1915-05-01ww

A famous Hamilton long-distance runner, and very well-known local character, Jimmy Duffy, met his death at the front in April 1915.

On May 1, 1915, the Hamilton Herald reprinted the following tribute to Jimmy Duffy which had been published in the Toronto Star :

“Canada’s greatest distance runner since the days of Tom Longboat – and a boy just as erratic as the big Indian – is dead on the battlefield at Ypres, where the Canadians so gallantly plugged the hole the retiring French left in the allies’ line. He is Jimmy Duffy, of Toronto and Hamilton, twice winner of the famous Hamilton Herald race and record-holder for that race, and a Ward Marathon and Boston Marathon winner.

“Duffy came here from Scotland in the summer of 1911 and joined the Central Y.M.C.A.. Fred Smith, the Central’s physical director, sprung Duffy on the running public in the Ward Marathon that year, and he would have won that race right off the reel, but he stopped at the Humber to argue with supporters of Bob O’Brien and wasted the wind he needed to catch the leader. The next spring he joined the Eaton A.A.A. and came under Billy Cumming’s coaching. In 1912, the Olympic tryout over the Hamilton bay course, Duffy ran second to Harry Jensen, of New York. The day was a scorcher and Duffy, who was used to cold weather, could not stand it. He led the race until 300 yards from home, when Jensen caught and passed him.

“At the Olympic Marathon in Sweden, where Duffy and Jim Corkery represented Canada, Duffy was the first Canadian to finish. He came home fifth in 2.42.13 4/5, a matter of 5.34 behind K. McArthur, the South African, who won it. That was a generally warm day, too. In the fall of 1912, he won the Ward Marathon, beating such good men as Jimmy Dellow and Jim Cockery. He came from behind to beat Dellow in the last three miles.

“Then Duffy, who was elusive as the big Onondaga, made a sudden move to Hamilton, where he joined the Ramblers’ Bicycle club and put himself under the care of Tommy Thomson, then gaining fame as a handler of long-distance runners. Duffy, who was in the pink of condition when he left Bill Cumming, was handled cannily by Thomson, and on the day of the race (Herald Around the Bay race 1912) he and Jim Cockery went out to the front and proceeded to cut all the course records to ribbons. They left the crowd far behind in the first nine miles, and then Duffy said farewell to the gallant Cockery and galloped into Hamilton a winner by 200 yards and the holder of a new record. He ran the 19 miles, 188 yards in 1.46.15, beating the famous record  of Sammy Mellor, the Yonkers ghost, by 2 minutes and20 seconds, and that record had stood the assaults of a Longboat, a Coley, and a Holmer, to say nothing of Mike Ryan, Harry Jensen, and a string of United States cracks. In 1913, he repeated the Hamilton Herald race victory against a small field. He was good enough to break his own record and was ahead of it at 12 miles, but he lacked opposition and slowed down. He finished the course in 1.48.38.

Last spring he crowned his career by winning the famous Boston Marathon and added his name to the list of brilliant Canadian runners who have showed the way from Ashland to Boston to the best on the American continent. Edouard Fabre, of Montreal, who won this year’s Boston Marathon, was one minute behind him. Fabre and Duffy were together for 22 miles in that race, and then Duffy said ‘Goodbye. I’m on my way,’ and beat him by a minute.

A month after this he was thrown out by the A.A.U/ of C. for running a five-mile race against Fabre in Kingston, for which he was paid $100. That ended his amateur career. He was preparing to meet the big pro-runners when the war broke out, and he joined the first contingent with the Niety-First of Hamilton.

Before he came to Canada, he made a reputation for himself as a distance runner in Scotland, and though only a 13 year old youngster lost his place on the British Olympic team by a narrow margin.

Duffy, who was a tinsmith by trade, was a hard man to train and handle. He was an inveterate cigarette smoker and loved his pint of beer. The result was that his trainers were forced to work him double all the time. In a race, he was as game as  they breed them. He had good racing brains and was possessed of unlimited courage. Time and time again he fought his way through cramps and stomach trouble and endured blistered feet to win. He had a good sprint and was a boy who was never beaten as long as he had a pair of legs that would hold him upright.

“Duffy had many friends in the athletic game in Toronto. He was a dependable fellow, loyal to his comrades and club. If Jimmy Duffy fought the Germans as he fought out his many bitter road races more than one Hun preceded him to the happy hunting grounds.”¹

¹ “ Toronto Star Makes Feeling Reference to Death of Jimmy Duffy”

Hamilton Herald.    May 1, 1915.