Joseph McGhee (9 July 1929 – 17 April 2015) was a Scottish

marathon The marathon is a long-distance foot race with a distance of , usually run as a road race, but the distance can be covered on trail routes. The marathon can be completed by running or with a run/walk strategy. There are also wheelchair div ...

runner, who won a gold medal at the

1954 British Empire and Commonwealth Games Events January * January 1 – The Soviet Union ceases to demand war reparations from West Germany. * January 3 – The Italian broadcaster RAI officially begins transmitting. * January 7 – Georgetown-IBM experiment: The fi ...

Vancouver Vancouver ( ) is a major city in western Canada, located in the Lower Mainland region of British Columbia. As the List of cities in British Columbia, most populous city in the province, the 2021 Canadian census recorded 662,248 people in the ...

, Canada.

Career

McGhee was a member of

Shettleston Shettleston ( sco, Shuttlestoun, gd, Baile Nighean Sheadna) is a district in the east end of Glasgow in Scotland. Toponymy The origin of the name 'Shettleston' is not clear and, like many place-names of possibly medieval origin, has had a multi ...

Harriers athletics club, and also the Glasgow University Hares and Hounds. McGhee won the marathon event at the

, Canada. The event was run in sublime heat, and Englishman Jim Peters had been leading the race by 17 minutes coming into the stadium, but collapsed. Only six runners finished the race, out of 16 starters. McGhee had been the only Scot in the race, and his victory was overshadowed in the press by coverage of Peters' collapse. McGhee won the 1954, 1955 and 1956 Scottish National Championships, making him the first Scotsman to win three successive marathon championships. Fraser Clyne later achieved the same feat in 1992–94.

Personal life

McGhee attended St Francis' RC Primary school, and

St Modan's High School St Modan's Roman Catholic High School is an S1-S6 Catholic high school in Stirling, Scotland. History In September 1933, St Modan's High School was officially opened by Archbishop McDonald of St Andrew's and Edinburgh. It was located in Barnsda ...

in Stirling. He later studied at the

University of Glasgow , image = UofG Coat of Arms.png , image_size = 150px , caption = Coat of arms Flag , latin_name = Universitas Glasguensis , motto = la, Via, Veritas, Vita , ...

from 1946 until 1951. McGhee later became a

flight lieutenant Flight lieutenant is a junior commissioned rank in air forces that use the Royal Air Force (RAF) system of ranks, especially in Commonwealth countries. It has a NATO rank code of OF-2. Flight lieutenant is abbreviated as Flt Lt in the India ...

in the RAF. McGhee also worked as a teacher, during which time he taught Mike Ryan. Ryan later said he thought of McGhee as he won his bronze medal at the

1968 Summer Olympics The 1968 Summer Olympics ( es, Juegos Olímpicos de Verano de 1968), officially known as the Games of the XIX Olympiad ( es, Juegos de la XIX Olimpiada) and commonly known as Mexico 1968 ( es, México 1968), were an international multi-sport eve ...

Mexico City Mexico City ( es, link=no, Ciudad de México, ; abbr.: CDMX; Nahuatl: ''Altepetl Mexico'') is the capital and largest city of Mexico, and the most populous city in North America. One of the world's alpha cities, it is located in the Valley o ...

. McGhee wrote an

autobiography An autobiography, sometimes informally called an autobio, is a self-written account of one's own life. It is a form of biography. Definition The word "autobiography" was first used deprecatingly by William Taylor in 1797 in the English peri ...

entitled ''The Forgotten Winner'', which was never published. He married in 1960, and had five children and six grandchildren.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:McGhee, Joe 1929 births 2015 deaths Scottish male marathon runners Sportspeople from Falkirk Athletes (track and field) at the 1954 British Empire and Commonwealth Games Commonwealth Games gold medallists for Scotland Commonwealth Games medallists in athletics Alumni of the University of Glasgow 20th-century Royal Air Force personnel People educated at St Modan's High School Medallists at the 1954 British Empire and Commonwealth Games