Boilermaker and Beyond

Last weekend was the running of the E.J.Herrmann Cross-country Invitational. If the Falling Leaves 940^th running this year) is one of the parents of local running then the Hermann at 70 years old is the grandfather!

I did a bit of research on the race in general and Ed Herrmann specifically.  The website ejherrmanninvitational.com was a great resource to get me up to speed.

Ed was born in Dunkirk New York which was the town of my birth (just a few years earlier according to my kids).  In 1940 he decided to introduce the ‘new’ sport of cross-country to the Utica School District.

History books site that cross-country was a derivative of a racing game called Hare and Hounds, or Paper Chase a game made popular in England in the mid-1800s.  One person would be the ‘hare’ who would take off ahead of the ‘hounds’. The hare would drop pieces of paper that the pack would follow (like a dog sniffing out a rabbit) and attempt to overtake their quarry.  Some would suggest the idea of people running after each other goes back to the days of the caveman. But I digress…

While 1941 was the first year of the Hermann (then called the “Proctor Invitational Cross-Country Meet”) for the boys it would not be until 1975 that a girls division was scored. It was interesting to look at the top performers by year and realize this was the beginning of some great local runner’s careers.

In 1978 the race was renamed to the “Edward J. (E.J.) Herrmann Cross-Country Invitational”.

This year 55 schools from New York State and Canada competed. The race was run in memory of Brian Dodge and Howard Rubin two icons of local running who passed away this year.

Edward was more than just a cross-country guy- he also coached baseball, volleyball, golf, tennis, and swimming. After retiring from Proctor he continued to coach both at Whitesboro and Utica College.

He passed away in 1993 at the age of 88.

I can’t end this any better than to quote this from the website:

‘Mr. Herrmann devoted his professional life to his students, schools, and community. Winning was not Mr. Herrmann’s priority. His priority was to help every participant to achieve his or her own personal goals. Mr. Herrmann was asked by a reporter from the Utica College newspaper if he had any regrets. Mr. Herrmann answered, "My only regret was that I could not get everyone active in some way in athletics…".’

P.S. A special thanks to Santo “Sam” Paniccia for your decades of service to keep the Herrmann ‘running strong’!