History
The Hamilton Herald Newspaper and cigar store owner "Billy" Carroll, originated and sponsored the first "Around the Bay Road Race", run on Christmas Day, 1894. The race tested the abilities of the finest long distance runners, but was also an avenue to lay down some bets. In the early 20th century, Jack Caffery and William Sherring battled it out and won two "Bay" races each. Caffery went on to stun the Americans at the Boston Marathon in 1900, by being the second Canadian to win Boston and the first to run under two hours and 40 minutes on the course.
To add insult to injury, Hamilton's William Sherring and Fred Hughson placed second and third, behind Caffery, making it a Canadian sweep. Caffery rubbed it in even further by coming back the next year 1901, to win Boston again, this time in under two hours and 30 minutes.
Not to be outdone by Caffery, William Sherring went on to win the 1906 Olympic Marathon in Athens, Greece, making him a Canadian hero.
Scotty Rankine holds the distinguished honour of seven wins, established in the late 1930s and early 1940s, while Peter Maher won his fifth Bay race in 1996, tying the record of local Gord Dickson, who had five wins in the late 1950s.
Read more about this topic: Around The Bay Road Race
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“The second day of July 1776, will be the most memorable epoch in the history of America. I am apt to believe that it will be celebrated by succeeding generations as the great anniversary festival. It ought to be commemorated, as the day of deliverance, by solemn acts of devotion to God Almighty. It ought to be solemnized with pomp and parade, with shows, games, sports, guns, bells, bonfires and illuminations, from one end of this continent to the other, from this time forward forever more”
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“Tell me of the height of the mountains of the moon, or of the diameter of space, and I may believe you, but of the secret history of the Almighty, and I shall pronounce thee mad.”
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“Man watches his history on the screen with apathy and an occasional passing flicker of horror or indignation.”
—Conor Cruise O’Brien (b. 1917)