PROFILE: Joseph Linsey’s a self-educated businessman, sportsman and philanthropist. Linsey has served the greyhound industry faithfully for more than 40 years. Linsey was still active in the industry in 1981 when he was added to the PIONEER section, In 1983 Joseph Linsey would be enshrined into the Greyhound Hall of Fame section.

HISTORY: Joseph Linsey purchased Taunton Greyhound track in 1941 and transformed the rural oval into a showplace in greyhound racing. Linsey has always been a trendsetter, evidenced in 1949, by his introduction of the first ‘big-purse’ stake race in America, the $25,000 American Derby at Taunton. The American Derby is also the longest running major stake still in existence today. Linsey was responsible for the introduction of the flip-top starting box to American race tracks after seeing its successful use in Australia. Joseph Linsey was instrumental in organizing the American Greyhound Track Operators Association and served an unprecedented 3 terms as its president. Linsey was still serving as chairman of the board of Taunton, Mile High, Pueblo and Lincoln race tracks in 1981.

ACCOMPLISHMENTS: Linsey’s achievements in the greyhound industry are only part of his life. He is a founding trustee of the Brandeis University and has received the coveted Brandeis Medal for Distinguished Service to High Education. Linsey is a member of the Executive Committee of the National Conference of Christians and Jews, on the Board of Governors of the Human Relations center of Boston University and the Executive Committee of the National Council on Crime and Delinquency. Joseph Linsey is also president of the Jewish Memorial Hospital, a trustee of the Hebrew Rehabilitation Center for the Aged, a trustee of the Beth Israel Hospital, and a trustee of the Massachusetts Arthritis and Rheumatism Foundation. His philanthropic efforts extend into innumerable other walks of life.