Hallelujah – long overdue recognition for Scarborough track and field legend Ron Kelly. He has been inducted into the Maine Running Hall of Fame.

The item was in a statewide paper in early August. It said he had been voted in, in part due to his outstanding record as Scarborough High School girls track coach, and cross country coach, for more than 40 years.

I am lucky enough to have known Ron for the whole journey. He was a good runner and track athlete in high school. He went on to run at what is now University of Southern Maine, and showed, more than anything, this was a guy serious about running and fitness.

He graduated from Scarborough High School in l970. Shortly after that, he began training other local runners; running was not big then. Nike didn’t exist yet.

Schools did not have running tracks. Roadsides were not littered with runners l8 hours out of the day. There were no sporting goods stores with running suits, track shoes, workout equipment, etc. Ron Kelly was one of the pioneers who helped bring this all to you.

Talk to many of the world champion marathon and distance runners in the l960s, l970s and 80s. They all know Ron Kelly.

There are many great Ron Kelly stories. Here is one that shows his pioneering brilliance (and what buffoons others of us were).

It was April l971 or l972. We were on the Scarborough High School baseball field on a cold, windy spring day.

Suddenly, running down the area that is now the sidewalk that goes down the hill near the “toboganning area” across the street from what is now the Scarborough Post Office came Ron Kelly, running, with another runner. Was that a girl with him? Yes, it was a girl!

Hey, Ron Kelly is running with a girl! “Hey, Ron,” several of us social genuises and pioneers screamed, “Do you think you can beat the girl?!?”

They kept running. They ignored us.

They ran several more days that spring.

His pupil?

Cape Elizabeth High School student Joan Benoit, class of l975.

A few years later, she would be enrolled as a nationally known runner at Bowdoin College.

A few years after that, in 1979, she won the Boston Marathon.

Her press conference was on TV.

“And I would also like to thank one of my first distance coaches, Ron Kelly.”

Our apologies to Ron Kelly are still going on.

By the way, when Joan Benoit won the first Olympic women’s marathon in Los Angeles in l984, the scene repeated itself.

Victory. Celebration. Adoring fans. Press conference. Thank mom and dad and others. And then,

“And I would also like to thank Ron Kelly, who first got me into distance running,” or words to that effect.

I know what people must have felt like when they first laughed at Henry Ford and the initial attempt at the automobile.

Kelly has gone on over 40-plus years to train both Olympic champions, and plenty of non-champions (including some neophytes who live in my house…).

Congratulations, Coach Kelly, on your long overdue induction into the Maine Running Hall of Fame.

Nice work.

Dan Warren lives in Scarborough and is a member of the Scarborough High School class of l975.