GBTC Remembers 1975! – runblogrun

GBTC Remembers 1975! By Jeff Benjamin

To the young and in the go Boston College students, the gathering of bunch of older people in the Athletic recreation hall might seem trivial and of no consequence.

But it surely was not.

A  grand gathering last Thursday  harkened back memories of the late 1970’s, when this group of individuals comprised not only America’s, but the WORLD’S GREATEST Distance Running Team.

The Greater Boston Track Club (GBTC)!

The legendary Bill Rodgers and Wheelchair pioneer Bob Hall were the major honorees on their 50th Anniversary ground-breaking performances that fateful April day. But the hall was also filled with a who’s who of hardcore dedicated and talented distance runners, all who honed their skills under the late great coach Bill Squires.

Names like Mark Duggan, Bobby Hodge, Dick Mahoney, Freddie Doyle, Jack McDonald, Dave McGillvray, Jim Roy, Bill Babcock, Doug Simonton, Bob Flamigetti, John Ellis, John Berit, Dan Ricciato and others of local running lore joined in for the salutes.

Also joining the gathering was 1968 Boston Champ Amby Burfoot & 1976 Boston Champ Jack Fultz.

One of the Sport’s great chroniclers, Paul Clerici, attended as well.

“If you look around this room,” Rodgers said, “A lot of them ran 100 miles per week in training each!”

In 1979, that training led to an international showing, as seen by these Boston Marathon results :

The performances of Rodgers (1st), Hodge (3rd) Randy Thomas (8th) and Mahoney (10th) showed a club depth which has been rarely seen.

As chronicled by THE Boston Marathon historian and GBTC member Tom Dederian in his masterpiece book “Boston Marathon” :

“Not only did the Greater Boston Track Club beat all the other clubs entered in the race, they beat all the other countries!”

“We had fun,” said Rodgers about those times. “We had a true brotherhood of guys.”

Everyone agree it was because of Coach Squires.

“My dad talked to all of us here not only about running but about our other interests and what we would do in our lives,” said son Bill Squires Jr.

“There was a true feeling of caring like family.”

And it’s still there!

Jeff Benjamin has written for 30 years for American Track and Field along with RunBlogRun. The Former President of the Staten Island AC & Chair of the Staten Island Running Association was the 5th man scorer for his Susan Wagner High School NYC XC City Championship team. Also a member of the College of Staten Island Sports Hall of Fame for XC, Jeff currently serves as the LDR Chairman for USATF NY. A passionate (or fanatical) follower of the Sport, some of Jeff’s subjects have included Sebastian Coe, Emma Coburn, Eamonn Coghlan, Matt Centrowitz, Jim Spivey, Galen Rupp, Joe Newton, Tom Fleming, Ajee’ Wilson, Bill Rodgers, Allan Webb, Abel Kiviat, Jordan Hassay, Marty Liquori, Caster Semenya, Rod Dixon, Carl Lewis and Jim Ryun as well as Book Reviews and articles covering meets and races in the Northeast U.S.

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