Heartbreak Hill Statue To Honor Amazing Johnny Kelley

NEWTON, Mass. - Johnny Kelley retired from long-distance running earlier this year after competing in his 61st Boston Marathon.

His presence, though, will last with marathoners along the route for years to come.

The Boston Athletic Association has announced plans to erect a larger-than-life statue of Kelley at the foot of Newton's Heartbreak Hill.

Make that two statues. The bronze sculpture will depict an older Johnny Kelley running hand-in-hand with a younger version of himself. Oklahoma sculptor Rick Muno titled his work "Young at Heart," which is Kelley's motto, favorite song and the title of his new biography.

"I never believed 30 or 40 years ago that I would ever be standing here like this for a tribute," Kelley, 85, said during ground-breaking ceremonies near Newton City Hall. "From the bottom of my heart, thank you, thank you again."

The sculpture will face the wrong way on Heartbreak Hill. Coordinators said that's so Kelly's likeness will welcome future marathoners approaching the grueling incline.

"You're an inspiration to all of us at all of our ages," BAA president Tom Whelton told the wiry, white-haired athlete.

"Johnny Kelley has shown that heroic deeds do not belong only to fleeting moments in our youth," said Tom Spence of WRS Publishing of Waco, Texas, which published the biography. "If a man is young at heart, his youth will run with him throughout his life."

Including its granite base, the sculpture will stand more than 14 feet tall. Plans call for erecting it on city-owned land just past the 19-mile point of the 26.2-mile race route between Hopkinton and Boston's Back Bay.

BAA officials expect to unveil it April 18, 1993, the day before the 97th running of the Boston Marathon.

The race's toughest segment earned its name in 1936, when a Boston Globe reporter wrote of Kelley's heartbreak at losing his title after exhausting himself there.

Actually, Kelley joked, "my heart's been broken seven times on this hill." He was referring to his seven second-place finishes.

Coordinators credit WRS Publishing founder Dr. Wayman R. Spence, a longtime Kelley fan who ran the Boston Marathon three times in the 1970s, for conceiving of the sculpture. Spence has guaranteed the project's $135,000 cost.

To offset the expense, the BAA will sell 99 foot-high bronze replicas at $1,900 each.

Kelley - often referred to as Johnny "the Elder" Kelley to distinguish him from a younger, unrelated champion with the same name - grew up in suburban Boston.

He first ran the Boston Marathon in 1928 and 1932. He didn't finish either time.

In 1933, he placed 37th. He has run every Boston Marathon since except in 1968, when he had a hernia operation, and dropped out only once, in 1956. He won in 1935 and 1945, finishing in the top 10 in 16 other years.

His personal best: 2:31:27 in 1946, when he finished second, again losing his title. His 1992 time was 5:58:36.

Kelley made the U.S. Olympic team in the marathon in 1936, 1940 and 1948.