Only Read about Rick Hoyt…..

Most of you are probably saying, “Who is Rick Hoyt?” I (Themer) had not heard of him until I accidentally glanced at a “blurb” on the e-mail screen while I was preparing to write a column one morning. The name, “HOYT,” caught my attention because I thought I might have misread “Foyt,” as in the race car driver, A. J. Foyt. I was wrong but kept reading anyway and then looked for more information and found out that in 2020, the Hoyts duo became the first “push-assist-team” voted and inducted into the U. S. A. Triathlon Hall of Fame. Just what had they done to be voted in? Well, you are going to be amazed.

Massachusetts— April—1989—unofficially and probably illegally, father Dick Hoyt and his wheel-chair bound, quadriplegic, cerebral palsy stricken son, Rick Hoyt, “sneaked” into the back of the giant pack of runners and prepared to run the BOSTON MARATHON.

They did not know if the wheel-chair could function for a race that long and grueling, whether they could endure a running race of that gigantic length and competition, or whether race officials or Police or other officials might stop them. They just knew they were going to try—with Dad running and pushing and son riding!

AccordingtoallIhaveheard and read, the two of them triumphantly crossed the finish line in under three and onequarter hours. Today, there is a statue of TEAM HOYT near that marathon’s starting line, and the Hoyt Team continued to compete in way past one thousand athletic competitions— tria thlons, marathons, run-bicycle races, and “you name it!” And they even once “ran” across the United States, raising funds for various charities and research to help find ways to better help those afflicted by the same “condition” that had kept Rick Hoyt a quadriplegic and unable to speak—at least not the same ways as most of us do.

By their final Boston Mara thon, the two Hoyts had b e c ome very wellknown and were in demand for photos, inspirational events, and “talks,” and the “unknowns” from that first race had become famous celebrities!

I recommend that you search various sites and read more about this remarkable young man and his dedicated Father and Mother, who developed ways for him to become educated, a participant in activities, able to address audiences with a “voice-generating” computer, and an earner of a Bachelor’s Degree from Boston University.

Father (Dick) passed on in 2021 at age 80, and Rick followed him this May at age 61. The two had begun racing together when Rick was 15 years of age. Russ Hoyt (brother of Rick) says that when his brother was brought home from the hospital, Dick questioned whether or not he would be able to “do this.” Mom, Judy Hoyt, looked at her husband and voiced the words that became the “call words” for various later events, “YES, YOU CAN!”

And, to close, I want to leave you with this quote from the dedicated father, Dick, who quipped, “No matter how fast I run, Rick always beats me to the finish line by one second.”-----and this quote from Rick, who said that by being able to make people aware that disabled persons can participate makes him “FEEL NOT DISABLED.”