Richard Grant (August 3, 1870 – January 9, 1958) was a Canadian
track and field athlete
Track and field is a sport that includes Competition#Sports, athletic contests based on running, jumping, and throwing skills. The name is derived from where the sport takes place, a running track and a grass field for the throwing and some of ...
who competed at the
1900 Summer Olympics
The 1900 Summer Olympics (french: Jeux olympiques d'été de 1900, link=no), today officially known as the Games of the II Olympiad () and also known as Paris 1900, were an international multi-sport event that took place in Paris, France, from 1 ...
in
Paris
Paris () is the capital and most populous city of France, with an estimated population of 2,165,423 residents in 2019 in an area of more than 105 km² (41 sq mi), making it the 30th most densely populated city in the world in 2020. S ...
,
France
France (), officially the French Republic ( ), is a country primarily located in Western Europe. It also comprises of Overseas France, overseas regions and territories in the Americas and the Atlantic Ocean, Atlantic, Pacific Ocean, Pac ...
for the
United States
The United States of America (U.S.A. or USA), commonly known as the United States (U.S. or US) or America, is a country primarily located in North America. It consists of 50 states, a federal district, five major unincorporated territorie ...
. He also competed in the first four
Boston Marathon
The Boston Marathon is an annual marathon race hosted by several cities and towns in greater Boston in eastern Massachusetts, United States. It is traditionally held on Patriots' Day, the third Monday of April. Begun in 1897, the event was i ...
s, one of only two athletes (the other being
Lawrence Bragnolia) to have done so.
Biography
Grant was the son of a
Presbyterian
Presbyterianism is a part of the Reformed tradition within Protestantism that broke from the Roman Catholic Church in Scotland by John Knox, who was a priest at St. Giles Cathedral (Church of Scotland). Presbyterian churches derive their nam ...
minister, born in the small farming community of
Dufferin, in
Haldimand County, Ontario
Haldimand County is a rural city-status single-tier municipality on the Niagara Peninsula in Southern Ontario, Canada, on the north shore of Lake Erie, and on the Grand River. Despite its name, it is no longer a county by definition, as all mu ...
,
about three miles east of the
Six Nations reserve
Six Nations (or Six Nations of the Grand River, french: Réserve des Six Nations, see, Ye:i’ Níónöëdzage:h) is demographically the largest First Nations reserve in Canada. As of the end of 2017, it has a total of 27,276 members, 12,848 of w ...
where
Tom Longboat lived. The community no longer exists, although it continued to act as a
New York Central
The New York Central Railroad was a railroad primarily operating in the Great Lakes and Mid-Atlantic regions of the United States. The railroad primarily connected greater New York and Boston in the east with Chicago and St. Louis in the Midw ...
Railway stop before that line was decommissioned. As a result, Grant's birthplace is sometimes incorrectly attributed to other locations in Canada with the same name. The family moved to
St. Mary's, Perth County, Ontario in the 1880s. Grant attended the
University of Toronto
The University of Toronto (UToronto or U of T) is a public research university in Toronto, Ontario, Canada, located on the grounds that surround Queen's Park. It was founded by royal charter in 1827 as King's College, the first institution ...
as an undergraduate, and was a member of the Toronto Lacrosse Club. He then attended
Harvard University Medical School
Harvard Medical School (HMS) is the graduate medical school of Harvard University and is located in the Longwood Medical Area of Boston, Massachusetts. Founded in 1782, HMS is one of the oldest medical schools in the United States and is consis ...
in
Cambridge, Massachusetts
Cambridge ( ) is a city in Middlesex County, Massachusetts, United States. As part of the Boston metropolitan area, the cities population of the 2020 U.S. census was 118,403, making it the fourth most populous city in the state, behind Boston, ...
beginning about 1895, and enrolled in the track team there as a miler, running 4:25 for the distance. Grant's education at Harvard was self-funded, and he had to work in order to earn his tuition. His enrollment at the Medical School had frequent interruptions as a result.
Grant entered the inaugural Boston Marathon in 1897 with a solid background in track racing, but without having previously engaged in any long runs. His entry contravened orders he had received from his track team at Harvard, which wanted him to be fresh for a dual meet with the University of Pennsylvania. He was the only man in a field of eighteen runners without a handler accompanying him on a bicycle to provide him with water and to attend to his needs. Grant nonetheless took the lead immediately. He was joined by cross-country runner Hamilton Gray from New York City, and they shared the lead for about twelve miles until
John J. McDermott caught the pair on the downhill into
Newton Lower Falls
Newton Lower Falls, Massachusetts is one of the thirteen villages within the city of Newton in Middlesex County, Massachusetts, United States. The commercial area extends across the river into Wellesley, Massachusetts, where it is known as Wellesl ...
. Gray stopped to walk, but Grant gave chase for a mile until the base of the next hill was reached. There, Grant walked to the top of the hill. Seeing a street-watering cart, used to keep the dust down on the dirt streets, he asked the driver to run water over him. Once his legs had cooled down, he tried to run again, but his feet were too blistered to continue, and he dropped out with about nine miles to go. McDermott continued on to win the race. He was effusive in his praise for Grant; "He is the hardest man I ever beat," he said. "He held me for a mile, although he was all pumped out. If he had trained for the race he would have given me a hard race. As it was it was hard enough to shake him. He ran the pluckiest race I ever saw." Grant had lost twelve pounds in weight over the race, and his feet were so blistered he was unable to walk for several days afterward.
Grant returned to the Marathon the following year, having taken leave of absence from Harvard and having joined the Cambridgeport Gymnasium Association. He finished in seventh place with a time of 3:08:55.
Grant's best result at the Boston Marathon came in 1899. Now running for the Knickerbocker Athletic Club of New York, Grant was once more in the early lead, which he held for about sixteen miles, but the runners had to cope with a significant headwind.
