following a two-year commitment in the Army, during which he served in the Korean War, he spent 31 years at Nyack, from 1954 to 1985. He coached spring track for 29 years, 25 of them as head coach, 28 years as head cross country coach, and six years as head indoor track coach. Nyack did not start an indoor track program until the late 1970s.
A native of Irvington-on-Hudson in Westchester, Joe developed an interest in art during his
formative years spent in small upstate communities. He earned a degree in fine arts from Pratt University and a master’s in fine arts education from Columbia University.
After serving as an assistant track coach for his first few years, Joe was hired by Nyack Athletic Director Rudy Rejholec to lead the spring track and field program in 1959. Joe’s teams went on to win six Rockland County PSAL championships and eight Section 9 titles. His athletes won five New York State individual titles: Ron Edwards, high jump, 1962; Dave Billings, Class B cross country, 1971, and two-mile, 1972; Jerry Blow, indoor 55, 1978; and Darien DeLoatch, 1,600, 1979. One of his athletes was an Eastern States champion, Dwight Olivier in the 1981 indoor triple jump, and two competed in the Golden West Invitational – Lonnie Smith, 1975 triple jump, and Olivier, 1981 triple jump.
Joe earned five Rockland County PSAL Coach of the Year awards. His spring track
dual-meet record was 119 victories, 73 losses and 1 tie for a .613 winning percentage. That record includes a 24-meet winning streak in PSAL dual meets. He led the Indians to four consecutive undefeated seasons from 1959 to 1962. Joe was known especially for developing and nurturing top-flight sprinters and sprint relay teams, for which Nyack acquired the well-deserved sobriquet “Speed City” during his long tenure.
Such is the esteem in which he is held by the local track community that the
Rockland County spring track and field championship meet was renamed in his memory after his passing in 1996. Joe often intertwined his artistry with athletics, rendering pencil sketches of athletes performing during meets, fashioning montages of Nyack athletes, and
incorporating items such as bib numbers, competitors’ passes and medals into distinctive display boards. Another integral part of his persona was the ever-present pipe he smoked while sketching his subjects or contemplating his next artistic project.
“Art is the human expression in tangible form,” Joe was quoted as saying in a 1984
Journal-News article. “The track athlete stands out there by himself and we can identify with him. It takes a lot of courage [to stand alone] because everyone knows who wins and who tried hard. There are few excuses in track.”
Joe treated all of his athletes and students with equal attention and enthusiasm and attracted a wide following of admirers for his compassion for others. “We couldn’t go anywhere without people stopping to talk to him,” says Stephanie Michaels, Joe’s daughter from his second marriage. “Students would call him at home to talk to him. He was very understanding … he treated everyone like family.”
Joe was also athletically inclined himself, having been a sprinter and football player at Irvington High School. He stayed fit as a runner in later years, taking part in local races as a masters (40 and older) participant and even finishing the Long Island Marathon in May 1980, a month shy of his 50th birthday.
With the addition of fellow 2013 inductee Jim Pugh, nine of Joe’s former athletes have been enshrined in the Rockland Track & Field Hall of Fame: Shulton Whitley (2004), Dave Billings (2005), Lonnie Smith (2006), Dwight Olivier (2007), Don Clancy (2009), Ron Edwards (2009), Otto Pearson (2010), and Jerry Blow (2010). Edwards and Clancy are also members of the Rockland County Sports Hall of Fame.
Upon retirement, Joe moved to Sidney, N.Y., and served for seven years as an assistant indoor and outdoor track coach at Hartwick College. Thus his coaching tenure spanned 36 years and 77 seasons.
Joe had three children by his first marriage: Dirck, Jodi and Bart. His second wife, Konni, was a secretary in the Nyack school system for many years. Her daughter, Stephanie, was legally adopted as Stephanie McDowell at age 18. Stephanie, who’s 56, has two children: Kyle, 27, and Kara, 25.
Joe was inducted into the Rockland County Sports Hall of Fame in 1995. He died in
April 1996 at age 65.
House back in 1982, he was quoted in The Journal-News as saying, “I express myself through art and athletics, but what I hope to express most is my joy with being alive.”
Joe’s intrinsic joy was conveyed not only in the countless works of fine art he produced but also in the way he mentored students and athletes during a 31-year teaching and coaching career in the Nyack school district.
