News

North Allegheny High School graduate (Class of 1967) and athletic standout, Jerry Richey, will be inducted into the 2022 Class of the University of Pittsburgh Athletic Hall of Fame on Sept. 30.

Richey was also part of North Allegheny’s inaugural Hall of Fame Class in 1997. Richey excelled for the North Allegheny cross country team and won WPIAL individual championships in 1965 and 1966. On the track and field team, Richey was the WPIAL champion in the 2-mile run for three consecutive seasons in 1964, 1965 and 1966. He also won WPIAL gold in the mile and ½ mile in 1967.

Richey continued his sterling career at the collegiate level and is considered the finest distance runner in Pitt’s long and celebrated track and field history. During a career that spanned from 1967-71, his list of accomplishments includes earning All-America stature five times, winning two NCAA championships, achieving a sub-four-minute mile, anchoring a world record-setting relay team and reaching the finals of the 1968 U.S. Olympic Trials. Richey captured NCAA titles in the 3000 meters (1970) and as a member of the Panthers’ distance medley relay team (1971). In a February 1971 meet at Delaware, Richey ran a 3:59.7 mile as the anchor leg, spurring his distance medley relay squad to a world-record time of 9:39.7. When he ran his initial sub-four-minute mile at age 19, he became one of only 27 Americans at that time to accomplish the feat.

The 2022 class will receive induction at the Pitt Athletics Hall of Fame Dinner presented by PNC on Friday, Sept. 30, at Acrisure Stadium. On Saturday, Oct. 1, the inductees will be introduced at Acrisure when the Panthers take on Georgia Tech.

(Some information courtesy of University of Pittsburgh Athletics.)