WHEELING — Already named after one legend of the Ohio Valley, the 2025 Dick Dei Track Classic is honoring another by naming the late Nick Bedway, longtime sports editor of The Intelligencer and Wheeling News-Register, as the honorary referee of the 48th annual track meet, set for Saturday at Wheeling Park High School.

“Nick’s son and his wife will be here,” Sean Dei, the son of the event’s namesake who helps organize the event alongside his brother Todd, said. “And we really wanted to make sure that we recognized him for his contributions and have the focus on the Bedway family and Mr. Bedway for what he did.”

Bedway joined the newspaper staff in 1967, was promoted to Associated Sports Editor in 1871, and was promoted again to Sports Editor in 1995 until his retirement in 2005.

“What made Mr. Bedway very unique was he didn’t just cover the sport to come in and put an article in the paper,” Sean Dei said. “He learned the sport, and I think that says a lot about him, where he jumped in, learned the sport, came to the big meets– because at that time our meet along with the Shadyside Relays, the Bellaire Relays and the OVAC track meet, those were the four biggest meets in the valley.”

“He was also very approachable. You could see him sitting down having lunch somewhere. He’d speak to you or he’d see you at an event. He’d always shake your hand. And I think that’s how he was.”

Bedway served a term as president of the West Virginia Sports Writers Association, won awards throughout his career like the Gene Morehouse Award and Father John Lester Award, and is a member of the Ohio Baseball Hall of Fame, the Wheeling Hockey Hall of Fame, the OVAC Hall of Fame and Wheeling Central Hall of Fame.

It is at Wheeling Central where Bedway and Dick Dei’s history began.

“In regards to Mr. Bedway, he graduated from Wheeling Central in 1958,” Dei said. “My father graduated 1959. So those two went back decades.”

“One of the funniest things, every December, he always printed a Christmas list in the newspaper and it was kind of addressed to coaches. It was I think ‘Nick’s Christmas Gifts’ and he would print it with what coaches wanted, what they’re asking Santa for for Christmas.”

“In my dad’s last two seasons, he asked my dad to have a state championship, and my dad fulfilled one and he got a runner-up on his last go-around of it. But I think the thing that was very heartfelt about it, [Bedway] always dedicated it to his late daughter and that made it emotional, even as you read the article.”

Bedway covered high school track and field in the valley beginning in 1996, when the Pepsi-Park Classic was already an institution. Re-named the Dick Dei Track Classic in 2004, the event is closing in on a big milestone– and an opportunity to reflect on the meet’s history.

“The meet is pushing 50 years,” Dei said. “So there’s been a lot of people who’ve given a lot, people are unfortunately no longer with us, and again, it goes back to the culture of the program that my father established when the school started, and that the coaches have since continued on. And also the support of the community, the administration and the school system to keep this thing going, and our corporate champions.

“There’s so many people who volunteer to help it happen, whether it’s athletes that ran for my dad with my brother, myself, or others who come back and just ask what they can do to help.”

As for this year’s rendition of the meet, top teams from across West Virginia and Ohio are once again set to descend on Wheeling Park High School and compete in a high-level environment.

“With University High coming in from Morgantown, they have a pretty strong distance team, both men and women, and then also Carrollton High School out of Ohio is coming in. They’ve had some place winners in the Ohio State meet. So that should make for interesting distance races,” Dei said.

“Olentangy Liberty, who’re outside of Columbus, they won the division one football championship in Ohio this past season. So a lot of those athletes on the football team are on that track team. We should have a pretty competitive meet. Obviously the teams that come out of Dayton are always very competitive in the sprints, in the relays, and then also in the high and long jump. So it’d be pretty interesting how this thing plays itself out.”

Local outfits set to compete include teams like Wheeling Park, Bellaire, Brooke, East Liverpool, Magnolia, Weir and Martins Ferry.

“We’re still waiting on entries,” Dei said. “Entries will close down at noon on Friday. So we’ll get a good gauge of where we are then.”

Olentangy Liberty won both the boys and girls sides of competition last year, with Wheeling Park finishing in the top 10 in both, and Weir finishing top 10 in girls competition. Multiple local athletes finished on the podium, an opportunity Dei wants this year’s crop of kids to have.

“We want to make sure that the local student-athletes come in here, they compete, they get better by bringing that out-of-town talent in,” Dei said. “Martinsburg’s making a trip over from the eastern Panhandle. They’re gonna be running against Olentangy Liberty, these Dayton schools, they’ll never see them again the rest of the season. So I think that’s what’s unique about track and field. A lot of times, it’s the only time that they’ll see these programs ever again.”

“Most of all, it’s all about student athletes and making it a good experience for them when they come here. And once everything’s over with on Saturday, we hope the coaches say, hey, it was a rewarding day for the student athletes, the meet was well-managed and that they got better.”

Another hope? Pleasant weather.

“Hopefully Mother Nature gives us a good day,” Dei said.