Lawrence Bragnolia, a 161-pound blacksmith, was always close behind, and his stocky frame was better suited to coping with the headwind than was Grant's. The two entered into a spirited battle in the Newton Hills, with Bragnolia ultimately prevailing. Grant finished half a mile and three minutes behind Bragnolia, with a time of 2:57:46. Bragnolia's remarks after the race echoed McDermott's two years before; Grant was the pluckiest runner he had ever encountered, and knowing that he would be a bad man to beat, decided to "run him out" in the first fifteen miles, and was surprised when at the eighteenth mile he was not then sure of victory.
Grant's last appearance at the Boston Marathon was in 1900. The race was noted for the entry of a team of five runners from
Hamilton, Ontario
Hamilton is a port city in the Canadian province of Ontario. Hamilton has a population of 569,353, and its census metropolitan area, which includes Burlington and Grimsby, has a population of 785,184. The city is approximately southwest of T ...
, including
Jack Caffery and
Billy Sherring, who led from the start. Grant followed the Hamilton runners closely, leading the local contingent. He worked his way through the Hamilton runners, taking second place and approaching within 100 yards of Jack Caffery, the leader. But turning onto
Commonwealth Avenue at about the sixteen-mile mark, Caffery put in a burst of speed that Grant could not match. Grant had overextended himself in his attempt to catch Caffery, and was passed by several runners in the Newton Hills. He finished in eighth place with a time of 3:13:57. Caffery set a course record.
Canada did not form an
Olympic Committee
The International Olympic Committee (IOC; french: link=no, Comité international olympique, ''CIO'') is a non-governmental Sports governing body, sports organisation based in Lausanne, Switzerland. It is constituted in the form of an associ ...
until 1904, and so when Canadian expatriates Dick Grant and
Ronald McDonald
Ronald McDonald is a clown character used as the primary mascot of the McDonald's fast-food restaurant chain. He inhabits the fictional world of McDonaldland, with his friends Mayor McCheese, the Hamburglar, Grimace, Birdie the Early Bird and ...
entered the
Marathon at the 1900 Olympic Games at Paris, along with
Arthur Newton, they represented the United States. Only seven out of seventeen entrants finished the race, held on July 19; Newton was fifth, and Grant and McDonald, who ran together for most of the race, filled the last two positions, although reports disagree as to the order of their finishes. The last finisher, whoever that might be, had a time of about 4:24. The race was marred by suggestions of course cutting by the leaders, and McDonald later claimed that only he and Grant actually ran the whole course.
The Olympic race was Grant's last marathon, but he continued to race at shorter distances. He left the Harvard Medical School in 1903, and in 1908 accepted a position as track and field coach at the
University of Minnesota
The University of Minnesota, formally the University of Minnesota, Twin Cities, (UMN Twin Cities, the U of M, or Minnesota) is a public university, public Land-grant university, land-grant research university in the Minneapolis–Saint Paul, Tw ...
at
Minneapolis
Minneapolis () is the largest city in Minnesota, United States, and the county seat of Hennepin County. The city is abundant in water, with thirteen lakes, wetlands, the Mississippi River, creeks and waterfalls. Minneapolis has its origins ...
. When the
First World War
World War I (28 July 1914 11 November 1918), often abbreviated as WWI, was one of the deadliest global conflicts in history. Belligerents included much of Europe, the Russian Empire, the United States, and the Ottoman Empire, with fightin ...
broke out in 1914, Grant attempted to enlist in the
Canadian Expeditionary Force
The Canadian Expeditionary Force (CEF) was the expeditionary field force of Canada during the First World War. It was formed following Britain’s declaration of war on Germany on 15 August 1914, with an initial strength of one infantry division ...
, but was rejected because of his age. In 1916 he accepted an appointment as Director of Athletics at the
University of Havana
The University of Havana or (UH, ''Universidad de La Habana'') is a university located in the Vedado district of Havana, the capital of the Republic of Cuba. Founded on January 5, 1728, the university is the oldest in Cuba, and one of the first ...
in Cuba. He later became chief of the Department of Athletics in the Cuban Government.
Grant married Edith Hutchings in 1909. She was born at St. Mary's, was eighteen years younger than Grant, and was working in Toronto as a stenographer. They had five children born in Minneapolis, Toronto, and Havana.
Edith and the children returned to Canada in 1926. Grant returned to Canada from Cuba in 1947 after having lost his sight; he lived for a while with his sister Anna McIlwraith and her family at
Aurora, Illinois
Aurora is a city in the Chicago metropolitan area located partially in DuPage County, Illinois, DuPage, Kane County, Illinois, Kane, Kendall County, Illinois, Kendall, and Will County, Illinois, Will counties in the U.S. state of Illinois. Locat ...
, but
US Immigration deemed him
Liable to become a Public Charge (LPC) and denied him
Permanent Residence status in that country.
He died in 1958 at
St. Catherine's, Ontario.
Grant had four siblings. An older brother, Rev. William Harvey Grant, served as a missionary at
Henan, China
Henan (; or ; ; alternatively Honan) is a landlocked province of China, in the central part of the country. Henan is often referred to as Zhongyuan or Zhongzhou (), which literally means "central plain" or "midland", although the name is al ...
for over fifty years. A younger brother,
Alexander Grant, was an Olympian runner and US champion in a range of middle-distance and distance events.
References
External links
*
{{DEFAULTSORT:Grant, Dick
Athletes (track and field) at the 1900 Summer Olympics
Olympic track and field athletes of the United States
American male marathon runners
Canadian male marathon runners
Track and field athletes from Ontario
Canadian expatriates in Cuba
1878 births
1958 deaths
Harvard Crimson men's track and field athletes