INDIANAPOLIS, IN - Daniel Nathan, of Skidmore College in Saratoga Springs, N.Y., has been named the recipient of the 2004 Ken Doherty Memorial Fellowship, USA Track & Field announced on Wednesday.

Named for former decathlon champion, coach, track & field meet director and writer Ken Doherty, the fellowship is given annually by USA Track & Field to provide researchers with the time and resources to pursue the serious study of track and field and to honor the man after whom it is named.

Nathan, a historian who teaches in Skidmore's Department of American Studies, will use the fellowship to work on a project titled "The Flying Finn Comes to America: Paavo Nurmi and the Golden Age of Sports." He is the author of the award-winning book Saying It's So: A Cultural History of the Black Sox Scandal (2003) as well as numerous scholarly articles on sport and American society. Nathan earned his doctorate at the University of Iowa and was a Fulbright Professor at the University of Tampere, in Finland, in 2001-2002.

The Doherty Fellowship will help defray Nathan's travel costs to and from the National Track & Field Research Collection in Los Angeles, plus food, lodging and transportation costs in Los Angeles. He will be provided workspace at the Amateur Athletic Foundation Sports Library, reference assistance, full use of the National Track & Field Research Collection and related library collections, plus computer, Internet and commercial database access.