September 2024 Athlete of the Month
By Del Moon, NSGA Storyteller
Gary Yeager, 75
Phoenix, Arizona
Image credit: Andrew Rush/AP Images for Humana Inc.
Gary Yeager knows what to do with a curveball on a baseball field, being a natural athlete and playing through college. Perhaps this taught him to find opportunities when life threw some real curveballs at him.
The West Virginia native coached high school baseball and football, served in the Air Force Reserve, and had a successful insurance career and marriage for many years. He took a retirement job with Southwest Airlines which brought him to Arizona, and life was good. Then, 10 years ago, Gary faced a serious bout with fibromyalgia that weakened him and added 50 pounds to his body. That turned into a one-two punch when his wife died in the midst of his treatment in 2017.
“It really cratered me, and I didn’t know what to do. I didn’t leave the house for three months,” he says softly. Friends suggested he take a trip, but it only fed his depression.
“I just looked out the window one day and said, ‘This is not me – I’m gonna reinvent myself’,” he recalls. “I started going to the gym and improved my health. I got a trainer, and we worked three days a week. He understood everything. I owe that guy a lot.”
Gary started taking long walks on the days he didn’t work out, and that led to trying a 5K road race sponsored by a local hospital. He won his age group at 69 and knew he had found a new avocation with running.
“I always look for opportunities that interest me, and I’m not afraid to push the reset button,” he declares. “I’ve got the rest of my life ahead, and there’s no reward without risk.”
An Olympic-Inspired Nickname
Gary found Senior Games by accident, entering a 5K race in Phoenix that turned out to be the 2022 Arizona Senior Olympics qualifying race. He came in second for his age, and a few months later he got an email from NSGA saying he qualified to compete in Pittsburgh in 2023. He jumped at the opportunity and was not unhappy when he finished the race 27th in his age group.
“I’m fit, but I’m not a world class athlete; it’s just the fact that I could be there on a national stage,” Gary says, adding, “Do you remember the Winter Olympics years ago when they had that British skier Eddie the Eagle? He came in last, but he was so excited saying, ‘I was there, man. I was there.’ I approached it that way.”
By this time Gary had remarried to a woman he says is his biggest cheerleader. “She kept calling me Gary the Gazelle after my hero, and it stuck,” he says with a laugh.
Rather than focus on the podium, Gary’s goals are internal. “You got to have your motivation, and I just look at my times. I’m after my personal best, being better than I was in the last race.”
Attaining his best health is also front and center. “When I was fighting fibromyalgia the medications were worse than the affliction, but I got through it,” he says. “The doctor came in after it was all over and said, ‘If you hadn’t had your health going for you, it would have been a whole different story.‘”
Image credit: Andrew Rush/AP Images for Humana Inc.
That attitude of self-improvement and being a role model for healthy aging caught the attention of National Senior Games presenting sponsor Humana, who selected Gary in his first year to be one of their Humana Game Changers. “That was a big surprise and one of the biggest highlights in my athletic career,” he says. “I got some trophies somewhere in the garage. But, you know, this was just something that says that my hard work was very beneficial and it’s nice to be recognized for it.”
Making the Most of Every Day
Another early experience taught Gary to make the most of every day. After playing baseball and football at Fairmont State College, he obtained his Physical Education degree from Marshall University in 1971, one year after the tragic plane crash that killed Marshall’s entire football team.
“I was a physical education major, and all those guys were too. I knew most of them. They had invited me two or three times to try out for football but I concentrated on my studies, and that probably saved me from being killed,” Gary says.
“It was heart wrenching the first time I went to the memorial in the cemetery with nameplates where all of the unknowns were buried,” he continues. “That was a real PTSD flashback. But, you know that those guys didn’t want to die and they were doing what they loved.”
Gary keeps looking for new experiences and opportunities to enjoy life, such as continuing to play centerfield in the Men’s Senior Baseball World Series and indulging himself in an L.A. Dodgers Fantasy Camp in 2023. “I was playing baseball with Steve Garvey, Steve Sax and all those guys. And I made the all-star team at 73!”
