Hall of Honor
John Martin was an exceptional sprinter who was one of the nation’s leading 100-yard-dash men in 1913. Twice captain of Beloit’s track team, he won the 100 in four consecutive Little Five Conference meets and three times in the annual Wisconsin state competition. His performance event on three occasions each in the conference and state meets. Martin’s successes. However, were not limited to running; as a freshman, he was league and state titlist in the broad jump. During the collegiate career, Beloit trackmen won a state championship and two conference crowns and were runnersup twice in each meet. Martin, who later competed for the Chicago Athletic Club, was a talented runner as a youth, setting an Illinois state high school 440-yard mark that withstood challenged for two decades and qualifying for the 1908 Summer Olympics, in which he was unable to participate because of a family illness. As an executive with Rockford’s T.L. Clark Manufacturing Company, he developed the first metal flashlight battery and originated the serrated – edge metal tape dispenser. He died at age 86 in 1976.
