Indiana University of Pennsylvania Athletics

Paul Spears ... accomplished student-athlete who has never lost sight of his alma mater in the nearly 50 years since he graduated ... successful businessman and corporate leader who has won the respect of everyone who knows him not just for what he has accomplished but for the way in which he does things .. . a harness racer who has won international acclaim.
Given the scope and accuracy of all this, Spears was immediately seen as a natural when the IUP Hall of Fame considered his nomination as an inductee last spring.
Spears' first involvement with what was then Indiana State Teachers College came in 1946 when he enrolled as a U.S. Army veteran of World War II's European Theatre, which he had entered after graduating from Reynoldsville High School. While majoring in business education, he played football three years at running back for coaches George Miller and Regis "Peck" McKnight
In 1980, Spears was awarded the IUP Alumni Association Citation for Achievement (in a time when only one was given each year).  He and his wife, Jo, who graduated from ISTC in 1948, now underwrite an annual scholarship devoted to IUP football players.
President and CEO, Treasurer and Director of Hanover Shoe Farms (the largest breeding farm for standardbred race horses in the world) since 1992, Spears held leadership posts there and with parent Hanover Shoe as early as 1954 after teaching and coaching at New Enterprise (Bedford County) and working for Ford in Detroit.
Simultaneously, he has maintained a Class A license as an amateur driver of standardbred racehorses, meaning that he can drive in any harness race anywhere in the world, competing with the top professionals in the sport. (Spears maintains amateur status by electing not to accept any pay for driving.)
In standings kept in the Billings Amateur Championship Series for all amateur drivers in the United States and Canada, Spears ranked first in points six years (as recently as 1990 at the age of 66) and won seven championship titles.  No other driver has ever won more than one.
Racing at 34 different tracks as far away as Holland, Austria, Germany and Italy (while also a frequent competitor at The Meadows). Spears has set or tied world records four times, traversing a mile as fast as 1:57.  He has driven in more Breeders Crown races (four) than any other amateur driver.
In addition to driving, Spears is president of Pennsylvania Standardbred Breeders Association and the American Classic Series, a trustee of the Trotting Horse Museum and Hall of Fame and a director of the Hambletonian Society, among others.
The father of Paul, a medical doctor in York, and Patricia Eisenhauer, an attorney who resides in Camp Hill.  Spears is chairman of the Board of Trustees of the Hanover Area YMCA and a director of Downtown Hanover.