The two of us were talking one day back in May and came up with an idea. We thought that wouldn’t it be fun with the Greyhound Hall of Fame celebrating their 50th year this year and with 50 years of All-American teams to assemble a group of “experts” to vote on whom they thought was the Best of the Best from the past 50 Years of All- Americans.
We decided to select 50 individuals with a variety of expertise in the greyhound business. The 50 individuals were divided into five categories and they could be either active in the business or retired. These five categories with ten members each were: (1) greyhound kennel operators, (2) greyhound owners, (3) greyhound trainers, (4) racetrack officials and (5) journalists and/or public relations.
A cover letter was sent out to each of the 50 individuals letting them know that we would appreciate their participation. Along with this cover letter was a selection sheet that listed point values for their selections 1st to 16th as follows: 1st – 50 points, 2nd – 42 points, 3rd – 36 points, 4th – 30 points, 5th – 24 points, 6th – 22 points, 7th – 20 points, 8th – 18 points, 9th – 16 points, 10th – 14 points, 11th – 12 points, 12th – 10 points, 13th – 8 points, 14th – 6 points, 15th – 4 points and 16th – 2 points.
Unfortunately, we had a typo in the cover letter that asked the participants to pick their top 20 greyhounds. Most of the ballots were returned with 16 selections but some did add four more because of the cover letter. Only the top 16 selections were used in the balloting process.
After all of the ballots had been returned, the votes were tallied to determine which greyhounds would make the First, Second and Third Team of the Best of the Best from the past Fifty Years of All-Americans. We want to thank everyone that participated and we were very pleased that 90% of the ballots were returned.
Many of the 45 individuals that returned their selection sheets either called with comments or attached comments along with their ballot. Here is just a sampling of what we received:
Jim Gartland (General Manager at Victoryland):
I could work on this forever, but I know it has to end one way or another so here it is. Damn, that was hard.
Ron Mullen (trainer, Bluffs Run):
Let me tell you how honored I am to have been chosen to submit my BEST OF THE BEST. I made my decisions based on just racing careers. As that is how ALL AMERICANS are named. If it was based on Stud careers or Brood Matron careers my list would be different.
Dan Luciano (President/General Manager, American Greyhound Racing Arizona):
Too many great greyhounds left off!
Roy Berg (Greyhound journalist, Oregon):
Excellent idea! Good luck with getting responses.
Mike Pelletier (Texas Racing Commission State Judge, Gulf Greyhound Park):
Thanks for including me on the selections…it was a daunting task..I picked a mix of my era greyhounds and some golden oldies who had an impact both on the track and in the breeding field…hope I did the process honor..
David Jeswald (Greyhound historian, Massachusetts):
Great idea, should be very interesting seeing final results (Teams).
Dennis McKeon (former trainer; currently Greyhound journalist [“rockingship”]):
Thank you for including me on the roster of selectors. It’s a great honor.
A total of 109 different greyhounds received a least one vote. Of these 109 greyhounds, only 10 received a first place vote worth 50 points. Only 3 of these 109 greyhounds received over 1,000 votes. The 3 receiving over 1,000 were: Downing (1,578), Westy Whizzer (1,370) and Miss Whirl (1,014).
The BEST of the BEST of the All- Americans from the past 50 Years- First Team Notes:
All eight members of the First Team of the BEST of the BEST All-Americans from the past 50 Years have been inducted into the Greyhound Hall of Fame.
In addition to being All- Americans, one was a Rural Rube winner (Downing in 1977) and four were Flashy Sir winners (P’s Rambling in 1987, K’s Flak in 1979, Unruly in 1981 and Dutch Bahama in 1985).
The top vote getter (Downing) also had one of his sons make the First Team (Perceive).
Four of the first five greyhounds named are either Westy Whizzer himself or his descendants (Downing, Perceive and P’s Rambling the other three).
Of the eight first team members, all eight came from different kennels and different owners.
Three of the owners of the eight First Team members have been inducted into the Greyhound Hall of Fame (Keith Dillon, 1983; Herb Koerner, 2001; and R.H. Walters, 2005).
The BEST of the BEST of the All- Americans from the past 50 Years- Second Team Notes: Five members of the Second Team of the BEST of the BEST All-Americans from the past 50 years (L.L.’s Doug, Talentedmrriply, Oshkosh Racey, Rooster Cogburn and Rocking Ship*) have been inducted in the Greyhound Hall of Fame.
In addition to being All- Americans, three were Rural Rube winners (Talentedmrripley in 2001, Oshkosh Racey in 1988 and EA’s Itzaboy in 2003) and four were Flashy Sir winners (Talentedmrripley in 2002, Rocking Ship* in 1972 & 1973, Mo Kick in 1991 and Keefer in 1986).
Two members of the Second Team were sired by members of the First Team: Oshkosh Racey by Unruly and Keefer by Perceive.
As was the case with the First Team, all of the Second Team members came from different kennels and different owners.
There have been only six threetime All-Americans: three of those are on the First Team (Westy Whizzer, Miss Whirl & Perceive) and three are on the Second Team (L.L.’s Doug, Mo Kick & EA’s Itzaboy).
Rocking Ship* is the only imported greyhound to gain a spot on any of the three teams comprising the BEST of the BEST All-Americans from the past 50 years.
Keith Dillon was the first owner to have a greyhound named to both the First Team (Perceive) and Second Team (Keefer).
Three of the kennels and/or owners of the eight Second Team members have been inducted into the Greyhound Hall of Fame (Bill Pollard, Pat Dalton and Keith Dillon).
The BEST of the BEST of the All- Americans from the past 50 Years- Third Team Notes:
Three members of the Third Team of the BEST of the BEST All- Americans from the past 50 Years (EJ’s Douglas, JW Rocket One and Kiowa Sweet Trey) have been inducted into the Greyhound Hall of Fame.
In addition to being All-Americans, four were Rural Rube winners (EJ’s Douglas in 1993 & 1994, JW Rocket One in 1982 & 1983, Izz A Champ in 1971 and K’s Broadway in 1987) and two were Flashy Sir winners (P.L. Greer in 1976 & 1977 and Pat C Rendezvous in 1994).
As was the case with the previous two teams, all of the Third Team members came from different kennels and different owners.
Jack Kahn had a greyhound named to the First Team (K’s Flak) as well as a greyhound named to the Third Team (K’s Broadway).
Of this Third Team, six of the eight were two-time All-Americans, further validating the importance of durability and longevity as key factors in qualifying for these august teams.
Five of the kennels and/or owners of the eight Third Team members have been inducted into the Greyhound Hall of Fame (Chuck Marriott, Vince Berland, Kay Smith, Pat Collins and G.A. “Sonny” Alderson).
Selection of the original annual teams has always been a subjective process, vulnerable to humane error. Fittingly, so has this exercise of trying to single out the greatest of the greats for the last half-century. Your personal all-time All-American teams might have a totally different look than the lists that have been assembled here. But isn’t that one of the reasons that we enjoy this annual process?–not only to pay tribute to the immortals of the game, but to start a conversation (in some cases, an argument) on just who are the most venerable of our greatest champions.
Let the conversation begin!
Westy Whizzer
Miss Whirl
