The Boston Marathon was a far different race when Bill Rodgers shocked himself and the racing world by winning in 1975

Boston Globe

18-04-2025

'This is absurd,' he marveled after winning by two minutes and posting a time of 2 hours, 9 minutes, 55 seconds, smashing the mark set by Ron Hill by 35 seconds — at the time the fifth-fastest marathon ever run. 'I can't run that fast.'
Advertisement
For his labors, Will Rodgers, as the next day's headlines called him, got the customary amateur reward — a laurel wreath, a medal, and a bowl of canned beef stew.
If he were to win this coming week's 129th edition, Rodgers would receive $150,000, plus a $50,000 bonus for a course record.
Bill Rodgers went out for a run in Boxborough on April 16. He the Boston Marathon 50 years ago, a historic race to helped give rise to the running boom.
David L. Ryan/Globe Staff
He also would have to beat a dozen world-class Kenyans and Ethiopians, all of them drug-tested in advance, and probably would have to run four minutes faster than he did in 1975.
'The changes have been night and day,' mused the 77-year-old Rodgers, who's serving as this year's grand marshal along with wheelchair icon Bob Hall.
There was no prize money when Rodgers won his four crowns, few endorsement opportunities, and a field comprised of runners from North America, Great Britain, the Nordic countries, and Japan.
Advertisement
But since arriving in force in 1988, two years after Boston finally offered cash prizes for the top performers,
runners from East African nations have owned the race, winning all but four titles.
Meb Keflezighi, whose emotional 2014 triumph came a year after the Boylston Street bombings, remains the only American men's victor since 1983.
When Rodgers prevailed half a century ago, five of the top seven finishers were countrymen. But the domestic running boom, sparked by Frank Shorter's historic victory at the 1972 Olympics, was already underway. 'We all followed Frank,' Rodgers observed. 'That was the golden era.'
Boston Marathon winners Bill Rodgers, left, and Liane Winter, right, pose for a photo after winning the marathon in Boston on April 21, 1975.
/Boston Globe Archive
Now, with seven World Marathon Majors offering six-figure paydays and hefty shoe contracts available, the scene is far more lucrative. The current world record (2:00:35) was unimaginable in 1975. So was the level of doping, with dozens of Kenyan distance runners now serving bans.
'It's a cancer on the sport,' said Rodgers, whose career began when blood doping was just starting.
'World Athletics and Seb Coe have gone after it, but we need leadership to lean on the cheats,' Rodgers said, referring to the sport's governing body and Sebastian Coe, its president. 'The Kenyans are trying but a lot more needs to be done. No one wants to talk about it. I understand, but you should talk about it.'
When Rodgers won here the top marathoners were job-holding part-timers who had no reason to dope because there was no upside to it. Rodgers taught special education classes in Everett, training during lunchtime and after school.
Advertisement
His Boston breakthrough earned him expense-paid invitations to run elsewhere, such as in Enschede in the Netherlands. 'I asked Frank Shorter, what do you do?' Rodgers remembered. 'He said, ask for $1,000. That's what I get. And sure enough, they paid me $1,000.'
There were trips to Japan that brought a three-year shoe contract with Asics. 'It wasn't big money but it was something so we could make a living,' Rodgers said. He opened a running center and created a clothing line. His appearance fees increased.
Rodgers is the most versatile distance runner in American annals, enshrined in both the national track and field and distance running Halls of Fame. He was a world cross-country medalist and world record-holder at 10 and 25 kilometers.
And he was a skilled racer on the track, just missing making the 1976 Olympic team in the 10,000 meters after qualifying for the marathon squad.
Runner Bill Rodgers crosses the finish line as the winner of the Boston Marathon on April 17, 1978.
Frank O'Brien/Globe Staff
But he was always a hardtop man at heart. 'I was a road runner, like the song,' Rodgers said. 'I was made for the marathon. Track to me was more dog-eat-dog. I'm not like that. I'm competitive, but at the starting line I like to shake hands. I like to be friendly.'
He was King of the Road in the late '70s, winning five marathons in 1977 and 27 of his 30 outings in 1978. He made the US Olympic team for Montreal, where he led the marathon early before fading in the heat on cramping legs.
Rodgers set a course mark in New York, where he won four in a row, and twice made the cover of Sports Illustrated. Track & Field News named him the planet's top marathoner three times.
Advertisement
Yet Rodgers and his elite colleagues chafed against the restrictions imposed by the sports federations that he calls 'The Great Controllers,' the International Amateur Athletic Federation and The Athletics Congress (the US version).
'We were trying to make a living and push the sport forward and challenge the backwardness and lack of possibility,' he said.
After the top runners revolted, conditions began changing in the early '80s. 'The door cracked open,' Rodgers said. 'You could breathe.'
Bill Rodgers ran in the 92d Boston Marathon in Boston on April 18, 1988.
Stan Grossfeld/Globe Staff
By then, his career had peaked. The US boycott had kept Rodgers out of the Moscow Games, where he likely would have been favored. Instead, he ran and won Boston that spring for the final time.
It was his home race, so Boston Billy kept running it. 'Once I did well I wanted to see if I could defend,' he said. 'Could I do it?'
After a decade, he'd proven what he had to in Boston. 'What can I do that's significant anymore?' he wondered.
Related
:
The race organizers still were stuck in the 19th century. 'The BAA was the most resistant in changing and treating us with respect,' said Rodgers, who observed at the time that the association's refusal to pay prize or appearance money had rendered the race 'not first-class anymore.'
He bypassed the 1985 race but returned the next year when John Hancock signed on as sponsor and offered $30,000 to the winner, plus bonuses. 'Everything changed when Hancock came on board,' Rodgers said.
Runner Bill Rodgers crossed the finish line of the Boston Marathon in Boston on April 21, 1986.
Joe Dennehy/Globe Staff
He finished fourth behind Australia's Rob de Castella, whose time of 2:07:51 shattered the course record. 'I wasn't in the same race as Deke,' said Rodgers, who still earned $12,500 for his effort. 'We had two races there.'
Advertisement
By the time runners from African nations turned up, Rodgers was a 40-year-old masters runner. He ran his last competitive Boston in 1990. He came back in 1996 for the centennial race, again in 1999, and for the final time in 2009 to mark his recovery from prostate cancer.
But Rodgers has continued to run the roads frequently — the St. Patrick's Day Race in South Boston, the Bix 7 in Iowa, the Oklahoma City Memorial Marathon, the Runner's Den Pancake Run in Phoenix, and his own Jingle Bell Run in Somerville.
'I'm having fun doing what I do now, going in and meeting runners,' said Rodgers, still the sport's Everyman. 'They're happy people. How many sports change your life?'
John Powers can be reached at