Bob Hall, father of wheelchair racing, Boston Marathon winner, dies

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 continuing to build racing chairs for generations of competitors that followed, has died. He was 74 years old.

The Boston Athletic Association said Hall’s family confirmed his death on Sunday.

In 1975, Hall convinced the organizers of the Boston Marathon to let him participate in the race and was promised a final certificate like those received by runners if he completed the 26.2 miles in less than 3 hours. (In 1970, Eugene Roberts, a Vietnam War veteran who lost his legs in the war, needed more than six hours to finish the job.)

Hall crossed the line in 2:58.

“It wasn’t about the marathon per se, but it was about inclusion,” Hall said last year, when he served as grand marshal in Boston for the 50th anniversary of his pioneering ride. “It was like I was bringing people with me.”

Hall returned to racing in Boston in 1977, when it was named the site of the National Wheelchair Championships, winning in a field of seven. When they reached Heartbreak Hill, eventual men’s winner Bill Rodgers and fifth-place finisher Tom Fleming slowed down to cheer him on.

“The interaction was a sign that we were fully accepted as athletes,” Hall said.

Hall, who lost the use of his legs to polio, filed a lawsuit in 1978 to have wheelchair runners admitted to 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 unbelievable guy,” Tatiana McFadden, a five-time Boston champion and eight-time Paralympic gold medalist, said last year. “I’m very grateful to him. And I think all of us, as wheelchair racers, are, because he really paved the way.”

Hall finished in the top three in Boston three other times and remained active in racing. More than 1,900 wheelchair racers followed him from Hopkinton to Boston. This year’s race, scheduled for April 20, will include 50 more competitors, along with 50 others in eight special needs divisions, competing for prize money worth more than $300,000.

Many of the competitors—including McFadden and seven-time Boston winner Marcel Haug—learned to race on chairs built by Hall.

“Because he crossed the finish line, we were able to race today,” McFadden said last year. “It’s been a lot better since then.” “It was him. He was brave and said, ‘I’m going to go out and do it because I think we should be able to run the Boston Marathon like everyone else.’ So he had the courage to do it.”