At Cedar Rapids Prairie High School on April 11, Mike Jay sat in a familiar spot: a press box overlooking a track, with his meticulous notes splayed out in front of him and a microphone in his hand. He was getting ready to announce the Hawkins Relays.

Jay, now 63 years old and originally from Columbus Junction, Iowa, has become one of the top track and field voices in the nation.

He has been the public address announcer for the last 17 Drake Relays, has worked at many of Stanford’s home meets in California, and has called Olympic Trials, the NCAA Indoor and Outdoor meets, the U.S. Indoor and Outdoor Championships, and college meets around Iowa — including nearly all of the Hawkeyes’ home events since 1990. He was the 2014 Scott Davis Memorial Award recipient by the Track and Field Writers of America, which is given to the nation’s best track announcer.

Even with that pedigree, Jay still announces many high school track meets around his home state — the same way he got his start back in the 1980s.

After graduating from Columbus Junction High School in 1977, where he ran track and field and cross country, Jay went to the Brown Institute in Minneapolis, the same media college that Hawkeye men’s basketball and football play-by-play announcer Gary Dolphin attended. He then worked in radio for a few years in Iowa and got his Iowa coaching certificate in 1983.

That same year, Jay began coaching cross country and track and field at Columbus Junction. He continued to work as a coach for the next 30 years.

While there, he began announcing Columbus Junction’s home events, and his voice echoed throughout the state.

“I announced our home meets, and then other schools that were coming to our home meets asked me to start doing their meets, and then it just trickled down,” Jay said. “I started doing meets at the University of Iowa in 1990; just all by word of mouth. I’ve been blessed to never have asked for a job.”

Jay began announcing full-time in 2011, where he announced for around 40 meets per year, he said. Seven years later, Jay started to give back to the sport.

At the urging of his sons Joseph and Jon, Jay started the Track Guy Foundation in October 2018.

According to its website, “the Foundation is committed to putting Iowa’s student-athletes first and ensuring that cross country and track and field experiences are available to all interested youth.”

The foundation allocates money toward shoes and scholarships for student athletes.

Through mainly T-shirt sales and donations, Jay’s initial goal for the foundation was to gift 25 pairs of shoes and two $500 scholarships per year.

The foundation accomplished that goal in 2019 and has grown exponentially since. Jay said the foundation has given away 512 pairs of shoes as of April 10. According to the website, it has raised money for 39 $500 scholarships.

Mike Parker, the vice president of the Track Guy Foundation and Iowa City West High School girls track and field and cross country coach, said the foundation’s growth can be attributed to Jay’s notoriety and willingness to interact with the community.

“He has a voice throughout the entire country,” Parker said. “He literally is doing the NCAA Championships one day, and then he’s doing the USA Championships … He’s one of the most humble men that I have ever met, and he is incredibly kind to everyone.”

Parker said not only will Jay take pictures with the athletes and fans that come up to him at meets, but he makes an effort to connect with everyone.

“We have high school athletes because they know he announces [the Drake Relays] and [the state championship meet. You know, they want their picture with him, they know his Track Guy, and Mike doesn’t just say, ‘OK, here,’ snaps, the picture, ‘It’s great to meet you.’ Mike’s gonna have a little bit of conversation with you. He’s gonna make you feel, like, wow, ‘Mike Jay and I are friends.’ I think that makes people trust him. And so they’re like, ‘OK, I want to be involved in what you’re doing.’”

Iowa City West junior hurdler Erinn Varga said Jay’s endearing personality and passion for track and field, along with the research he does about all of the athletes he watches, makes him special.

“I feel like everyone’s kind of connected to Mike Jay because he’s just always the biggest supporter of track and field for high school,” Varga said. “I feel like he’s at every meet and like he personally knows us and is excited to see us all run. I wouldn’t have anyone else announcing this.”

Varga remembers two instances where Jay went above and beyond to connect with her.

“There are hundreds and hundreds of high schoolers across Iowa that do track and field, but as a freshman, he knew my name and, I think one time my mom got some Track Guy merch, and he personally wrote a note to our family congratulating me on the season. I think he’s just a super sweet guy that really cares about the student athletes here.”

Burlington High School boys track and field head coach Jordan Webb — whose team has been positively impacted by the Track Guy Foundation ever since its inception — said he knew of Jay well before he caught wind of the foundation.

Webb, who ran in high school at Burlington and collegiately at Northern Iowa, said he knew Jay as the Drake Relays announcer. But in the foundation’s first few months, their relationship grew, starting with one Facebook post.

“So, originally, I knew Mike Jay just as the voice of the Drake Relays, but I had never met him personally,” Webb said.  “And then one of our school secretaries actually sent me a Facebook post of Mike Jay donating spikes to kids in need, and he said that he was doing it for anybody that he could. And she told me just to reach out and see what would happen. So, I reached out and just let them know what our situation was down here. And he said he’d be more than glad to help us.”

Webb said Jay’s foundation has helped Burlington, which he said was a low socioeconomic status school, every year since.

Webb said he had 10 athletes who needed new spikes for the 2022-23 school year — a value of approximately $800 — and Jay provided them through his foundation.

“It’s just amazing what he’s doing for not just us but other schools around the whole state of Iowa,” Webb said. “I know especially some of my kids that don’t have the resources that others have; to get a pair of spikes just means the world.”

One of the beneficiaries of the Track Guy Foundation this year was Burlington sophomore sprinter and high jumper Lederrias Shealey.

Shealey said he got a new pair of spikes in March, right before the season began.

“My [old] spikes had holes in them because I kept sliding my feet when I would run,” Shealey said. “As soon as I got [the new spikes] I was really excited because I feel like I can go faster with them on. It just feels like so much better to be able to have somebody that can give you something and you can keep on going with it.”

Webb said he makes sure to show his appreciation to Jay each time the Track Guy Foundation gifts his school gear.

“Every time he donates something to us, we make a Facebook post thanking him,” Webb said. “We share it out to the whole world, and it gets hundreds of likes, so then people know the name Mike Jay. And then when they see it on another Facebook post or a story in the newspaper, they go, ‘I remember hearing about that guy.’ And they spread the word. All the great things he’s doing, that’s just the world coming back and thanking him.”