Boston Athletic Association
Encyclopedia
Boston Marathon
The Boston Marathon is an annual marathon hosted by the U.S. city of Boston, Massachusetts, on Patriots' Day, the third Monday of April. Begun in 1897 and inspired by the success of the first modern-day marathon competition in the 1896 Summer Olympics, the Boston Marathon is the world's oldest...
.
Among the nation's oldest athletic clubs, the Boston Athletic Association was established on March 15, 1887 under its first president, Robert F. Clark, and with the support of George Walker Weld
George Walker Weld
George Walker Weld , youngest son of William Fletcher Weld and member of the Weld Family of Boston, was a founding member of the Boston Athletic Association and the financier of the Weld Boathouse, a landmark on the Charles River.-Early life:Weld was athletic as a student at Harvard College and...
and other leading sports enthusiasts, entrepreneurs and politicians of the day.
According to Article II of its 1890 Yearbook Constitution, their objective was to "encourage all manly sports and promote physical culture." The B.A.A. clubhouse on the corner of Exeter and Boylston Streets in Boston's Back Bay was completed in 1888, on the present-day site of the new Boston Public Library
Boston Public Library
The Boston Public Library is a municipal public library system in Boston, Massachusetts, United States. It was the first publicly supported municipal library in the United States, the first large library open to the public in the United States, and the first public library to allow people to...
. In addition to such facilities as a gym
Gym
The word γυμνάσιον was used in Ancient Greece, that mean a locality for both physical and intellectual education of young men...
nasium, bowling alley, billiard hall
Billiards
Cue sports , also known as billiard sports, are a wide variety of games of skill generally played with a cue stick which is used to strike billiard balls, moving them around a cloth-covered billiards table bounded by rubber .Historically, the umbrella term was billiards...
, Turkish baths and tennis courts, the Association also owned a shooting range
Shooting range
A shooting range or firing range is a specialized facility designed for firearms practice. Each facility is typically overseen by one or more supervisory personnel, called variously a range master or "RSO – Range Safety Officer" in the United States or a range conducting officer or "RCO" in the UK...
and a country club
Country club
A country club is a private club, often with a closed membership, that typically offers a variety of recreational sports facilities and is located in city outskirts or rural areas. Activities may include, for example, any of golf, tennis, swimming or polo...
.
Among the active sports of the day were boxing
Boxing
Boxing, also called pugilism, is a combat sport in which two people fight each other using their fists. Boxing is supervised by a referee over a series of between one to three minute intervals called rounds...
, fencing
Fencing
Fencing, which is also known as modern fencing to distinguish it from historical fencing, is a family of combat sports using bladed weapons.Fencing is one of four sports which have been featured at every one of the modern Olympic Games...
, water polo
Water polo
Water polo is a team water sport. The playing team consists of six field players and one goalkeeper. The winner of the game is the team that scores more goals. Game play involves swimming, treading water , players passing the ball while being defended by opponents, and scoring by throwing into a...
and athletics. The club held its first organized track and field
Track and field
Track and field is a sport comprising various competitive athletic contests based around the activities of running, jumping and throwing. The name of the sport derives from the venue for the competitions: a stadium which features an oval running track surrounding a grassy area...
competition in 1890 and in 1897 the first famed Boston Marathon took place. A unicorn
Unicorn
The unicorn is a legendary animal from European folklore that resembles a white horse with a large, pointed, spiraling horn projecting from its forehead, and sometimes a goat's beard...
was chosen as the Association's symbol and appears on the Boston Marathon medals to this day.
In 1936, the original clubhouse was closed due to financial hardship. The B.A.A. is now headquartered at 40 Trinity Place. In 1986, John Hancock Financial Services
John Hancock Insurance
John Hancock Financial is a loose term for a United States insurance company which existed, in various forms, from its founding on April 21, 1862, until its acquisition in 2004 by the Canadian insurance company Manulife Financial. It was named in honor of John Hancock, a prominent patriot...
, Inc. assumed major sponsorship of the Boston Marathon. The B.A.A continues to rely on the support of John Hancock and other sponsors and contributors not only with its signature event, the Boston Marathon, but also in its year-round community programming.
The B.A.A. maintains an active running club, and in addition to the marathon, organizes an annual half marathon in October, and the Mayor's Cup cross country races in Franklin Park. The B.A.A. successfully bid to host the 2008 U.S. Olympic Trials - Women's Marathon, which was run on the Sunday before the 2008 Boston Marathon.
Walter A. Brown
Walter A. Brown
Walter A. Brown was the original owner of the Boston Celtics as well as an important figure in the development of ice hockey in the United States.-Life:...
was the President of the Boston Athletic Association from 1941 to 1964. In 1951 during the height of the Korean War
Korean War
The Korean War was a conventional war between South Korea, supported by the United Nations, and North Korea, supported by the People's Republic of China , with military material aid from the Soviet Union...
, Brown denied Koreans entry into the Boston Marathon. He stated: "While American soldiers are fighting and dying in Korea, every Korean should be fighting to protect his country instead of training for marathons. As long as the war continues there, we positively will not accept Korean entries for our race on April 19
Patriots' Day
Patriots' Day is a civic holiday commemorating the anniversary of the Battles of Lexington and Concord, the first battles of the American Revolutionary War...
."