Bob Hall, a major driving force in wheelchair racing who won the Boston Marathon twice has died. He was 74 years old.
The Boston Athletic Association confirmed his death in an announcement on Sunday, which his family said was due to a long illness.
Hall was a survivor of polio as a child but lost the use of his legs and his right ankle was permanently fused following corrective surgery. In 1970 he was drawn to wheelchair racing after initially being encourage to tryout for a wheelchair basketball team.
After winning the National Wheelchair Mile and National Wheelchair Marathon in 1974, Hall was called out by one of his opponents who claimed he was competing against subpar competition. Hall would later win the Toledo Marathon and turned his attention to a bigger challenge.
He petitioned Boston Marathon organizers to let him enter the 1975 event and give him a finishers’ certificate if the completed the course under three hours. Hall finished in 2:58 and made history as the first wheelchair participant in the race.
“I didn’t care if anybody got on my coattails,” Hall said last year. “It was that I was bringing people along.”
The race was a pivotal moment for Hall but helped transform the growing perception wheelchair racing and prompted the BAA to create a wheelchair division at the Boston Marathon. Other prominent marathons would follow Boston’s lead and establish their own wheelchair categories.
Hall would race Boston again in 1977 and dominated a field of seven men in a course record 2:40:10.
But he would expand his mark on the sport through innovations that ultimately led to faster times and encouraged more wheelchair athletes to enter races. In 1978, he founded Hall’s Wheels, and the company would take its experimental designs mainstream with lightweight racing wheelchairs that pushed the boundaries of performance. Hall crafted aerodynamic wheelchairs that were both durable and tailored to each user.
“The moments we at the Boston Athletic Association got to spend with Bob were special,” the organization said in a statement. “We shared stories, laughs, and lessons — lessons learned on how we can continue to ensure athletes of all abilities have competitive opportunities on the highest stage here in Boston. Bob will remain in our hearts, and we extend our condolences to his many friends, family, and the wheelchair racing family which he was a part of.”
At last year’s Boston Marathon, Hall was honored during a finish line ceremony alongside Bill Rodgers that marked the 50th anniversary of his groundbreaking win as the first official wheelchair finisher in race history. And since his debut in 1975, nearly 1,900 wheelchair athletes have competed in Boston.
In a tribute posted on social media on Monday, Rodgers honored Hall by showing photos of the two at various events over their decades-long friendship.
“Bob’s relentless advocacy for accessibility in Marathoning led to the inclusion of wheelchair athletes at a global level,” Rodgers said. “While the world will remember his legacy in racing, Karen and my brother Charlie and I will also always remember his kind heart, his generous nature, and the sound of his laughter.”
Rodgers later posted a compilation of clips set to Frank Sinatra’s “My Way” and said Hall requested the song be played in his memory.
