Dick Grant

Richard Grant (August 3, 1870 – January 9, 1958) was a Canadian track and field athlete who competed at the 1900 Summer Olympics in Paris, France for the United States.

Grant was the son of a Presbyterian minister, born in the small farming community of Dufferin, in Haldimand County, Ontario,[2][3] about three miles east of the Six Nations reserve where Tom Longboat lived.

He then attended Harvard University Medical School in Cambridge, Massachusetts beginning about 1895, and enrolled in the track team there as a miler, running 4:25 for the distance.

[6] Grant entered the inaugural Boston Marathon in 1897 with a solid background in track racing, but without having previously engaged in any long runs.

His entry contravened orders he had received from his track team at Harvard, which wanted him to be fresh for a dual meet with the University of Pennsylvania.

He was joined by cross-country runner Hamilton Gray from New York City, and they shared the lead for about twelve miles until John J. McDermott caught the pair on the downhill into Newton Lower Falls.

Grant had lost twelve pounds in weight over the race, and his feet were so blistered he was unable to walk for several days afterward.

Now running for the Knickerbocker Athletic Club of New York, Grant was once more in the early lead, which he held for about sixteen miles, but the runners had to cope with a significant headwind.

The race was noted for the entry of a team of five runners from Hamilton, Ontario, including Jack Caffery and Billy Sherring, who led from the start.

But turning onto Commonwealth Avenue at about the sixteen-mile mark, Caffery put in a burst of speed that Grant could not match.

He left the Harvard Medical School in 1903, and in 1908 accepted a position as track and field coach at the University of Minnesota at Minneapolis.

Grant returned to Canada from Cuba in 1947 after having lost his sight; he lived for a while with his sister Anna McIlwraith and her family at Aurora, Illinois, but US Immigration deemed him Liable to become a Public Charge (LPC) and denied him Permanent Residence status in that country.