Chenango Forks Track and Field
Hall of Fame

Graduated:
Second in 120 Yard High Hurdles
Sixth in Long Jump

SUS Team Champion: 1972

Thomas grew up watching his oldest brother Michael dominate the hurdles like no one in Section IV’s history.  From the age of 9 through 12, Tom saw his brother set school and regional records, become a local celebrity, and hurdle his way right into an athletic scholarship to Northeastern Oklahoma.  Year after year, meet after meet, Thomas was there in attendance cheering for his idol and couldn’t wait to see Michael hurdle in college.  Tragically, Tommy never got that chance, as Michael was killed in an automobile accident just before the start of Tom’s seventh grade school year. 

At first the pain was too much and Tom concentrated on the Long Jump, where he jumped the fourth farthest jump in School History at the time (and is still one of only 15 people in our history to jump over 19 feet).  Eventually though, Tom finally decided to follow in his brother’s footsteps his junior season and run the 120 High Hurdles, Michael’s signature race.  Amazingly, Tom never lost a regular season race in the two years he ran the 120 Highs.  He was also instrumental in giving Chenango Forks the 1971 Class B Relays victory as his anchor leg of the Shuttle Hurdles, the last race of the afternoon, literally gave Forks the overall championship (its first since the famed 1961 season).  Lastly, as a senior, Ellis helped lead us to our second overall League Championship in School History.

In his last race of his career, Thomas was clocked at 16.3 seconds, which fittingly was the second fastest time ever recorded in school history behind only his oldest brother.  The Ellis brothers remained first and second in the 120 High Hurdles at Chenango Forks for the next twenty five years and Tommy is still in the Top Five in the event fifty years after he graduated.