This is a sad story ........ RIP Tom Tom Longboat was born on June 4, 1887 on a Six Nations Reserve (Caledonia) located south of Brantford, Ontario. He was an Onondaga, one of the six tribes of the Iroquois Confederacy. Longboat lived on a small farm with his mother, father and siblings. His father died when Longboat was just five years old. He ran a lot as a boy, and by the time he was 20, he had won the 1907 Boston Marathon. Longboat set a new course record of 2:24:24 and became an international celebrity. In 1909, he won the World Professional Marathon Championships at Madison Square Gardens in New York City. In 1916 Longboat enlisted for the War. He joined the 107th Pioneer Battalion and was stationed in France. He used his athletic ability to run messages from one military post to another - a highly dangerous job. During his service he was wounded twice, and even reported dead. Longboat survived the war and returned to Canada in 1919. For the rest of his life, he struggled with employment and diabetes, and eventually died of pneumonia. He was 61 years old. Tom Longboat is a member of both the Canadian Sports Hall of Fame, and the Indian Sports Hall of Fame. http://www.davidblaikie.com/david_blaikie/boston/baa_1907.htm http://www.collectionscanada.gc.ca/...rval=20&&PHPSESSID=pd461vcckdi2t0cfi1uvh49r73
Thomas Charles Longboat, distance runner (b at Ohsweken [Six Nations IR], Ont 4 July 1887; d there 9 Jan 1949). Largely because of his ability to dominate any race and his spectacular finishing sprints, Longboat was one of the most celebrated pre-WWI athletes. He won the Hamilton "Around-the-Bay" (1906), the Boston Marathon (1907), the Toronto Ward's Marathon (1906-08), the "World's Professional Marathon Championship" (1909), and broke numerous records. He was one of the most sought-after performers in the brief (1908-12) revival of professional racing that followed the controversial 1908 London Olympics marathon, in which Longboat and Dorando Pietri collapsed, likely from drug overdoses. Longboat's desire to train himself led to several well-publicized conflicts with managers. Despite constant and sometimes racist criticism, he stuck to his own methods. He bought up his contract in 1911 and ran better than ever. In 1912, he set a professional record of 1:18:10 for 15 miles, 7 mins faster than his amateur record. Longboat raced successfully during WWI while serving as a dispatch runner in France. After the war he lived and worked in Toronto until 1944, when he retired to the Six Nations Reserve.
