Thursday’s Hial Pike Invitational will mark the 43rd time cross country runners have gathered in International Falls to run in a race named after a legend. But, who was that legend?
Hial Pike was once dubbed “Father of Track and Cross Country” in International Falls in an article in The Daily Journal.
That was Feb. 16, 1979, well before any of the athletes participating Thursday in the 43rd annual Hial Pike Invitational were born.
“I started on my own, and I was the only one from this area who did any running,” Pike was quoted in an article titled “Hial Pike: The first Falls foot racer.” “I was working in the mill in Fort Frances when I heard about this race they were going to have (in 1928) and I decided I’d enter. I trained for about three weeks and finished second.”
That race started a five-year running career that pitted Pike up against runners as accomplished as Olympians.
The article from Feb. 16, 1979 states:
Pike says he ran in four or five races each year after that, and that each race usually had 30 or 40 runners. “Out of 23 races,” he recalls, “I finished seventh in two of them and in the top three in 21.”
His greatest win, according to the article, was in 1930 when he captured the Fort William Times-Journal Road Race. He defeated Canadian Olympian Archie Lucas down the stretch.
“I only wanted to finish in the first three,” Pike said, “but when I came to the last mile I was in second by one step and I thought, ‘It would be just as easy to finish first as second.’ I ran the last mile 37 seconds faster than Lucas.”
Pike, known for running with white gloves on his hands, was also quoted about a comical story he had about running around town.
“One time I was out running early in the morning and two women were taking a walk down the road,” he laughs. “I was wearing tennis shoes so I wasn’t making too much noise. I always ran in white sweat pants because they didn’t have colored ones then, and I got within about 30 feet of those women when they turned and saw me.
“They ran across the road and through the ditch and went back to town telling everyone there was a crazy man out running in his long underwear.”
Pike died Feb. 2, 1994, at the age of 87. The Hial Pike Invitational began in 1967, and he attended many of these races.
Former Daily Journal sports editor Chris Todd wrote a story after Pike’s death in 1994.
“He considered it an honor that the meet was named after him,” Barb Wood, one of Pike’s daughters, was quoted saying in the article. “After his retirement, he’d spend the winters in Florida, but he’d always stay in the Falls long enough to see the meet.”
It was reported Pike never had an actually hand in creating either the Falls High School track or cross country programs, but he was THE pioneer in both sports and helped bring them visibility.
He was also involved in recreational hockey around the Borderland area, and even helped coach Olympic goalie “Lefty” Curran when he was a squirt and pee wee-aged player, according to Wood (who also helped gather information for this article).
Thursday’s competition begins at 4 p.m. at the Falls Country Club.
