Ron Bliss — Bliss is credited with starting the Times News Relays in 1976 with some help from local track enthusiasts and coaches.
The meet was born out of an idea presented to him at the old Kingsport Relays that used to be in J. Fred Johnson Stadium. With only 17 days worth of preparation, Bliss, the staff at the Times News and numerous volunteers put on the inaugural edition of the meet on April 22, 1976 at Sullivan Central High School in Blountville.
Bliss was the meet director for the first 18 editions of the meet from 1976 to 1997 when Pat Kenney took over. Bliss and Kingsport’s Rick Earnest are credited with co-directing the first meet at Sullivan Central in 1976.
Bliss is credited with bringing together the best track athletes from both Northeast Tennessee and Southwest Virginia for one area “all-star” meet near the end of the season.
Though Bliss is best remembered for his incredibly successful “Beat Bliss” weekly high school and college football picking contest, it could be argued that his biggest and longest standing achievement was starting the Times News Relays, even after he left in the early 1980s for a job in Alabama.
Pat Kenney — Kenney took over for longtime meet director Ron Bliss in 1998 and forwarded the meet into the new age.
One of the biggest changes Kenney made was getting fully automatic timing into the meet fold in 2000. This eliminated hand-timed marks for good and made every meet record set afterward bona-fide.
Kenney also changed the venue and day of the meet in 2000 when he shifted the meet to Sullivan North and moved the meet day to Friday. Kenney remarked in a column that it gave the meet more of a “Friday Night Lights” feel since Sullivan North had lights and Dobyns-Bennett did not.
In later years, Kenney would move the pole vault to the Thursday before, giving the pole vaulters their own day in the sun.
Kenney served as meet director until 2016, matching Ron Bliss’s 18 years served as meet director. In his final year of meet directing, all four of the “most outstanding” awards were named in Kenney’s honor.
Steve Wilmoth — After co-directing the meet in 2016 with Kenney, Wilmoth and TriCitiesSports.com went solo in 2017.
Wilmoth graciously took control of the meet and kept it alive, even through some of the worst luck that a meet director could imagine.
Wilmoth is credited with moving the meet back to Dobyns-Bennett where the meet had taken place from 1979 to 1999 with the exception of a few years.
Wilmoth and TriCitiesSports.com turned over the rights of the meet back to the Times News in 2020, but the meet was canceled due to the coronavirus pandemic.
Trojan Timing Classic 