SPORTS HALL of FAME ATHLETE
Randy Payne '69'

The biography of one of the most successful and intense male competitors in Sidney sports history is not hard to tell, it's just hard to make sure it all gets included!

Randy Payne's athletic accomplishments never involved the hitting, shooting, throwing, catching or kicking of a ball. They came because he had the talent and the self-discipline to push his body and mind to incredible limits in pursuit of excellence within his chosen sport of wrestling, cross country and track & field.

Wrestling is where Randy took himself the farthest. Making the 1965-66 Varsity team under Coach Tom Robertson as a Freshman, he made his debut season a great one, going unbeaten! However, a knee injury prior to sectionals kept him from attempting a run at the States. He would get more chances.

Sophomore year was a carbon copy, avoiding injury this time, as Randy took a spotless mark through the Sectional Tournament. Competing at 106 pounds, Randy battled into his first State competition and won the first two bouts. Then with a two-year record of 47-0, the streak was ended in a classic match with Lindenhurst's Steve Weiss. The 8-6 loss would be his only setback throughout his four-year career.

(Trivia notes - Weiss lost in the finals 6-5 and his school Lindenhurst was coached by Jack Stanbro who is here with us tonight).

Junior year meant redemption, as Randy got to face Weiss again in the 1968 State Tournament, this time at 112 pounds. He won his first State Title, capping off a 24-0 campaign. The only uncertain part of the experience was that Randy wrestled at States, tightly wrapped in tape to protect cracked ribs - a practice that certainly would NOT have been allowed today.

As a Senior, all expectations were for Randy to win it all and he did not disappoint. Along the path to States, he became the second wrestler to ever win all four championships in the Windsor Christmas Tournament - an event still in existence today and considered the tournament with the longest duration. He also won his fourth Susquenango and third Section IV championships. The 8-4 victory in the State finals completed a remarkable 107-1 career which at the time, was the best ever in New York State.

Shortly after that, Randy took to the mat again, during he Junior Nationals in Wyoming. He defeated then #1-ranked and scholastic unbeaten Dan Kida of California during that week; but due to a now defunct "black mark" system, even that win and two more over other State champions could not keep him in the tournament.

The final piece to the wrestling puzzle came for Randy at the University of Pittsburgh, where in his Freshman year, he made it all the way to the National finals before losing. He was the nation's first Freshman to make it to that level, thus securing his status as an All-American.

Just as impressive, Randy was also Sidney's finest male Cross-Country runner ever. He helped Coach Bill Davidson establish this new sport in the fall of 1965, where he literally hit the ground running!

By the 1967 season, Randy and the Sidney Harriers (an endearing nickname no longer used in Cross Country) had taken the lead in Section IV. They won the Sid Stock, Windsor, Cinncinatus, Harpursville, and Whitney Point Invitationals, as well as the League and Section IV meets.

Individually, Randy won the first of his two League meets; this race was run during halftime of a Sidney-Greene football game at Sidney! He went on to place 6th in the NYS meet, despite running the final portion of the race with severe abdominal cramps.

The next season, after repeating as Sus League champ, Randy finished 12th in a field of 112 runners in the State meet on Long Island. This led the Harriers to a 3rd place team finish - best in school history.

As far as Track & Field accomplishments, the details are lacking, but we can say that Randy was a pole vaulter who cleared 12 feet 2 inches and won Sus titles in the 440, mile and two-mile. His very first effort in the 880 yard run proved successful, too. The finishing time of 2:01.2 broke the existing school record by four and one half seconds!

Randy became, in 1981, the first Sidney student-athlete to be selected for the Section IV Hall of Fame.

To have done all these things took an enormous amount of dedication and heart. Tales of Randy running to school from his family's house on Riverside, or working endlessly after tough and demanding wrestling practices seem to still be told by ex-teammates and coaches.

The combination of that drive and determination with the indisputable results he earned make Randy Payne the ideal choice as our first male athlete inducted into the Sidney Alumni Sports Hall of Fame.