Running News Daily

The 1907 Boston Marathon Winner Tom Longboat earlier hated life at a state-run school and ran away

DID YOU KNOW: Tom Longboat was born 131 years ago (June 4, 1887).  In 1907 he won the Boston Marathon in a record time of 2:24:24 over the old 24-1/2 mile course, four minutes and 59 seconds faster than any of the previous ten winners of the event. 

The next year he collapsed in the 1908 Olympic Games marathon, along with several other leading runners.  A rematch was organized the same year at Madison Square Garden in New York City.

Longboat won this race, turned professional, and in 1909 at the same venue won the title of Professional Champion of the World by defeating Dorando Pietri and Alfred Shrubb in front of sell-out crowds.  

The Onondaga athlete was one of thousands indigenous children in Canada to be separated from their families and forced into a state-run education in the country's residential school system. 

Longboat, rebelled against being forced to speak English and to abandon his indigenous beliefs in favour of Christianity.  He hated life at the school.  

After one unsuccessful escape attempt, he tried again and reached the home of his uncle, who agreed to hide him from authorities. After his athletic successes, he was invited to speak at the institute but refused, stating that "I wouldn't even send my dog to that place." 

Longboat, from Ontario's Six Nations reserve, also served as a dispatch carrier in France during World War One. He was inducted into the Canadian Sports Hall of Fame in 1955.

After the war, Longboat settled in Toronto where he worked until 1944. He retired to the Six Nations Reserve and died of pneumonia on January 9, 1949.