04/12/26 05:31:00
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04/12 17:30 CDT Bob Hall, the father of wheelchair racing and a 2-time winner
of the Boston Marathon, dead at 74
Bob Hall, the father of wheelchair racing and a 2-time winner of the Boston
Marathon, dead at 74
By JIMMY GOLEN
AP Sports Writer
BOSTON (AP) --- Bob Hall, a childhood polio survivor who became known as the
father of wheelchair racing after twice winning the Boston Marathon and then
going on to build racing chairs for the generations of competitors that
followed, has died. He was 74.
The Boston Athletic Association said on Sunday that Hall's family confirmed his
death after a long illness.
In 1975, Hall convinced Boston Marathon organizers to let him into the race and
was promised a finishers' certificate like the one the runners got if he
completed the 26.2-mile distance in under 3 hours. (In 1970, Vietnam War
veteran Eugene Roberts, who had lost both of his legs in the war, needed more
than six hours to finish.)
Hall crossed the line in 2:58.
"It had nothing to do with, per se, the marathon, but it was about the
inclusion," Hall said last year, when he served as the grand marshal in Boston
on the 50th anniversary of his pioneering ride. "It was that I was bringing
people along."
Hall returned to the Boston race in 1977, when it was designated as the site
for the National Wheelchair Championship, and prevailed in a field of seven. As
they crested Heartbreak Hill, eventual men's winner Bill Rodgers and
fifth-place finisher Tom Fleming slowed to encourage him.
"The interaction was a sign that we were fully accepted as athletes," Hall said.
Hall, who lost the use of both legs from childhood polio, sued in 1978 to have
wheelchair racers admitted into the New York Marathon, a fight that wasn't
settled until the race created men's and women's wheelchair divisions in 2000.
"Bob Hall is an incredible man," five-time Boston winner and eight-time
Paralympic gold medalist Tatyana McFadden said last year. "I'm so thankful for
him. And I think we all are, as wheelchair racers, because he really paved the
way."
Hall finished in the top three in Boston three other times, and remained active
with the race. More than 1,900 wheelchair racers have followed him from
Hopkinton to Boston; this year's race on April 20 will include 50 more, along
with 50 others in eight para divisions competing for more than $300,000 in
prize money.
The BAA said that Hall taught "how we can continue to ensure athletes of all
abilities have competitive opportunities on the highest stage here in Boston."
"Bob designed innovative wheelchair equipment, raced with courage, and was
proud to be a two-time Boston Marathon champion," the BAA said. "He helped lead
a technological change, transforming simple wheelchairs into racing chairs
built for peak athletic performance. Bob's influence and effort five decades
ago led to the global circuit of wheelchair racing today."
Many of the competitors --- including McFadden and seven-time Boston winner
Marcel Hug --- learned to race in chairs built by Hall.
"Because of him crossing that finish line, we're able to race today. And it's
evolved so much since then," McFadden said last year. "It was him. It was him
being brave and saying, ?I'm going to go out and do this because I believe that
we should be able to race Boston Marathon just like everyone else.' So he had
the courage to do that."
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