BY RICK DYER
Welcome to everyone. And thank
you for your support of the Manchester Road Race, which celebrates its 83rd running on Thursday.
This is the tale of three
runners. Their names are Chase, Close and Kujala.
One was the first woman ever to
complete the Manchester road race course. One was the last Manchester athlete
to win the thanksgiving day road race. And one, well . . . He was always just
plain last.
Each of these athletes played
important roles in the history of our annual thanksgiving day run. But more
importantly, their stories can hopefully offer us some important lessons---not
only about the sport of running, but also about life itself.
Julia chase grew up in the Groton area. As a kid she’d sometimes run a mile or so to school. Olympic marathoner Johnny Kelley lived in her town, and she would often see him practicing on the
roads. Kelley was a six time Manchester road race winner and he became Julia’s
mentor and encouraged her interest in running.
Even though there weren’t yet
high school teams for girls, Julia won the New England A.A.U. women’s half-mile
championship. Prior to the 1970s, women were prohibited by A.A.U. rules from
competing in races with men, and from running in any event longer than a half
mile.
Julia attempted to run at the
1960 Manchester road race, but was turned away. So she came back in 1961, when
she was a 19-year old sophomore at smith college. Julia had mailed in her entry
weeks before the race. And she notified the media that she was going to run in Manchester’s turkey day five miler. Remember, this was more than a decade before the title nine
laws were enacted. It was unheard of back then for a female runner to run with
the guys in a long distance road race.
When Chase and two other female
runners showed up on main street in 1961, there was a great deal of excitement.
There were also a lot of media people in attendance, including a photographer
from life magazine. Race officials again told chase and the other women
athletes that aau rules prohibited them from running. They were denied
numbers.
But when the gun sounded, Chase
and the other two women lined up at the back of the pack and ran the course
anyways. Julia Chase was the first women to cross the finish line. She completed
the race in 33 minutes and beat nine men that Thanksgiving. The following week, LIFE magazine published a big photo feature about the day that Julia chase
toppled the gender barrier in Manchester, Conn.
Julia chase went on to earn her
medical degree and practiced psychiatry in new jersey and Connecticut for many
years. Her gentle act of protest in 1961 worked. It didn’t happen overnight,
but thanks in large measure to her, the A.A.U. rules were subsequently changed to
allow women to compete against men, and to run all distances. Last year, more
than 12,000 runners registered for the Manchester Road Race. Half of them were
females.
Peter Close grew up in Manchester and attended Manchester High School. He was a skinny high school
sophomore in 1952 when he first ran in the Manchester Road Race. Close placed
32nd in a field of 43 runners that Thanksgiving with a time of 30:45.
But Close loved to run, he
practiced very hard, and he had a goal: he was going to win his hometown road
race. Close finished 11th at the road race in 1953 and 10th as a high school
senior, in 1954. He won a track scholarship to St. John's University, and came
home every Thanksgiving to run in Manchester. Pete placed fifth in
1955, 10th in 1956, and he was second in 1957.
In 1958, his senior year at St. Johns, Close finally realized his dream. He won the road race with a time of 24:43. It has been a long grind for me since i was 32nd seven years ago,” he told Manchester Herald sports editor Earl Yost after the race. “This
is one of my biggest victories."
Pete Close joined the marines
after college and he competed in the 1500 meters for the United States at the 1960 Rome Olympic Games. He later served as the sports information director at M.I.T., and as the head track coach at Tufts University. His victory 61 years
ago marked the last time a Manchester runner won the Manchester road race.
Amos Kujala was an older runner
who ran in 15 road races a year throughout New England during the 1940s and
50s. Born in Finland, he was a farmer and a stone mason from Harvard, Mass. So what made Amos famous? Lots of last place finishes at the Manchester road race.
Kujala competed in the Manchester Road Race thirteen times between 1946 and 1959. He usually placed
dead last, or darned close to it. The fans loved Kujala and cheered for him as
enthusiastically as they did for the winner. They knew that the road race just
wasn’t over until old Amos ambled down main street.
Here is what six-time Manchester champion Johnny Kelley had to say about Kujala: “I knew Amos when i was a boy entering the road racing game and he was an old-timer
shuffling through New England’s April through November calendar of week end
contests, with no pretense of finishing anywhere but a radiantly beaming. Dead last. He was a worthy
man.”
Amos Kujala ran in Manchester
for the final time in 1959. He finished the race with a time of 52 minutes,
last in a field of 115 runners. His leg was amputated in 1961, and he died two
years later.
Chase, Close, and Kujala
obviously came to the Manchester Road Race from different backgrounds, and with
varying degrees of athletic skill. But I believe they shared two important
common denominators that made them exceptional.
First, they each had tremendous
passion for running. They loved their sport. They weren't running for tee
shirts, or the bling. They competed because they found personal rewards and
benefits in doing so that were much more valuable than any medal or trophy.
Secondly, they were persistent.
Julia Chase had the door shut in her face twice. But she had the grit and
courage to keep coming back. And she refused to take no for an answer. She eventually
unlocked that door, not only for herself, but for thousands of women who
followed in her footsteps.
Pete Close finished near the end of the pack in his
first race. It might have been tempting then to switch to another sport. But he
kept at it, and eventually won the Manchester Road Race, and became an Olympian.
Amos Kujala competed in road
races every week for years against men who were much younger and faster than he
was. He knew, with almost absolute certainty, that he’d probably be the last
person across the finish line. But like the Energizer bunny, he just kept on
running.
So there you have it, the tale
of three runners. Chase, Close and Kujala: they were athletes who in their own
unique ways made history at the Manchester Road Race. You can chase after your goals and dreams.
Pursue those things that you love. Do them for the sheer joy that comes with the knowledge that
you always tried your hardest, and always did your best. I wish you much
success!