Danny Daniels is heading to the Athletics Canada Hall of Fame.

The 86-year-old former Yukon running coach is one of five inductees in the Class of 2015.

Daniels will be inducted as a builder alongside coach Andy Higgins and athletes Molly Killingbeck, Atlee Mahorn and Kevin Sullivan on July 24 in Toronto.

Daniels, who resided in Whitehorse from 1985 to 1990, now lives in Sidney, B.C., with his wife, Marjorie.

His induction is based on his track record with the Athletics Canada board of directors from 2000 to 2012, the majority of which he served as vice chair – both formally and informally.

He also served as head of delegation for several national track and field teams, and in 2010, Daniels helped create the Hall of Fame of which he is now entering.

As a competitor, Daniels holds numerous Canadian masters age group records. He was slated to compete in decathlon at the 2015 World Masters Athletics Championships in France but recently pulled out after injuring himself in a pole vault accident.

“My time in the Yukon is all part of it,” Daniels said of his induction to the Hall of Fame. “All of that, in a way, contributed to this. Those were great years. I really enjoyed my time up there. People were really welcoming.”

Yukon MP Ryan Leef was one of Daniels’ pupils in the late ’80s.

Daniels, who worked in the territory as the regional director for Indian Affairs, quickly became a prominent figure on the Yukon running scene, eventually becoming president of Run Yukon (now Athletics Yukon).

“He was one of the first figures I remember trying to organize runners as a group,” Leef recalled.

Daniels went on to lead a group of athletes into the 1988 Arctic Winter Games in Fairbanks and the 1989 Canada Summer Games in Saskatoon.

Daniels was also one of the first to lobby for an indoor track facility in the Yukon capital.

“He was always lobbying for better facilities,” Leef said. “But he took on a fight before its time. He was trying to bring something to the Yukon before the Yukon was ready for it.”

Leef and Daniels have continued to stay in touch, despite the coach’s move out of territory.

“He became just an unbelievable coach,” Leef said. “He’s 86 and he’s still competing. He and his wife are just human machines.”