TicketsCINCINNATI — Cincinnati track and field standout Wayne Mason will be inducted into the James P. Kelly Athletics Hall of Fame, the athletics department announced Thursday.
Mason was selected for the Bearcats' 2026 Hall of Fame class, which will be inducted on Oct. 23 — the Friday night before Cincinnati's football game versus Texas Tech. More details and the rest of the 50th anniversary class will be announced in the coming weeks.
Mason, a hurdler who competed for the Bearcats from 1977–80, is among the most decorated athletes in Bearcat track and field history. A First Team All-American in the outdoor 110-meter hurdles in 1980, he was a four-time NCAA Championship participant, competing in the indoor 60-yard and 60-meter hurdles in 1977, 1978 and 1979 before closing his career at the 1980 Outdoor Championships.
Following his First Team All-American honors, Mason competed in the 110-meter hurdles at the 1980 Olympic Trials, where he finished fifth with a time of 13.60 seconds.
Mason departed Cincinnati as one of the program's premier record holders in the hurdles, setting the school record in the outdoor 110-meter hurdles at 13.60 seconds in 1980. He also holds the retired school record in the 120-yard high hurdles at 13.7 seconds.
At the time of his graduation, Mason was a member of the 4x200-meter relay squad that set the school record with a time of 1:26.26 in 1977.
Indoors, Mason holds both the hand-timed and fully-automatic records in the 55-meter hurdles, running a 7.1 by hand and 7.34 fully automatic in 1979. He also owns the next three fastest times in program history in the event.