Game Changer | Timeless New England
Fifty years ago Boston Traveler photographer Harry Trask snapped these three pictures at the Boston Marathon—and runner 261 became a legend.
From left, Boston Marathon codirector Jock Semple charges at Kathrine Switzer … trying to rip off her bib … before Tom Miller knocks him aside.
Photo Credit : Photo by Harry Trask (Boston Traveler/Boston Herald)
Photo Credit : Photo by Harry Trask (Boston Traveler/Boston Herald)
Kathrine Switzer did not set out to run the 1967 Boston Marathon to become famous or to dramatically change the face of women’s sports. She simply wanted to test herself in America’s most celebrated marathon, which at the time was open to male runners only.
For months before the race, Switzer, a junior studying journalism at Syracuse University, trained with Arnie Briggs, a university mailman and a Boston Marathon veteran. She registered as K.V. Switzer and received bib number 261, and on the raw, snowy morning of April 19 she set off as an official entrant alongside Briggs and her boyfriend, Tom Miller.
Though she was wearing a sweat suit to ward off the cold, Switzer didn’t try to hide that she was female. After a few miles, someone on the press truck took note of her long hair and yelled out to Jock Semple, the fiery Scot who was the race’s codirector, “Jock, you’ve got a broad on your hands today!” Within moments, Semple charged at Switzer. In her memoir, Marathon Woman, Switzer recalls, “He grabbed my shoulder and flung me back, screaming, ‘Get the hell out of my race and give me those [bib] numbers!’” Seconds later, Miller sent Semple flying.
The chaotic sequence was caught by a number of photographers, but only these shots by Harry Trask, who worked for the Boston Traveler and who actually left the race to file his photos, would become iconic. Switzer, who went on to finish the race in 4:20, saw them splashed across front pages that night and knew her life “would never be the same.”
Five years later, Semple invited women to run the marathon; he even eventually forged a friendship with Switzer. As for Switzer herself, she expects—at age 70—to run in this year’s Boston Marathon, a race that will forever be linked to runner number 261.
Mel Allen
Mel Allen is the fifth editor of Yankee Magazine since its beginning in 1935. His first byline in Yankee appeared in 1977 and he joined the staff in 1979 as a senior editor. Eventually he became executive editor and in the summer of 2006 became editor. During his career he has edited and written for every section of the magazine, including home, food, and travel, while his pursuit of long form story telling has always been vital to his mission as well. He has raced a sled dog team, crawled into the dens of black bears, fished with the legendary Ted Williams, profiled astronaut Alan Shephard, and stood beneath a battleship before it was launched. He also once helped author Stephen King round up his pigs for market, but that story is for another day. Mel taught fourth grade in Maine for three years and believes that his education as a writer began when he had to hold the attention of 29 children through months of Maine winters. He learned you had to grab their attention and hold it. After 12 years teaching magazine writing at the University of Massachusetts-Amherst, he now teaches in the MFA creative nonfiction program at Bay Path University in Longmeadow, Massachusetts. Like all editors, his greatest joy is finding new talent and bringing their work to light.
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