Marty Ball
Achievements
Adaptive Sports Hall of FameA sports career that included a part of six decades was rewarded in 1990 by inclusion into the Wheelchair Sports USA Hall of Fame. After discovering wheelchair basketball in 1956, Marty joined the Jersey Wheelers Junior Elks Team. Moving up to the senior level, he spent the next twenty years as one of Al Youakim’s boys, before moving on to the EPVA Warriors. During this time, Marty also competed in various track & field events, beginning at the Second National Wheelchair Games held at Bulova Park, New York in 1958.
Track was his favorite sports and stature grew throughout the 60’s and 70’s. Marty also began road racing in 1976 as one of the pioneers of that sport. Five international teams made a plce for Marty, including the first Pan American Games in Winnipeg, Canada in 1967. As interest grew in road racing, it was apparent this sport would be the place Marty would have his greatest successes, becoming a nationally ranked racer for the next fifteen years.
Breaking down barriers both in restrictive wheelchair design and in negative attitudes toward disabled athletes’ inclusion in major sports events were a hallmark of Marty’s activism and advocacy. His first of 67 marathons was completed in a fifty pound steel wheelchair while his last was in a modern eightteen pound model.
Marty continued to break records in a career related closely to sports; that of selling and marketing wheeled mobility products that embrace performance features now used for everyday mobility.