Ron Stein
Achievements
Adaptive Sports Hall of FameRon Stein was considered the greatest wheelchair athlete of his time. In 1960, this remarkable athlete, while competing for the champion University of Illinois Gizz Kids, set national records in the Class III shot put, discus, and javelin. (Class III was the classification indicating the least disabled athletes at the time.)
He also set national records in the 60-yard dash and 100-yard dash while anchoring the Gizz Kids’ winning 400-yard relay team. Ron duplicated these achievements at the 1960 Rome Paralympics, where he also led Team USA to a gold medal in wheelchair basketball.
In the 1961 National Wheelchair Games, he again surpassed his previous field event records, tied his 60-yard and 100-yard dash records, and once again anchored his 400-yard relay team to victory.
Sports reporter Bob Flury wrote in the July 1961 issue of Paraplegia News:
“The Gizz Kids have been blessed the past couple of years with probably the greatest wheelchair athlete anywhere in the world in the 190 lbs., blonde, crew cut, personable Ron Stein.
This great athlete would have been tops in any sport if polio hadn’t weakened his legs as he was finishing high school…. What we like most about Ron was that with all the fame he garnered, it has not affected him at all. He is truly a marvelous wheelchair athlete.”
Ron Stein is a charter inductee of the National Wheelchair Athletic Association Hall of Fame, having been inducted alongside his Gizz Kid teammate Tim Harris.