DICK HOYT 1940-2021: BOSTON MARATHON 'WILL NEVER BE THE SAME'

METROWEST DAILY NEWS

Icon. Legend. Superhuman. 

No adjective is too strong. 

Persistent is another. 

Dick Hoyt never accepted “no” for an answer. 

That determination allowed him to push and pull his disabled son through more than a thousand marathons and triathlons, through a cross-country trek and into the hearts of anyone who wanted the chance to participate in road races. 

Hoyt, who pushed son Rick to 32 Boston Marathon finishes and whose “Yes you can” mantra adorns the disabled-empowering Team Hoyt foundation’s chapters across North America, died in his sleep Wednesday at age 80. 

Boston Marathon race director Dave McGillivray, who first encountered the Hoyts when they passed him during a race nearly 40 years ago, learned of his death from Dick’s brother Russ during a Zoom call Wednesday morning with the Boston Athletic Association. 

“I don’t put many people in this category — but knowing him as well as I did and being with him as much as I was — I always felt he was invincible,” McGillivray, who introduced the Hoyts at their 2020 induction into the USA Triathlon Hall of Fame, told the Daily News Wednesday afternoon. “I always thought: This guy is going to be doing this way longer than I’ll be around. He just seemed like he was never going to stop. 

“It’s sad to see it end, but the legacy will carry on.” 

Bob Lobel, who anchored WBZ-TV's coverage of the Marathon for more than 30 years, puts Hoyt in with Boston's all-time greats.

“I thought he was one of the greatest athletes that I ever had the chance to cover," Lobel told the Daily News Wednesday night. "It’s kind of simple. We’ve had some great ones. Bird, Orr, Williams, Benoit — how can you deny that he’s one of the greatest athletes you’ve ever seen.”

Tim Kilduff, a former Boston Marathon race director and founder/president of the 26.2 Foundation, says John Hancock, the Marathon’s principal sponsor since 1986, has plans to commemorate Hoyt’s life at an event in Hopkinton later this week. 

Dick Hoyt established in 1989 the Team Hoyt Foundation, which currently has chapters across the United States and in Canada. The nonprofit “aspires to build the individual character, self-confidence and self-esteem of America’s disabled young people through inclusion in all facets of daily life" according to its website. 

Hoyt was grand marshal of Boston Marathon in 2015 and served in the Air National Guard for more than 30 years. 

A bronze statue of the Hoyts was unveiled in 2013 in front of Center School in Hopkinton, capturing the determination of Dick and the joy of Rick that the pair displayed in races across the world.  

“The greatest power of example that they portrayed was the bond between father and son,” said Kilduff. “If I’ve ever seen an example of unconditional love — that's what they represented to me. 

“All the athletic stuff was great. People talk about the Marathon and they talk about how it exemplifies the power of the human spirit. I don’t know who fit that description better than the Hoyts.” 

“There will be other people in the future," Lobel said, "who will do amazing things and become etched in memories for generations ahead, but for us here now, it’s pretty hard to ask any more of any individual that what he was able to deliver.

"Not only for his son, but for everybody else that had a chance to watch him participate.” 

McGillivray and Kilduff were both part of a Zoom call on March 10 when Joan Benoit Samuelson and Doug Flutie were introduced as MetroWest YMCA Inspirational Award honorees. McGillivray and the Hoyts are past recipients.

Rick MacPherson, president and CEO of the MetroWest Y, was also part of the Zoom call.

"He was so humble, but a giant at the same time," he said. "He wasn't about getting the spotlight at all.

"We're all heartbroken."

“It’s a tremendous loss," added Lobel. "He gave so much without trying to give so much. It seemed to come naturally.” 

Kilduff had a personal interaction with Dick a few days before the YMCA Zoom call. 

The two met at a Panera Bread restaurant in Sturbridge to have Dick sign lithographs of the Hoyts made by artist and Hopkinton native Dustin Neece. The works were then presented to the MetroWest YMCA. Dick also signed one for Hopkinton’s Marathon School. 

“I got to spend a few minutes with him privately,” Kilduff said, “and I don’t think I’ll ever forget that now. It didn’t seem like much at the moment.” 

Kilduff recalled a time in the early 2000s when he was part of a group that was looking to raise money to buy the Hoyts a new van to be used to transport the pair to races, hoping to raise $7,000 in the days before GoFundMe existed. 

More than $110,000 was collected. 

“The Hoyts have a serious, serious connection to MetroWest and to Hopkinton,” Kilduff said, “and I think that’s important.”

McGillivray’s first experience with the tandem’s determination was at the 1983 Falmouth Road Race when the Hoyts pulled alongside. 

“I’m not going to let him beat me,” McGillivray remembers thinking. “And he beat me.” 

The Hoyts later inquired about participating in the Hawaii Ironman, the Super Bowl of triathlons. 

“I said, ‘Do you know how hard that is,’” McGillivray said. “And they said, ‘yeah, we know.'” 

Dick and Rick did not finish their first attempt in Hawaii, but returned in 1989 to become the first pair to complete the event. The Hoyts also ran and biked across America in 1992, finishing the 3,700-mile journey just as McGillivray did 14 years prior — at Fenway Park. 

McGillivray, 66, said his fondest memory of the Hoyts involve his 60th birthday, when father and son joined him on his annual run of miles to match his years. When they finished the 60 miles, Dick handed McGillivray an envelope that included a gift certificate.

Not for a restaurant or a running store, but the chance to become one of the few to push Rick, now 59, in a race. McGillivray cashed in the gift two years later at the Finish at the 50, a race that ends in Gillette Stadium.

“That’s the greatest gift I’ve gotten on my birthday. Ever,” McGillivray said. “It ranks right up there in the top three of inspirational, motivational, memorable experiences I’ve ever had.” 

McGillivray cashed in the gift two years later at the Finish at the 50, a race that ends in Gillette Stadium.

“That’s the greatest gift I’ve gotten on my birthday. Ever,” McGillivray said. “It ranks right up there in the top three of inspirational, motivational, memorable experiences I’ve ever had.” 

Three more among the many adjectives that describe Dick Hoyt's unprecedented life.

The 125th Boston Marathon is planned for Oct. 11, the first time the race will be held in the fall. The start date will not be the only unusual aspect.

“It’s not going to be the same race," Lobel said. "It’s not the same race without Bill Rodgers, it’s not the same race without Joan Benoit and it’ll never be the same race without Dick Hoyt."