Chenango Forks Track and Field
Hall of Fame

Graduated:
School Record in 120 Yard Hurdles, Section Record in 120 Yard Hurdles
School Record in 180 Low Hurdles
Second in 100 Yard Dash

Class Champion: 120 Yard High Hurdles (1964, 1965, 1966), 180 Yard Low Hurdles (1964, 1966)
SUS Champion: 120 Yard High Hurdles (1964, 1965, 1966), 180 Yard Low Hurdles (1965, 1966)
Divisional Team Champion: 1964
State Meet: 120 High Hurdles (1964, 1965, 1966), 180 Low Hurdles (1965, 1966)
Overall Sectional Champion: 120 High Hurdles (1965, 1966), 180 Low Hurdles (1966)
Podium at State Meet: Sixth in the 120 High Hurdles (1966)

Simply put, Mike Ellis is the most accomplished male Track and Field Athlete in Chenango Forks history.  He earned individual All Conference status five times, was a Class B individual Champion five times, is the only male Chenango Forks Track athlete to qualify for the State Meet three years in a row (twice going in two different events), is the only male athlete in our history to be a three time Overall Sectional Champion, and he also led our 1964 Team to winning the Divisional Championship. 

Six decades later, he still holds the School Record in the 120 High Hurdles (now ran as the 110 Meter High Hurdles) clocking in at 14.6--a time he frustratingly ran three times.  Ellis held the Sectional Record for 15 years and is still second All Time in Section IV in the 120 High Hurdles as they retired the event in 1982.  He also is still the School Record Holder in the 180 Low Hurdles (which was also retired as an official event that year).  Along with all of this, Mike ran the 100 Yard Dash for the only time in the last Invite his senior season and ran the second fastest time in Forks History (10.1 seconds which is the equivalent of running a 11.05 second 100 Meter Dash). 

At the State Meet his junior season, Ellis almost missed his 120 High Hurdle Race as the team bus was late to the venue.  He literally got off the bus, sprinted to the start line, and ran a 14.8, which qualified for the Finals.  He ended up becoming the first Chenango Forks Track Athlete to get on the Podium at the State Meet, finishing 6th Overall in the entire State back when there was no distinction of Big Schools and Small Schools…  The Binghamton Press and Sun Bulletin wrote article after article on Ellis's accomplishments during his stellar career, dubbing him “The Red Headed Hurdler” and “Forks's Hurdling Dandy,” so well known that they even made mention once that he was in attendance as a spectator to a rival's League Meet.     

Mike was also a two time Sectional Finalist 165-pound wrestler and a two time All League halfback in football.  He accepted an athletic scholarship to Northeastern Oklahoma A&M University to play football and run track.  Accompanying Ellis to Oklahoma was his best friend from Forks, Michael Shaul who walked on to the football team.  Ellis, nursing a bad leg, did not dress for the first game of the season, so he, Shaul, and three other freshmen teammates that did not dress all decided to drive to the game together in Tulsa and watch their school win 55-0.  Ellis was so excited that he called his father at a little after midnight, September 9 from a fast food restaurant to express how great the team already was…

As the teammates were driving home, they tragically got in a head-on collision with a tractor trailer.  All five freshmen were killed almost instantly.  

In the fall of 1967, one year after the accident, the current Chenango Forks High School was opened.  A memorial rock and dedication plaque in remembrance of Michael Shaul and Michael Ellis was placed right outside the new building to be seen by every secondary student that passes by as they enter school each day, ensuring that though they are gone, they will never be forgotten.