Connie Head
Competition | 1997
Hometown: Windsor, New York
Connie Head was a freshman photography student at the Rochester Institute of Technology in 1971 when she was introduced to wheelchair sports by Buffy Fetter, a field athlete from Illinois.
“I began training for nationals with the Rochester Wheels the night she dragged me to my first practice! I was amazed! Being from Endicott, New York I had never even heard of wheelchair sports. I changed my major to ‘Be a Gimp, See the World’. I was ecstatic racing in a 50 pound wheelchair. We burned up the Bulova School parking lot track during the Ben Lipton era.”
After college, Connie played basketball and raced for teams all over the country, earning the nickname “Gypsy Queen of Wheelchair Sports”. Connie estimated that she had about fifty national gold medals in track, swimming and skiing. In addition, she garnered about forty-five international medals, including thirty golds. Connie was named to nine international teams representing the USA and was rostered for nearly twenty-five years, primarily with the men’s basketball teams.
“I couldn’t have imagined at that first practice that I would be called a pioneer of women’s distance racing, that I would retire with nine National, Pan American and World records from the meet of my life in Halifax or that I would someday receive my sport’s highest honor.” Connie added, “watching inductees to the NWAA’s Hall of Fame at my first Nationals banquet, I was humbled by their stature then and proud and grateful to be listed among them today.”
