V 2 N. 13 Bob Hall R.I.P.

 

                                                Bob Hall at the Legendary Falmouth Race

I just noticed in the New York Times today that Bob Hall has died on April 12, 2026 age 74.  What an incredible individual!   He knew of all the boundaries to participating in his sport, and he accepted none of them.  In the early 1970's there were very few disabled athletes going head to head or even in a category of  their own.  Bob just got on the road and raced whomever showed up, and he beat most of them.  Sort of like the old race car term  "run what ya brung".  Initially his wheelchairs had very little modification on them.  Wheelchair engineering mechanics wasn't into that kind of development in those days, at least not for sports competition.  Yet he could go like hell.  There were none of those lowriders, three wheeled with an extended front end like all the track and road racers use now.  I recall that his chair still had the small wheels up front.  

When we raced the Charleston, WV  15 miler in 1976, there was a long drag up a mountainside on a four-lane divided highway.   I had no trouble getting out ahead of him going up that hill.  Coming back downhill was another story.  The downside was a steep and very winding two lane road.  About half way down I heard some noise behind me and looked back, and it was Bob hauling ass down that hill.  He came around me on a sharp turn like a Formula One driver and he was leaning over into the left hand turn, but the wheelchair was up on its two right side wheels, and he had it balanced on those two wheels, then brought it down onto four as the turn straightened out.   I never saw him again until after the finish line.  

Bob won a lot of races including a streak of 8 straight at the Falmouth race starting in 1975.   He had been encouraged by Bill Rodgers after Bill saw Bob finish Boston in that year.    Another pioneer in those days was Natalie Bacon getting wheelchair racing going in its infancy.  

                                            Two shots of Bob on Heartbreak Hill 1978

In 1978 Bob founded Hall's Wheels and began designing and developing racing wheelchairs.

He went on to better and better performances from then.  By 1978, as part of the organization for the Dayton River Corridor Half Marathon, we invited Bob to come to Dayton.   The night before the race Steve Price and I invited most of the top dogs to come out for a bit of bluegrass music at a local dive, The Oak.  Bob folded up his wheelchair and got into the car with us.  The Oak was a true hillbilly bar, not built to accommodate  anyone who couldn't walk up the three steps into the establishment.  Steve and I looked at each other wondering who was going to help Bob up the steps.  Before we could react, Bob got out of the wheelchair folded it up and hopped up the steps.  He did have the ability to perambulate a bit, and no three steps were going to keep him out of the Oak.  We had a great evening there listening to a no name bluegrass band that included a crippled fiddle player who we assumed lost his leg in a coal mine accident. At least it made a good story.  It didn't affect his fiddlin', no more than Bob was limited next morning at the starting line.   Below is picture of the two of us that morning

Goodbye, Bob.  We'll miss you not just in Boston this Monday.

George Brose