http://www.rutlandherald.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20080520/SPORTS/805200322/1007/SPORTS
Bill Rodgers will add to Crowley aura
May 20, 2008
By Tom Haley Herald Staff
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There are some events in Rutland you look forward to because you are certain you’ll see people you know.
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And if you are an early riser, there is always the Crowley Brothers Memorial Road Race.
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But the Crowley Memorial Brothers Road Race traces its origins to some pretty famous guys in their own right.
They would be Clarence DeMar and Frank Crowley.
DeMar won a record seven Boston Marathons and Crowley, a Rutlander, was an NCAA All-American distance runner at Manhattan College who competed in the 1932 Olympic Games in Los Angeles.
The story is that DeMar and Crowley challenged one another to a race from Proctor to Rutland in the late 1920s. The younger Crowley defeated DeMar and that race continued for a number of years.
The race ceased for a bit but was revived in 1976 with the help of local people like Mike Canty, Bill Reardon, John Cioffredi and Frank’s brother, Joe Crowley.
I landed back in Rutland in 1987 and wrote about the race a number of different years. I have plenty of favorites, but one year still stands out.
It was in 2000 when the race was dead. There was a brief notice in the Rutland Herald that the race would not be held that year.
Then, the same week that the race would normally be held, Rutland’s Lincoln Fenn walked into this office and proclaimed the race would go on after all. Fenn and Hugh Short, both former Rutlland educators and track coaches, felt the race should be held without a break and they threw something together to make certain the tradition would not take a year off. There was no entry fee, prizes or commemorative T-shirts or electronic timing. There were only 20 runners.
But it was a race from the heart and miraculously it happened.
And talk about local flavor. John Daly, a Rutland High runner and NCAA Division II All-American distance runner from Southeast Missouri State University, just happened to be back from St. Louis for a family reunion, and won the race. Daly was married by the late Joe Crowley when Joe was a justice of the peace and the race is named for brothers Joe, Frank and Larry Crowley.
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The Crowley Brothers Memorial Road Race has a lot going for it. It has history, big names like Crowley, DeMar and now Rodgers, and it has a hilly, challenging layout that begins in one of the prettiest little communities anywhere.
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Crowley, Frank (MC1932?) spawned a VT race tradition.
[JR: I didn't know that?]
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