Tom Longboat was a dominant long distance runner in his time. In fact, he was the dominant long distance runner throughout most of his professional running career. He was born and lived in Ontario, Canada, and Google wants to celebrate his life on his would-be 131st birthday with a Google Doodle on Google US and Google Canada.
Tom Longboat was nicknamed “bulldog of Britannia” and he also was a fighter for the Air Force and the Canadian army. He served as a dispatch runner in World War I. He had a hard childhood, growing up on a small farm in a poor family, and his father died when he was only five years old. He tried to escape his school because they pressured him to give up his Onondaga beliefs in favor of Christianity.
He married Lauretta Maracle in 1908 in 1916 joined the Canadian army. He was mistakenly declared dead during World War I, and his wife remarried in 1918. She remained married to her new husband, and Longboat then married Martha Silversmith and had four children with her. He lived until the age of 61, dying on January 9, 1949.
Google wrote:
Here is the animated Doodle:
