by Brett Hoover — posted on 12/13/2011

Joanna Molloy from the New York Daily News recently spent some time at The Armory and discovered that this is going to be a season like no other in the history of the building.

Sure there are still all the young high school runners, jumpers, throwers, hurdlers and vaulters spending time on their craft in the after-school hours, but also 2012 marks a watershed year. Not only is the Armory College Prep Program reaching a record number of students, the Millrose Games is coming uptown to the New Balance Track & Field Center.

The track, which is packed with athletes from November through March, has come a long way since Dr. Norbert Sander — the Executive Director of the Armory Foundation — began lobbying Mayor Ed Koch to let him bring the facility back from its dark days. Eventually it would be Mayor David Dinkins who would give in. Wrote Molloy:

"Unfortunately, Mayor Dinkins didn't get reelected, and he called me down to City Hall as people were packing boxes all around him," recalls Sander. "He handed me the keys and said, 'Good luck.'"

Ever since The Armory has been raising its own operating expenses — all privately donated. Dr. Sander was quick to let Molloy know that he "couldn't have done this alone."

And the work is never done.