Boston Marathon Race Director Dave McGillivray received The Sports Museum Lifetime Achievement Award, honored for his decades of service to the community

Boston Marathon Race Director Dave McGillivray received The Sports Museum Lifetime Achievement Award last night at the 80th Annual Boston Baseball Writers Dinner at the Intercontinental Hotel in Boston.

The award was introduced several years ago to honor a civic or business leader with a connection to baseball who has made contributions that have positively impacted the community. McGillivray joins other greats such as the late Mayor Thomas M. Menino, the inaugural winner in 2014, and Robert Lewis, Jr., Stacey Lucchino, Pete Frates, and Lisa Scherber of the Jimmy Fund.

“We set the bar very high here,” said Rusty Sullivan, the Executive Director of The Sports Museum. “The winner of this award needs to be a true champion of charity. He or she needs to have given back over the long-term. And he or she needs to have done so genuinely and selflessly. Dave McGillivray fits the bill in all of these respects. No one is more deserving.”

“I am humbled and honored,” said McGillivray. “As a lifelong fan, this might be the closest I’ll ever get to being a player on the Red Sox! But seriously, The Sports Museum and the baseball writers are very kind to do this and I’m so grateful for this award.”

Although McGillivray never achieved his childhood dream of playing second base for the Red Sox, his connection to Fenway Park runs deep. In 1978, he completed his historic cross-country run from Medford, Oregon to Medford, Mass., raising nearly $100,000 for the Jimmy Fund of Boston, by running into Fenway Park before a Red Sox-Mariners game and completing a lap around warning track while fans and players stood and cheered.

Last August , McGillivray celebrated the 40th anniversary of that event by again running into Fenway Park prior to the Red Sox-Indians game, where he was greeted at home plate by former Red Sox great Dwight Evans, a member of the 1978 team, and team owner Larry Lucchino.

posted Saturday January 19th