USA Gymnastics would like to thank all of the individuals who have helped in gathering the information and images in this book, with special thanks to Paul Ziert and “International Gymnast” for their assistance with images, information and allowing us to digitize many of the older issues of “Modern Gymnast.” The book is intended to chronicle the early stages of the United States Gymnastics Federation/USA Gymnastics and reflect on the championship moments that have left a lasting impression on the organization’s first 50 years.

USA Gymnastics also appreciates those who assisted in reviewing, verifying and proofing the information in this book, especially Jackie Fie, Mike Jacki and Mike Milidonis who went through several iterations of this information: Tonya Case, Nora Campbell, Richard Criley, Dr George Drew, Jackie Fie, Harold Frey, Abie Grossfeld, Jeff Hennessy, George Hery, Mike Jacki, Mike Jacobson, Kathy Kelly, Lori Laznovsky, Mike Milidonis, Fred Roethlisberger, Don Spencer, Paul Swafford, Fred Turoff and Steve Whitlock. The content of the book was compiled by the USA Gymnastics Communications team, which consists of Leslie King, Luan Peszek, Kent Koven, Matt Steinke, Scott Bregman, Peter Back, Sara Clements, Woody White, and Jeannie Shaw. Jo-Ann Barnas wrote the feature stories included on particular athletes. The Hall of Fame section would not have been possible without the tireless work of Larry Banner and Jerry Wright.

Several materials, papers and books were used to compile the historical data, including “Before the beginning” by Dr. Harold Frey; “In the beginning” by Frank Bare; a personal historical retrospective by Frank Cumiskey; “The History of USA Gymnastics: the early years through 1991”; and “A history of the Development of the United States Gymnas- tics Federation.” The images in this book are from “Modern Gymnast”; “A history of the Development of the United States Gymnastics Federation”; USA Gymnastics photo files with images from its official photographers, including Dave Black, Steve Lange, Philip Morton, John Cheng and Getty Images; and the personal files of a number of individuals.