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Runners of Yesterday

Native American Male Marathon Runners 2:25 or better:

 

# NAME TIME DATE
1 Theodore Martin 2:15.07 1999
2 Brandon Leslie 2:15.21 -2006
3 Phillip Castillo 2:19.19 -1998
4 Milfred Tewawina 2:20.05 -
5 Alvin Begay 2:20.54 -1983
6 Chester Carl 2:21.06 -1983
7 Timothy Martin 2:21.11 2003
8 Herman Sahneyah 2:22.18 -
9 Billy Mills 2:22.55 1968 Olympics
10 Jack Anderson 2:23.47 -1983
11 Art Redhair 2:24.04 -1975
12 Henry Mann 2:24.06 -
13 Lenny Esson 2:24.00  
14 Tom Long 2:24:24 April 19, 1907 - Boston Marathon
15 Tulley Mann 2:26:05 1972

Native American Female Marathon Runners 3:00 or better:

  1. Patti Catalano Dillion 2:27.51 (first American woman to go under 2:30)
  2. Janice Posey

Historical Native Elite Runners:

  • Tom Longboat (Onondaga from the Six Nations, Canada)(1) - 1907 Boston Marathon winner (~40 km) in record time, closest competitor 4/5 km behind; 1909 Madison Square Garden World Prof. Marathon Championships Winner
  • Louis Tewanima (Hopi)- 1912 Sweden Olympic Games Silver medalist in 10,000 m
  • Jim Thorpe (Potawatomi-descendent of Great Sauk and Fox chief Black Hawk) - greatest athlete of the 20th Century; 1912 Belgium Olympic Games Pentathlon and Decathlon Gold Medalists (taken away due to salary obtained from being a semi-professional baseball player); professional baseball player with New York Giants, Cincinnati Reds, Boston Braves; professional football player with Canton (Ohio) Bulldogs; Cleveland Indians; and ended with Chicago Cardinals; coached & played with Oorang Indians, instrumental in formation of American Professional Football Assoc.(today's NFL); 1950 "the greatest American football player" and "greatest overall male athlete; 1950 National Press Most Outstanding Athlete of the first half of 20th Century; 1996-2001 ABC's Wide World of Sports Athlete of the Century.
  • Ellison "Tarzan" Brown (Narragansett)(1) - 1936 & 1939 Boston Marathon Winner; first runner to break the 2:30 mark for the marathon; 1936 Berlin Olympics participant; scheduled to participate in 1940 Helsinki Olympics before it was cancelled due to WWII.
  • Billy Mills (Oglala Lakota)(1) - 1964 Tokyo Olympic Games Gold Medalist 10,000 m; Billy set the Olympic 10K record at 28:24.4, ~50 s faster than his PR. competed in 1964 Olympic marathon and placed 14th. To date, no other American has won a gold medal in the 10,000 m.
  • Steve Gachupin (Jemez Pueblo)(1) - only man to win Pikes Peak Marathon 6 straight times from 1966 to 1971 (1966-3:57:04; 1967-3:50:05; 1968-3:39:47; 1969-3:44:50; 1970-3:45:52; 1971-3:46:26;); "The way hes built, he could run uphill almost as fast as he ran downhill" remembers Joe Vigil; 15th-place finish in the 1968 Olympic marathon trials.
  • Tulley Man - Navajo marathoner from Kaibeto, AZ who started the marathon scene for Navajo from 1967 and consistently ran between 2:26 and 2:35 for 20 years. He won his last marathon as an aging runner in Copper Valley Marathon in 1986 in 2:45. During a time when a Navajo marathoner was needed as a role model, Tulley fit the role of a Navajo elite runner. While at NAU, he competed in the 1968 Olympic Trial. In 1972, while in the U.S. Marine Corp., he qualified and competed in teh Olympic Trial and ran against such great runners as George Young and Steve Prefontaine.
  • Arthur Redhair - Navajo who ran the marathon in 2:24:06 and wone the 5,000 and 10,000 m the same weekend in Junior College National Championship (set JC 5,000 m record 13:56 that sthoo for many years). Redhair was a Central AZ College All American 1975-76 and BYU All American 1977. He was the first Navajo or Hopi to place in the Top 15 in NCAA Division IX-Country Championships.
  • Patti Catalano Dillon (Mi'kmaq Canadian Native from Novia Scotia)- first woman to begin 150-mile weeks of running as part of her training regimen. Won Honolulu Marathon 4 years in a row from 1978 to 1981. During her career, she held every American distance record from the 5 mile to the marathon, and the world records in the 1/2 marathon and 30K. First American woman to run the marathon in under 2 1/2 hours. She ran the Boston Marathon in 2:27. From April 1980 to April 1981, she ran 48 distance races, winning 44 of them. She was inducted to the Honolulu Marathon Hall of Fame.
  • Jack Anderson (Navajo) - of Gallup, who works in the Tourism Department of the Navajo Nation Division of Economic Development, ran the Boston Marathon in 1983 in an attempt to make the 1984 U.S. Olympic Team, missing "by a few minutes." He had to retire from competitions due to asthma attacks. "I've always dreamed of becoming an Olympic runner some day, but sometimes things don't happen. To be able to run the torch relay and be part of the Winter Olympics will not be forgotten for my family, myself and friends," Anderson said.

Non-competitive Running: