A true MUST READ!!

Frank Z

I found this posted on anther forum and it moved me to tears. I really hope you all take a few minutes to read it.

[From Sports Illustrated, By Rick Reilly]

I try to be a good father. But compared with Dick Hoyt, I suck.

Eighty-five times he's pushed his disabled son, Rick, 26.2 miles in marathons. Eight times he's not only pushed him 26.2 miles in a wheelchair but also towed him 2.4 miles in a dinghy while swimming and pedaled him 112 miles in a seat on the handlebars--all in the same day.

Dick's also pulled him cross-country skiing, taken him on his back mountain climbing and once hauled him across the U.S. on a bike. Makes taking your son bowling look a little lame, right? And what has Rick done for his father? Not much--except save his life.

This love story began in Winchester, Mass., 43 years ago, when Rick was strangled by the umbilical cord during birth, leaving him brain-damaged and unable to control his limbs. "He'll be a vegetable the rest of his life;" Dick says doctors told him and his wife, Judy, when Rick was nine months old. ``Put him in an institution.'' But the Hoyts weren't buying it. They noticed the way Rick's eyes followed them around the room. When Rick was 11 they took him to the engineering department at Tufts University and asked if there was anything to help the boy communicate. ``No way,'' Dick says he was told. ``There's nothing going on in his brain.'' "Tell him a joke,'' Dick countered. They did. Rick laughed. Turns out a lot was going on in his brain. Rigged up with a computer that allowed him to control the cursor by touching a switch with the side of his head, Rick was finally able to communicate. First words? ``Go Bruins!'' And after a high school classmate was paralyzed in an accident and the school organized a charity run for him, Rick pecked out, ``Dad, I want to do that.'' Yeah, right. How was Dick, a self-described ``porker'' who never ran more than a mile at a time, going to push his son five miles? Still, he tried. ``Then it was me who was handicapped,'' Dick says. ``I was sore for two weeks.''

That day changed Rick's life. ``Dad,'' he typed, ``when we were running, it felt like I wasn't disabled anymore!'' And that sentence changed Dick's life. He became obsessed with giving Rick that feeling as often as he could. He got into such hard-belly shape that he and Rick were ready to try the 1979 Boston Marathon. ``No way,'' Dick was told by a race official. The Hoyts weren't quite a single runner, and they weren't quite a wheelchair competitor. For a few years Dick and Rick just joined the massive field and ran anyway, then they found a way to get into the race officially: In 1983 they ran another marathon so fast they made the qualifying time for Boston the following year.

Then somebody said, ``Hey, Dick, why not a triathlon?'' How's a guy who never learned to swim and hadn't ridden a bike since he was six going to haul his 110-pound kid through a triathlon? Still, Dick tried. Now they've done 212 triathlons, including four grueling 15-hour Ironmans in Hawaii. It must be a buzzkill to be a 25-year-old stud getting passed by an old guy towing a grown man in a dinghy, don't you think?

Hey, Dick, why not see how you'd do on your own? ?No way,'' he says. Dick does it purely for ``the awesome feeling'' he gets seeing Rick with a cantaloupe smile as they run, swim and ride together.

This year, at ages 65 and 43, Dick and Rick finished their 24th Boston Marathon, in 5,083rd place out of more than 20,000 starters. Their best time'? Two hours, 40 minutes in 1992--only 35 minutes off the world record, which, in case you don't keep track of these things, happens to be held by a guy who was not pushing another man in a wheelchair at the time.

``No question about it,'' Rick types. ``My dad is the Father of the Century.'' And Dick got something else out of all this too. Two years ago he had a mild heart attack during a race. Doctors found that one of his arteries was 95% clogged. ``If you hadn't been in such great shape,'' one doctor told him, ``you probably would've died 15 years ago.'' So, in a way, Dick and Rick saved each other's life.

Rick, who has his own apartment (he gets home care) and works in Boston, and Dick, retired from the military and living in Holland, Mass., always find ways to be together. They give speeches around the country and compete in some backbreaking race every weekend, including this Father's Day. That night, Rick will buy his dad dinner, but the thing he really wants to give him is a gift he can never buy. ``The thing I'd most like,'' Rick types, ``is that my dad would sit in the chair and I would push him once.''

Here's the video....

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ryCTIigaloQ

exalted512

thats awesome. My g/f just said its people like that that make it seem like we dont do ****...lmao...yet, so true...
-Cody

audiobliss

Shoot, now I need a tissue.

I wanna say something meaningful - but I can't. Just. Wow.

To see the smile on the sons face in that one scene when he's riding on the bike...and you know why the father does it.

Maurice

They have been featured on HBO's Real Sports & Oprah Winfrey, great story about great people.:D

Mazeroth

Unbelievable. I kept composed up until the part the father carried his size from the boat to the bike. Man, I lost it after that.

I'm going to forward this to a lot of people. Thanks for posting it!

F1nut

Awesome!!!

brettw22

Thank You

Fireman32

Wow what an amazing story

wingnut4772

I have seen them on TV and I get moved each time.

mrbigbluelight

Gifts come in many shapes and sizes.

One heck of a post, Frank Z.



A fellow worker was talking to me the other night. His son is autistic, and he had just taken him to an eye doctor for a checkup; there was a concern that he was developing a cataract in his right eye.
His son has to be sedated because of his autism. The eye exam did show that he was developing a cataract, but it didn't matter much because he was also blind in that eye.
He's going to get a copy of that link.

Again, nice post Frank Z.

george daniel

Whew !! Thanks Frank,,that just gave me a whole new perspective on the day.

reeltrouble1

Great man and son.

Thanks Frank.

RT1

bert26

Wow - that really puts things in perspective. Suddenly fighting with queries for meeting deadlines just doesn't seem important at all.

That is just amazing - I can't think of anything else to say....

Thanks for the priority reset!

Chris

McLoki

A fantastic story frank, thanks for sharing it. For those that want more info, here is a link to their website.

http://www.teamhoyt.com/

Michael

zombie boy 2000

Unbelievable story....
I generally like Rick Reilly's articles. He usually takes a lot of heat for being so over the top, or putting too much of an emotional spin on sport's stories.
But if something like this was going to find light among sport's fans, it was through him.

Well done and thanks for sharing Frank.

schwarcw

Great story and an incredible man! My hats off!!!

cfrizz

Yes they get alot of coverage here every year on Marathon day!

starchaser

love is the gift of all gifts..

thank you for sharing this.

masanz1

awesome story...thanks

George Grand

Thanks Frank. Reading this washed the taste of the Dog Chapman thread out of my mouth.