Memorial service for Jim Hume, longtime Peninsula track official and coach

Hume coached on the Peninsula for more than 50 years and was very involved nationally and internationally in track and field, serving as a track official beginning in 1968. He was a 2019 inductee to the Hall of Fame of USA Track & Field’s Pacific Association, of which he was a past president.

Hume was a regular fixture in the press boxes at both CSM’s College Heights Stadium and at the Crystal Springs Cross Country Course in Belmont, serving as a head official and coordinating computer entry of meet results, including at several state and regional championships.

Hume and his identical twin, Gray Hume, were born in Baltimore, Maryland, where he spent most of his childhood growing up on a farm with his siblings.

Following his high school graduation in 1957 from Augusta Military Academy in Virginia, Hume served in the United States Coast Guard from 1959-63. 

He was a student government member during his college days at CSM in the mid-1960s and had a lifelong affiliation with the local community college. He is also a San Francisco State University graduate, where he received a teaching credential.

He was a classroom teacher at San Francisco’s Benjamin Franklin Middle School for 17 years, serving as head of the reading lab and program director, while also assisting in coaching with the Millbrae Lions Track Club – which produced many top USA female athletes.

They included 1988 Olympian Leslie Maxie, who set national high school records in the 300 and 400 meter hurdles that lasted into this century. Hume was an official at the 1988 Olympics in Seoul, South Korea, so was able to see Maxie compete. He also officiated at the 1996 Atlanta Olympic Games.

In 15 years at Hillsdale High, Hume taught English and computer programming while coaching cross country, and track and field. In 1997 he was recognized as a California Interscholastic Federation-Central Coast Section Track & Field Honor Coach.

He worked with now-retired CSM cross country coach Bob Rush in administering the Crystal Springs course from the early 1990s until this year.

Hume served as women’s track & field travel coordinator for 13 of the 14 U.S. Olympic Sports Festivals. In 1983 he was selected as head manager of the USA Women’s Junior Team for meets with Canada and Italy in New Britain, Connecticut. He served as head manager for the USA women’s team in 1995 for a dual meet against Great Britain in Newcastle, England.

Hume was a master level official  who served the Pacific Association (Northern California and Northern Nevada) as Youth Chair from the mid-1970s to the mid-1980s, as president of the Board of Athletics from 1982-85 and as association certification chair for officials into this decade.

He earned an official “advanced competition secretary” degree while at the 1996 Atlanta Olympic Games and has used those skills to pioneer recording and displaying field event results during meets. He headed the Field Lynx crew in that capacity at the 2004 U.S. Olympic Trials.

Hume also used his computer skills to edit and produce Turns & Distances, a newsletter for officials in the association.

Daily Journal sports editor Nathan Mollat contributed to this report