Cliff Crase
Achievements
Adaptive Sports Hall of FameCliff was introduced to wheelchair sports in 1964 while enrolled as a student at the University of Illinois. He trained under highly respected coaches and with experienced athletes who competed nationally and internationally. He made the University of Illinois Gizz Kids Team, lettering in swimming and track & field.
In 1967, Cliff was selected for the U.S. Wheelchair Team competing at the Stoke Mandeville Games in England (precursor to the current Paralympic Games) and the first Pan Am Games in Winnipeg, Canada. He won gold medals in both swimming competitions and received the first-ever Pan Am Outstanding Performance Silver Cup. The following year, he won gold in the swimming competition at Paralympics III in Tel Aviv.
In 1969, Cliff was awarded the PVA’s Jack Gerhardt Athlete of the Year honors and again competed at the Stoke Mandeville Games; the Vienna Open Invitational in Austria; and the Pan Am Games in Buenos Aires, Argentina. In those competitions, Cliff won triple gold medals in swimming and gold and silver medals in track and field.
In 1970, he competed once more in the Stoke Mandeville Games, and in 1971 Cliff competed at the Pan Am Games held in Kingston, Jamaica.
In 1971, Cliff was appointed to the National Wheelchair Athletic Committee, a precursor to Wheelchair Sports USA and Adaptive Sports USA. In 1975, he served as the Public Relations Director for the U.S. Wheelchair Team at the Pan Am Games in Mexico City and also at the 1976 Paralympics in Toronto, Canada.
In 1979, he was inducted into the Upper Michigan Sports Hall of Fame, and in 1989 Cliff was inducted into the National Wheelchair Basketball Hall of Fame.
In 1976, Cliff and his wife Nancy founded Sports ‘N Spokes Wheelchair Sports Magazine.