Rodgers, "Bill" (William H.)
Track and Field
b. Dec. 23, 1947, Hartford, CT
Although Rodgers did some distance running at Wesleyan University in Connecticut, he gave it up during his senior year. Watching Frank Shorter win the 1972 Olympic marathon reawakened his interest and within a few yours he was the best marathoner in the world.
After finishing third in the 1975 international cross-country championship, the best placing ever for a male American runner, Rodgers won the Boston Marathon in a U. S. record 2:09.55.
Given a good chance to medal in the 1976 Olympics, he ran poorly because of cramps, but he won the New York City Marathon that year. It was the first of four consecutive victories in that event, and he won the Boston Marathon three years in a row, from 1978 through 1980.
After the U. S. boycotted the 1980 Moscow Olympics because of the Soviet invasion of Afghanistan, Rodgers cut back on his schedule, but continued to run occasionally during the next decade. The owner of a small chain of store that sell running apparel and equipment, Rodgers once admitted that he was earning more than $100,000 a year from the sport while still considered an amateur.