The Legend of Team Hoyt: A Father's Day Story
"let us run with endurance the race set out for us." - Hebrews 12:1
In 1962, Rick Hoyt was born in Massachusetts. During birth, his umbilical cord became twisted around his neck, cutting off oxygen to his brain and leaving him a quadriplegic with cerebral palsy. Doctors told his parents he would never walk or talk. They encouraged Dick and Judy Hoyt to institutionalize Rick, but they refused. They saw a son, not a diagnosis.
Determined to give Rick the fullest life possible, Dick and Judy worked with specialists to teach Rick how to communicate using a custom computer system. In 1977, Rick told his father he wanted to participate in a charity run to benefit a paralyzed athlete. Dick was not a runner—he was 37 and out of shape—but he agreed.
Dick pushed Rick in his wheelchair for the entire 5-mile race. Afterward, Rick told his dad, “Dad, when I’m running, it feels like I’m not disabled.”
That one sentence changed everything.
Over the next 40 years, Team Hoyt—as they came to be known—completed more than:
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1,100 races together, including
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72 marathons, and
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6 Ironman triathlons (2.4-mile swim, 112-mile bike ride, 26.2-mile run), with Dick towing Rick in a boat, carrying him on the bike, and pushing him in a racing wheelchair.
They even ran the Boston Marathon 32 times, becoming a fixture of the race’s identity. In 2013, a bronze statue of the two was unveiled near the starting line in Hopkinton, MA.
Their story inspired millions. But more importantly, it shaped a son’s life with hope, dignity, and purpose.
Rick later graduated from Boston University and worked in computer technology. When asked what motivated him most, he pointed to his father: “My dad gave me everything. He saw me. He believed in me.”
Dick Hoyt passed away in 2021 at the age of 80. Rick passed in 2023. But their legacy lives on—etched into the hearts of fathers and sons around the world.
IMPACT Dads - We see you, we support you and we believe in you! Keep running the race and have a great Father's Day!