Description
Go on a journey with Bill Squires in Born to Coach. From tasting his own blood while running hard as a Notre Dame miler to producing the top US marathon legends in the epicenter of the running boom of the 1970s and into the 80s, Bill Squires not only survived being born with a misdiagnosed and potentially fatal defective heart, but the late-developing skinny kid also amassed numerous track records as a collegiate All-American while struggling academically.
As the first coach of the groundbreaking Greater Boston Track Club, Bill Squires was the key figure in the creation of the greatest generation of American distance runners. Coaching for years at all levels, it is with this vast accumulation of firsthand knowledge and experience that legendary Olympians and major marathon champions such as Bill Rodgers, Alberto Salazar, Greg Meyer, Dick Beardsley, wheelchair champ Bob Hall, and more, individually and with GBTC dominated the landscape and set the pace for future generations via Bills innovative race simulators and group-training techniques that are still used today. Proof of his determination and perseverance appeared early as he survived the physical and emotional childhood trauma and effects of a misdiagnosis that stunted his emotional and physical growth. He continually pushed himself through personal pain in competition and maturation; found his eventual athletic calling as a record-setting runner; and became the highly sought-after benevolent ambassador of running as a coach.
He is proof that one should never give up.
Coach Bill Squires turned a bunch of wacky, individualistic Boston runners into marathon elites in part because he shared the same traits hes wacky and individualistic. And very, very smart about training for road-race success. I only got to train with Squires and the Greater Boston Track Club a couple of times in my career, but those workouts were among the hardest and most fun I ever did. Ill never forget those runs.Ambrose “Amby” Burfoot, 1968 Boston Marathon winner, Runners World editor-at-large, author
“It was an honor to introduce Coach Squires at his induction into the USATF National Track and Field Hall of Fame in 2017. Coach Squires is known across the country and certainly is one of – if not the – best marathon coach of all-time. Not only that, he is a great guy. And to this day, I still hear his former athletes talk about their work with Coach Squires. He also played a powerful force in the first running boom in the United States, which might be his greatest contribution to the sport. We all like the Coach.” – Bill Rodgers, four-time Boston Marathon and New York City Marathon winner, Marathon Man co-author
About the Contributors:
Paul C. Clerici, author of Images of Modern America: The Boston Marathon, A History of the Falmouth Road Race: Running Cape Cod, Boston Marathon History by the Mile (and the Chinese-language version Journey of the Boston Marathon), and History of the Greater Boston Track Club, has covered running and the Boston Marathon since 1988. A journalist, photographer, and former newspaper editor and sports editor, he has been recognized by the Marquis Whos Who publication with the Albert Nelson Marquis Lifetime Achievement Award. A lecturer and historian often invited as a guest on television and radio programs, the New England Press Association and Massachusetts Press Association award-winner and Camy 5K Run & David 5K Walk race director competes in nearly every distance from the mile to the marathon, including two triathlons, 43 marathons (the Boston Marathon 23 times), and has won numerous age-group and Clydesdale awards. A graduate of Curry College in Milton, MA, the Walpole High School Hall of Fame member resides in Massachusetts.
– Dick Beardsley, Marathon CR-winner—Grandma’s, co-London, Napa Valley, Hall of Fame—National Distance Running, and Road Runners Club of America. His finish time of 2:09:37 at the 1981 Grandma’s Marathon stood as a course record for 33 years until it was broken in 2014. Beardsley is the only man to have ever run 13 consecutive personal bests in the marathon, and is in the Guinness Book of World Records for the feat.
