RIP: Vic Holchak

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  • wejo
    cofounder
    5 years ago 04/29/2015 12:42pm CDT
    Forum Index
    Got an email today from Pat Butcher saying Vic Holchak, RIP.

    In a strange coincidence I was talking to a friend of mine about 1-800-94-TRAK this weekend.

    The college age runners will not believe this but in the late 90s even with the invention of the internet there still wasn't a good way to find out what happened in European track meets. So you could dial 1-800-94-TRAK. You would get a recorded message from Vic Holchak recapping the European action. He had this fabulous deep voice: "Hello everybody this is Vic Holchack in Zurich" and he would recap the Zurich Golden League in like a minute and have a call of the 100 meters. He made track and field exciting.

    Anyone know how many years he had this service? I felt like it was only a year or two and then the internet results took over.

    Pat Butcher's remembrances here:
    http://www.globerunner.org/index.php/04/vic-holchak-rip/

    Obituary here: http://obits.dignitymemorial.com/dignity-memorial/obituary.aspx?n=Victor-Holchak&lc=4802&pid=172740010&mid=6150883

    Vic Thanks for bringing the sport alive to us all and making it exciting. I'm not sure LetsRun.com would exist if you hadn't brough European track and field alive to me.
  • coach d,
    5 years ago 04/29/2015 12:51pm CDT
    re: wejo
    Forum Index
    Yep, less than two years.
  • wineturtle
    registered
    5 years ago 04/29/2015 1:12pm CDT
    re: wejo
    Forum Index
    Remember his service well- back page ad on T&F news mag -think Gill Athletic Equipment usually had that page back then.
    I remember the gf asking me who I was repeatly calling and not speaking to. She thought I was prank calling.
  • Star
    5 years ago 04/29/2015 1:26pm CDT
    re: wejo
    Forum Index
    I remember making the calls to hear results.
    I think I heard commentary on some of Geb's records that way.
  • LI Runner
    5 years ago 04/29/2015 2:23pm CDT
    re: wineturtle
    Forum Index
    I remember calling too. It was very exciting to listen. He provided a service that was really needed, almost instantaneous results of European T&F.

    Didn't he end it by saying something like "...the cavalcade of sports" or something like that.

    RIP Vic.

    Thank you.
  • vincent44
    5 years ago 04/29/2015 3:39pm CDT
    re: LI Runner
    Forum Index
    I used his service quite often. In those days his radio calls were state of the art.
    He will be sorely missed.
  • rojo
    cofounder
    5 years ago 04/29/2015 6:30pm CDT
    re: vincent44
    Forum Index
    He actually died in September. I thought there might have been something on him then but don't see anything.

    Here are some past threads praising Vic:

    http://www.letsrun.com/forum/flat_read.php?thread=4070922

    http://www.letsrun.com/forum/flat_read.php?thread=2198912
  • factchecker23
    5 years ago 04/29/2015 6:36pm CDT
    re: wejo
    Forum Index
    1-800-94-TRACK

    Dialing six numbers after 1-800 won't do much.
  • rojo
    cofounder
    5 years ago 04/29/2015 6:39pm CDT
    re: rojo
    Forum Index
    I just read his obituary. It is pretty amazing. He was a credentialed Olympic journalist in 1956 at the age of 16. Then a tv star who never lost his passion for track.

    WIth the passing of him and Jim Dunaway last month, the sport has lost two of it's great journalists. I think I was in China or getting ready to go when Dunaway passed. It certainly didn't get nearly enough attention on letsrun.

    Here is a great article on Dunaway:

    http://www.statesman.com/news/sports/esteemed-track-and-field-journalist-dunaway-dies-a/nkbdX/

    and a thread here:

    http://www.letsrun.com/forum/flat_read.php?thread=6382583
  • I Called Daily
    5 years ago 04/29/2015 6:48pm CDT
    re: rojo
    Forum Index
    i used to call Holchak's line regularly when he was filing the quickest reports from major championships. He did a great job.
  • hawkrunner
    5 years ago 04/29/2015 8:25pm CDT
    re: I Called Daily
    Forum Index
    RIP

    I was always excited to call and get the updates. Great recaps.
  • RIP Vic
    5 years ago 04/29/2015 10:13pm CDT
    re: wejo
    Forum Index
    I used to call that line all the time, R.I.P. ~VIc, Thanks !
  • trackr
    5 years ago 04/29/2015 10:21pm CDT
    re: wejo
    Forum Index
    I really enjoyed calling his track line. Would be great if someone could post old recordings we could listen to again.
  • A Duck
    registered
    5 years ago 04/30/2015 12:00am CDT
    re: trackr
    Forum Index
    trackr wrote:

    I really enjoyed calling his track line. Would be great if someone could post old recordings we could listen to again.

    Me too. I'd be surprised but not shocked if someone had some recordings.
    Friend of mine turned me on to the line when it was launched. What a great service back in the day.

    RIP to those great journalists that loved and served our sport.
  • bring back the hotline
    5 years ago 04/30/2015 12:41am CDT
    re: A Duck
    Forum Index
    I, too, hope his hotline recordings are archived somewhere. Would love to not only hear them again myself, but let the younger generation experience them as well.

    And what an obituary! One of the most interesting ones I've ever read.

    Now I just gotta go dig up some of his acting footage.

    Rest in peace, Vic. You absolutely brought athletics to life for me! Thank you for all that you did for the sport.
  • andye
    5 years ago 04/30/2015 10:36am CDT
    re: wejo
    Forum Index
    I knew Vic quite well from the circuit from the mid-80s. As I remember it, he was providing that service for quite a few years and may he have been doing it at the Seoul Olympics. He was certainly one of us in the mixed zone with our mics from the mid-80s or before. This is from a British perspective!
  • M Runner
    5 years ago 04/30/2015 11:16am CDT
    re: andye
    Forum Index
    In August of 1994, I spent time up in Northern Michigan at a running camp. We had one pay phone outside the lodge, and I would dial up 1-800-94-TRACK regularly (was it daily?) for updates. I got ribbed by my coach who thought I was calling my girlfriend. What a great service Vic provided to the greater running community! Hard to imagine the impact at the time, with today's technology.
  • Coach T
    5 years ago 04/30/2015 12:01pm CDT
    re: wejo
    Forum Index
    Vic Holchak died in September of 2014, nearly 8 months ago. It was talked about last fall, and the track and field world on the west coast mourned his loss. I don't quite understand how you missed that one. But I am happy that you are paying tribute to Vic on Letsrun. Vic was a good man.
  • Tross
    5 years ago 04/30/2015 12:27pm CDT
    re: Coach T
    Forum Index
    The guy could act.
    http://www.imdb.com/name/nm0390068/

    One fantastic podunk.
  • tired horses?
    5 years ago 04/30/2015 12:43pm CDT
    re: wejo
    Forum Index
    wejo wrote:

    Got a 6 month old pony express letter from Pat Butcher saying Vic Holchak, RIP.