HUB History - Our Favorite Stories from Boston History

HUB History loves the Boston Marathon almost as much as we love Boston history. Patriots Day is one of Nikki’s favorite days of the year, and Jake has run Boston for charity. Just days before the BAA announced that the 124th Boston Marathon would have to be held as a virtual event, we had an opportunity to chat with a Boston Marathon legend. Bill “Boston Billy” Rodgers is a four-time winner of the Boston marathon, so we were excited to talk to him about marathon history, the runners he looks up to, and his own historic runs.

Please check out the transcript and full show notes at: http://HUBhistory.com/187/

And support the show on Patreon.

Bill Rodgers is a four-time winner of both the Boston and the New York City marathons. He was named the #1 marathoner in the world 3 times by Track and Field News and is an inductee of the National Distance Running Hall of Fame. Bill is an Olympian, and a bronze medal winner for the United States in the 1975 World Cross-Country Championships. He is also the author of Marathon Man, which details his journey to the top of the running world.

• Visit Bill’s online Bill Rodgers Running Center, where you can order a signed copy of his book, see his upcoming public appearances, and read the astounding training log from his 1974 marathon training season.
• Who are these runners you keep mentioning?
  • Amby Burfoot: Bill’s roommate at Wesleyan won the 1968 Boston Marathon and served as editor-in-chief at Runner’s World, where he still writes.
  • Jeff Galloway: Another of Bill’s Wesleyan teammates, Galloway represented the US at the 1972 Olympics in the 10,000 meter. He is known for developing a run/walk method that makes running accessible for millions.
  • Johnny Kelley, the elder: John A Kelley holds the record for the most Boston Marathons, having run 61 and finished 58. He won in 1935 and 1945.
  • Johnny Kelley, the younger: John J Kelley won Boston in 1957 and ran the race 32 times. He was also Amby Burfoot’s high school track coach.
  • Ellison “Tarzan” Brown: Tarzan Brown won Boston in 1936 and 1939, setting a course record. He was a member of the Narragansett Tribe of Rhode Island, and he was a force in New England distance running for over a decade, representing the US at the 1936 Olympics in Nazi Germany. Heartbreak Hill was named after Johnny Kelley, the elder, caught up to Brown on the way up the hill in 1936. Kelley patted Brown on the back in a conciliatory gesture, which inspired Brown’s second wind. He passed Kelley and went on to win, supposedly breaking Kelley’s heart in the process.
  • Meb Keflezighi: Meb was an influential runner from the early 2000s through at least 2016. He represented the US at the Olympics in 2004, 2012, and 2016, earning a silver medal for the 2004 marathon. After the 2013 bombings, he endeared himself to Bostonians by winning the Boston Marathon, becoming the first American to win the men’s race in 31 years. He later revealed that he had the names of the bombing victims written on his race bib. He has retired from competition, but he’s now a very fast masters runner at 45 years old.
  • Frank Shorter: One of Bill’s contemporaries, Frank Shorter was one of the great marathoners of the 1970s. He won the Olympic gold at the marathon in 1972 and took silver in 1976. Bill Rodgers credits him with igniting the American running boom.
  • Steve “Pre” Prefontaine: Pre was the wunderkind of middle distance running from the late 1960s until his untimely death in 1975 at just 24 years old. He was an aggressive runner with a rockstar attitude, representing the US at the 1972 Olympic games. He was the first athlete to be sponsored by Nike, and like Bill, he fought the AAU’s policies on amateurism and tried to allow runners to get paid to compete.
  • Clarence DeMar: Bill Rodgers calls seven-time Boston champion Clarence DeMar “the greatest marathoner of them all” and “the king of the Boston Marathon.” Read this profile for more about DeMar, from his youth at the state boys’ school on Thompson Island on Boston Harbor, to the doctors who told him his heart was too weak to run, to his dominant 20 year running career. Check out this collection of photos of DeMar, as well.
• If you’ve never watched Joan Benoit (later Samuelson) win the inaugural women’s Olympic marathon in 1984, watch it now. I can’t see her emerge from the tunnel into the stadium and hear the crowd go wild without getting choked up every time. (You can also check out a longer version from the telecast, complete with commentary by Bill Rodgers and Katherine Switzer, plus vintage 1984 TV commercials: Part 1, Part 2, Part 3, Part 5)
• This collection of 1940s marathon shoes is taken from this excellent Boston Public Library gallery of marathon photos.

• If you were surprised by Bill’s sympathetic view of Jock Semple, who attempted to take Katherine Switzer’s race bib in 1967, read this article compiled by Bill’s old roommate Amby Burfoot that describes him of a product of his time.
• You can learn more about Katherine Switzer, Bobbi Gibb, and the fight to open the Boston Marathon to women in our Episode 127.

On Wednesday June 10, from 6 to 7:30pm, Francis J. Bremer will present a talk called The Unappreciated Role of Women in the Shaping of Puritanism. Here’s how the Boston Public Library describes it:

While everyone knows of the challenge that Anne Hutchinson posed to the New England puritan establishment, the roles of ordinary women in Congregationalism has been neglected. This talk will focus on how women helped to shape puritan ideas, form puritan churches, teach fellow believers, and vote on various ecclesiastical issues.

Originally scheduled to happen at the Central Library, this Baxter Lecture will now be a virtual event. The event is free, but advanced registration is required in order to get the Zoom connection info.