Nick Newton

File:NewtonStartingBlocks.jpg

Milton "Nick" Newton (November 6, 1933, in Tarboro, North Carolina, United States – March 31, 2018, in Palm Springs, California){{cite web | title=Help honor Hall of Famer Nick Newton at a celebration May 22 | website=masterstrack.com | date=2010-04-23 | url=http://masterstrack.com/help-honor-hall-of-famer-nick-newton-at-a-celebration-on-may-22/ | access-date=2019-09-19}}{{Cite web|url=https://timesofsandiego.com/life/2018/03/31/nick-newton-dies-at-84-invented-aluminum-starting-blocks-set-track-records/|title=Nick Newton Dies at 84; Invented Aluminum Starting Blocks, Set Track Records|first=Ken|last=Stone|date=April 1, 2018}} was the inventor of the Newton Starting Blocks. Newton blocks are considered by many to be the best in the world,{{cite web | title=2013 Track Catalog | website=VS Athletics | date=2016-03-03 | url=https://vsathletics.com/vsa/2013TrackCatalog.pdf | archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20160303235539/https://vsathletics.com/vsa/2013TrackCatalog.pdf | archive-date=2016-03-03 | url-status=dead | access-date=2019-09-19}}{{failed verification|reason=source says "preferred by many of the world's best athletes"; also the source is a marketing catalog??|date=February 2022}} used at many major track meets like the Mt. SAC Relays.{{citation needed|date=February 2022}}

Starting blocks are the device sprinters use to hold their feet at the start of a race so they do not slip as they push out at the sound of the gun.

Using his experience as a tool and die maker for Waste King, Newton invented a cast aluminum block design{{cite web | title=Elite Starting Block by Newton | website=OnlineSports.com | url=http://www.onlinesports.com/pages/I,SKH-T1007.html | access-date=2019-09-19}} as an improvement for his daughter Pam, who was excelling in girls' track. Newton's solid, but lightweight versions greatly improved on the flimsy or rusty old devices that had been standard equipment for decades.{{cite web | url=http://www.scstriders.org/NewsLetters/FASTRACKS-4-200602.pdf | website=SC Striders | title=Fastracks | date=February 2006 | access-date=2019-09-19}} Obtaining his first patent in 1978 {{cite web | title=4089519 Starting block assembly – NEWTON, JR.; MILTON A. | website=FPO IP Research & Communities | date=1978-05-16 | url=http://www.freepatentsonline.com/4089519.html | access-date=2019-09-19}} Newton has subsequently patented two additional innovations{{cite web | title=4611803 Starting block assembly – NEWTON, JR.; MILTON A. | website=FPO IP Research & Communities | date=1986-09-16 | url=http://www.freepatentsonline.com/4611803.html | access-date=2019-09-19}}{{cite web | title=4561650 Tilt adjustable starting block – NEWTON, JR.; MILTON A. | website=FPO IP Research & Communities | date=1985-12-31 | url=http://www.freepatentsonline.com/4561650.html | access-date=2019-09-19}} to offer sprinters more possible settings to prepare for their start.

He became heavily involved as a mentor for the L.A. Mercurettes Track Club, an elite track club of the 1970s and 80's. In 1976, he joined Olympian John Carlos in an athletic delegation arranged by Henry Kissinger to the then segregated South Africa which was a step to the desegregation of athletics in that country.{{citation needed|date=February 2022}}