By BOB LEDDY R.I. Track & Field Foundation Correspondent
3 Dec. - - The R.I. Interscholastic League Hall of Fame’s Class of 2012 will include two figures from the sports of track and running. Kevin Jackson and the late Bob Doyle are among 12 inductees to the new class. The award ceremony will be held on Wednesday, May 2, 2012 at the Crowne Plaza in Warwick.
Pioneer Bob If the description “running legend’’ has any validity at all, it must apply to Bob Doyle, who passed away in 2007 at the age of 58. Doyle was a local product whose accomplishments and resultant fame extended beyond Rhode Island’s commodious borders. He excelled not only in college, at the University of Texas/El Paso, but in the international event known as the Boston Marathon. Doyle was a member of the UTEP cross country squad that won the 1969 NCAA Division I title, and earned All-American status in the process.
In the early 1970s, when the marathon (indeed, all distance running) was viewed as somewhat arcane, Bob Doyle was in the forefront of the sport’s soon-burgeoning popularity. He won the Ocean State Marathon (a grueling, hilly course near the Atlantic Ocean in Newport) an amazing seven times (including the race’s inception year of 1976). At the 1990 Ocean State run, a then-41 year-old Doyle defeated many younger runners.
Determination was Bob Doyle’s middle name. Not surprisingly, he blended into an international field at his first Boston Marathon, in 1978; he finished 12th. But Doyle’s standout performance along the 26-mile route from Hopkinton to Boston (including the infamous “Heartbreak Hill’’ late in the course) came the following year when he crossed the line seventh. The day was rainy, and Doyle commented to a race official at the finish chutes that wet weather running was his favorite. “I guess I’m a mudder,’’ he joked. Doyle went on to represent the United States at the 1979 Pan-Am Games. He qualified for, and competed in, the ‘80 Olympic marathon trials.
A Hope High graduate, Doyle was a Providence Journal All-State harrier and track star. He began his coaching career at Woonsocket High, where his ‘96 Novan harriers on the state team crown. After his death, Doyle’s family and friends began the Bob Doyle Foundation, which has already contributed more than $25,000 in scholarships and grants to high school and youth athletes. The “Cobras’’ are born
Credit coach Kevin Jackson with the formation of the Providence Cobras Track Club, a highly successful youth organization that offers training and competition to runners statewide. (The late Robert Howard, a seven-time NCAA D-I champion and twice Olympian was a Cobra Kid).
Jackson, of Providence, founded the club in 1978, and has since then worked with Hope High coach Thom Spann. As a city councilman in Providence, Jackson was instrumental in the concept and planning of the Providence Career & Technical Academy (PCTA), which includes a fine indoor track facility. A 1976 Pilgrim High graduate, Jackson was an All-State and All-New England cross country runner. His Patriots were the first R.I. team to win a regional cross country title.
His coaching resume includes six years as head coach of boys’ indoor and spring track at Hope, in which time the Blue Wave won eight class championships. Jackson is currently head coach of track and cross country at Rhode Island College.
Oval Notes: Those from track and field already in the Interscholastic League Hall of Fame: Charlie Ajootian; Ray Dwyer; Joyce Harvey; Ann (Sullivan) Hird; Pam Hughes; Theresa Moore; Ann Morris; Al Morro; Kate Nagel; Marilyn Picerelli; Emily (Selvidio) Scharsu; Christina (Batastini) Sheehan; Thom Spann; Charley Sweeney; Tim Walker.
