Andrew Sockalexis

Andrew Sockalexis was born on January 11, 1892, in Old Town, Maine, a member of the Penobscot Indian Nation. His older cousin was baseball player Louis Sockalexis. He grew up on the Penobscot Indian Island Reservation. He was ten years old when he started to run. His father had built a track and encouraged Andrew to run. As he grew older, Andrew found other routes and trails to run on. Many times he would run four or five times around an island trail that he trained on. At a very young age, Andrew was determined to become a marathon runner. Andrew ran all throughout the year. In the winter months he would run on the river ice with spiked running shoes, and the rest of the year he trained on the numerous trails that spanned his island home. Andrew was timed at thirteen minutes for a trial that was the distance of 2.7 miles.[3]

The U.S. Marathon Team at the 1912 Olympics. Sockalexis is in the back row, second from right.

Sockalexis at his home in Old Town

As a young man, Andrew had training from Tom Daley of Bangor and Arthur Smith of Orono. Tom Daley trained Andrew until he was 18 years old. In 1911, Arthur Smith, the track coach of the University of Maine, prepared Andrew for the United States Olympic Team tryouts held at Harvard University. He qualified with eleven other runners for the marathon. Andrew participated in the 1912 Olympics hosted by Sweden. The United States marathon team was sponsored by the Dorchester AA team. Andrew was quoted by a newspaper that at all times he was running not only for the United States but also for his own people, the Penobscot. Coach Smith stated to the newspapers that the United States was very confident in their chances of winning the Olympic marathon. Andrew finished fourth place with a time of 2:42:07, five minutes behind the winner. Harold Reynolds, the Boston Post Commissioner, stated that Andrew finished strong and running like the champion he should have been. When Andrew returned home from the Olympics, he received a royal welcome as though he had won the marathon. He was invited to run in many races around New England. Andrew completed the Boston Marathon in 1912 and 1913, finishing second both times.

Andrew married a fellow Penobscot, Pauline Shay, from his reservation village at Indian Island, Maine on November 16, 1913.[4]

Calling the account given below in this section, in his chapter "The Race That Did Not Happen," author Ed Rice, in his book Native Trailblazer [5] states the year itself, 1916, is damning to all the details. He gives five reasons why this race could not have occurred, starting with the fact that, in the summer of 1913, Sockalexis became a professional runner. He could no longer go to amateur races, and DeMar would have forfeited his amateur status if he raced against Sockalexis at any time after 1913. Since DeMar won six of his men's record seven victories at the Boston Marathon starting in the early 1920s that alone makes the account a complete myth and fabrication. Further, DeMar was detected as having a heart murmur at the 1911 Boston Marathon and, for both personal and moral reasons (World War I) he took a long hiatus from long-distance running all during the teen years (see DeMar's own autobiography, "Marathon: The Clarence DeMar Story"). For his part, Andrew Sockalexis suffered bouts with sickness in both 1912 and 1913, growing so sick that he was first institutionalized for the tuberculosis in 1914 that would ultimately kill him in 1919. There was even a Sockalexis Tag Day in Bangor in 1914 to help with his medical costs. There is no evidence he ever raced again. This following account seems to be blending in facts from a 1912 19-mile run from Old Town to Bangor where DeMar won and Sockalexis finished second...and a 1913 Memorial Day 15-mile run in Bangor where Sockalexis collapsed on the track in his 10th mile, DeMar finished in seventh place and the race was won by Clifton Horne from the greater Boston area. So, for all of the above reasons, nothing in the following account is true. "In 1916, Andrew ran his last race. It was a 15-mile race from Old Town to Bangor. Andrew was suffering from a severe cold and complained of chest pains. Against his doctor's warnings, Andrew insisted on running the race. Andrew ran with the bad cold and ahead of the field of runners from the start of the race. As they came to the 12 mile marker, Andrew was ahead of his friend Clarence DeMar by a couple of hundred yards and was easily going to win the race. Andrew crossed the finish line in Bangor and as he stopped running, he started to cough up blood and collapsed. Soon after the race, Andrew was diagnosed with tuberculosis, a disease that had plagued his family. Andrew was very sick for three years and in the summer of 1919, he died in the town of South Paris, Maine at the age of 27.[3][6]

• Boston Marathon

• Andrew Sockalexis at Olympedia
• Profile at the Wayback Machine (archived April 18, 2020) from Sports Reference