Irwin McCullough
Irwin "Speed" McCullough has been instrumental in developing some of the nation's top performers in the sport of archery, including Olympic Gold Medalist Rod White of Hermitage.
Speed was an outstanding archer himself, setting a National Archery Association record in the Clout Round in 1981 that still exists.
Active in the sport since 1953, he shot competitively for many years at local, state and national levels. He ranked in the top 10 nationally and finished third at the Indoor National Target Championships twice.
He was instrumental in forming the Shenango Valley Archery Club in early 1970 and has served on the advisory board of the FITA Archers of Pennsylvania since 1981.
Speed has been an active member of the Eastern Archery Association for 40-plus years and served as president for 5 years. He has been active in the National Archery Association and served as a board member for 5 years.
He and wife Charlene helped start a Junior Olympic Archery Development (JOAD) program at the Shenango Valley Archery Club in 1971 with 13 students. They moved to the Gold-N-Grain Archery shop in 1991 and the program grew to include 60 to 70 students.
His archers are consistent winners at the Eastern Archery Association tourney and 21 archers have received Olympian level because of outstanding scoring. Ten archers have won one or more national titles, including Janet McCullough, Dennis Pace, Rod White, Bill Jones, Leah Clawson, John Burkett, Shaun Fox, Jenny Narlee, Danielle McCulloughand Nate McCullough.
Many have gone on to win other national and international honors and 4 were members of U.S. world teams, White, Clawson, Burkett and Evan Clark. Janet McCullough, White and Clawson made the Senior U.S. team.
White won a gold medal in 1996 and bronze in 2000 at the Olympic Games. Two archers trained by Speed - Dan Schuller and Megan Carter - are training at the Olympic Training Center in California.
He also played in the Pymatuning Baseball League from the late 1940s to 1960. He was instrumental in the building of the Jefferson Township ballfield in 1948-49.