RIP DyeStat Founder John Dye - February 13th, 1936 - September 30th, 2022

:(

Whoa. Same.

I remember the late ‘90s/early ‘00s, dyestat was the only place to read about Ritz, Webb, and Hall. And the explosion of talent of CA/West runners (Sara Bei, Amber Trotter, Alicia Craig)

He helped contribute to the increased attention and exposure HS track and XC began to receive.

Absolutely a hero and legend of modern T&F and distance running. I remember getting my photo on there and feeling like I had "made it." Started the site simply because of how into the sport he got because of following his son in it. Great dad. Great man. Made his contribution. RIP <3

RIP. I loved that site.

Ill never forgive them for killing off the message board. was such a fun community (I was in high school at the time). used to chat with all the runners in my region and the "playground" chat room was a blast.

So many memories on that site. Internet isnt as fun since (reddit is too sensitive and "supportive", and letsrun is just a bunch of whiny boomers who are either unmarried and live in tiny apartments as a lonely 55 year old or are married and don't have sex with their wives (see post nupital thread). Yuck.

Really miss Dyestat. So many legends on that site. Remember this awesome troll named Mike Oh (trying to remember other names).

I know nothing about this man. Was he a runner or a coach? Did any of you know if he was in poor health? RIP.

I'm not positive but I believe John Dye had a son who was a National level pole vaulter and that was a big reason why he started gathering the results and data.

Rest In Peace John Dye. One of the greats of the track world. Can’t believe it - I was just reading through old dyestat archives :(

Someone who actually made a positive contribution to the sport for those who wanted to know more about what mattered.

Such a contrast to this forum.

A great man, RIP.

Great person and man. May have passed from natural causes. He was late 80s. Got started in the mid-90s because his two kids were pretty good athletes - high jump and pole vault.

Used to go on that site all day. Really influenced high school T&F in my opinion. When that site got big, I started to see a insane progression in performances compared to when I ran.

Here is his obituary which is great.

mykeeper.com

John's Memorial

View John's Tribute to Share a Memory and Photos.

Link:www.mykeeper.com/profile/JohnDye/

I'd love to know how much ESPN paid for the site. It's a shame that such a good site was then a few years later viewed as basically worthless by ESPN. Thank God ESPN didn't just shut it down though.

His son was a state champ HJ'er in the late 90s, and his daughter a state champ pole vaulter. He started it as a Maryland thing, then went national a few years later. Before RunnerSpace, Flotrack and Milesplit, there was DyeStat. Kind of the grandfather of high school track and XC websites and really did a lot for the sport during a "second career" late in life from about 96 to 2013. Props to RunnerSpace for picking it up after ESPN dropped it and John retired.

Doug Binder of DyeStat did a really nice tribute back in 2018 when John was elected to the National HS Track & Field Hall of Fame:

dyestat.com

DyeStat.com - News - DyeStat Founder John Dye Entering NSAF National High School Track And Field Hall of Fame

Hall of Fame: John Dye helped take 'provincial' high school track and field nationalBy Doug Binder, DyeStat EditorIt wasn’t long ago that high school track and field was about the lowest of low tech. You went to practice afte...

Link:www.dyestat.com/gprofile.php?mgroup_id...

His son was a high jumper and his daughter was a pole vaulter, and he wanted to know how they compared to other high school competition. He was a former journalist and knew enough about the internet to build the site. His wife and kids also worked on the "family business"! He was 86. RIP, John. I enjoyed the site for the same reasons when my kids were in high school track.

No disrespect to Track and Field News but for a high school runner in the mid 2000s it was DyeStat that was the Bible of the sport.

No message board community like the one fostered on DyeStat will exist again.

I met John. Truely a man before his time. Now with Amazon and Google free Big Data, Data Science, AI, photo/video matching programs, those tedious, manual stats and gallery sites are all evaporating aways one by one. Such is progress.

Watchout, King99, Mrr82, Mzungu, Leftfielder, Greenman, Daman, Jim Spivey, wineturtle, Phrisbee, Darkhorse,
usnspecialist, magness, SteveU, Malmo, Rich Gonzalez (don't remember his username), Marquis De Sage...

Wineturtle was great. Haven't heard from him in ages. Anybody know anything about him recently?

History of the site.

I must disagree with this. I think Dyestat at that time had a lot of boomers on the site who have since retired from posting or post on the politically correct TF News forums. Most of the trouble here is from posters who grew up with 'in your face' talk radio and current affairs TV talk shows.