“Good coaches have good records,” wrote Jim Clyde, a Nyack distance runner under Joe’s
tutelage, on the occasion of Joe’s induction into the Rockland County Sports Hall of Fame in 1995. “Great coaches have good records, make the work fun, and impart useful skills and develop good character in team members. This is precisely what you did.” Joe built an enduring legacy as a successful track and cross country coach, revered art teacher and district art coordinator, renowned artist, humanitarian and sportsman.
Joe came to Nyack in 1952 on a student teaching assignment. Following a two-year commitment in the Army, during which he served in the Korean War, he spent 31 years at Nyack, from 1954 to 1985. He coached spring track for 29 years, 25 of them as head coach, 28 years as head cross country coach, and six years as head indoor track coach. Nyack did not start an indoor track program until the late 1970s.
A native of Irvington-on-Hudson in Westchester, Joe developed an interest in art during his
formative years spent in small upstate communities. He earned a degree in fine arts from Pratt University and a master’s in fine arts education from Columbia University.
After serving as an assistant track coach for his first few years, Joe was hired by Nyack Athletic Director Rudy Rejholec to lead the spring track and field program in 1959. Joe’s teams went on to win six Rockland County PSAL championships and eight Section 9 titles. His athletes won five New York State individual titles: Ron Edwards, high jump, 1962; Dave Billings, Class B cross country, 1971, and two-mile, 1972; Jerry Blow, indoor 55, 1978; and Darien DeLoatch, 1,600, 1979. One of his athletes was an Eastern States champion, Dwight Olivier in the 1981 indoor triple jump, and two competed in the Golden West Invitational – Lonnie Smith, 1975 triple jump, and Olivier, 1981 triple jump.
Joe earned five Rockland County PSAL Coach of the Year awards. His spring track
dual-meet record was 119 victories, 73 losses and 1 tie for a .613 winning percentage. That record includes a 24-meet winning streak in PSAL dual meets. He led the Indians to four consecutive undefeated seasons from 1959 to 1962. Joe was known especially for developing and nurturing top-flight sprinters and sprint relay teams, for which Nyack acquired the well-deserved sobriquet “Speed City” during his long tenure.
Such is the esteem in which he is held by the local track community that the
Rockland County spring track and field championship meet was renamed in his memory after his passing in 1996. Joe often intertwined his artistry with athletics, rendering pencil sketches of athletes performing during meets, fashioning montages of Nyack athletes, and
incorporating items such as bib numbers, competitors’ passes and medals into distinctive display boards. Another integral part of his persona was the ever-present pipe he smoked while sketching his subjects or contemplating his next artistic project.
“Art is the human expression in tangible form,” Joe was quoted as saying in a 1984
Journal-News article. “The track athlete stands out there by himself and we can identify with him. It takes a lot of courage [to stand alone] because everyone knows who wins and who tried hard. There are few excuses in track.”
Joe treated all of his athletes and students with equal attention and enthusiasm and attracted a wide following of admirers for his compassion for others. “We couldn’t go anywhere without people stopping to talk to him,” says Stephanie Michaels, Joe’s daughter from his second marriage. “Students would call him at home to talk to him. He was very understanding … he treated everyone like family.”
Joe was also athletically inclined himself, having been a sprinter and football player at Irvington High School. He stayed fit as a runner in later years, taking part in local races as a masters (40 and older) participant and even finishing the Long Island Marathon in May 1980, a month shy of his 50th birthday.
With the addition of fellow 2013 inductee Jim Pugh, nine of Joe’s former athletes have been enshrined in the Rockland Track & Field Hall of Fame: Shulton Whitley (2004), Dave Billings (2005), Lonnie Smith (2006), Dwight Olivier (2007), Don Clancy (2009), Ron Edwards (2009), Otto Pearson (2010), and Jerry Blow (2010). Edwards and Clancy are also members of the Rockland County Sports Hall of Fame.
Upon retirement, Joe moved to Sidney, N.Y., and served for seven years as an assistant indoor and outdoor track coach at Hartwick College. Thus his coaching tenure spanned 36 years and 77 seasons.
Joe had three children by his first marriage: Dirck, Jodi and Bart. His second wife, Konni, was a secretary in the Nyack school system for many years. Her daughter, Stephanie, was legally adopted as Stephanie McDowell at age 18. Stephanie, who’s 56, has two children: Kyle, 27, and Kara, 25.
Joe was inducted into the Rockland County Sports Hall of Fame in 1995. He died in
April 1996 at age 65.