Born Dec. 23, 1947, Hartford, Conn.

A winner of both the Boston (four times) and the New York City marathons (also four times), Bill Rodgers was one of the prime movers in the American distance running boom of the 1970s. He took up distance running on a serious note at Wesleyan University but stopped in 1970. After seeing Frank Shorter win the 1972 Olympic marathon, Rogers came out of retirement and blossomed in 1975 when he finished third in the World Cross Country Championships. A month later he won the Boston Marathon. A year later, he ran in the 1976 Olympic marathon but a cramp dropped him to 40th place. He dominated U.S. distance running for the rest of the decade and won four national distance titles besides setting a pair of American marathon records. His personal best of 2:09:28 while winning the 1979 Boston Marathon is still fifth on the U.S. all-time list. Rodgers continued to run as a masters athlete and entered the sporting goods business.