Flashback!
Saturday, January 26, 1980
Valley Green, Philadelphia, PA.
I finished running the Pheidippides 8-Mile Coffee and Donuts Race with a 59:52 finish.
I was happy that I broke an hour. About an hour later, the race director introduced me to the winner. I shook his hand.
“I’m David Block,” I said.
“And I’m Lee Harvey Oswald.”
What kind of a comment was that? Was this guy crazy?
I then looked at him and even with my limited eyesight, I saw that he wore a grin bigger than my nose. “I’m Gary Fanelli,” he said.
I congratulated him, but he told me it was a low-key practice run. He won the eight-mile race with a 42:42 finish. His four-mile split was 21:21.
I was excited to meet him because he won a lot of the Philly area local races that I entered. At the time, my gym teacher, Dave Patterson, another elite runner who was inducted into the 2026 Cross Country Hall of Fame at Belmont Plateau in Philadelphia on Saturday, August 29 with Fanelli, told me as far back as 1980 and 1979 that he knew Gary very well. He said that he had beaten Gary a number of times in road races, but there were times that Gary beat him.
Forty-six years ago, when I met Gary, I knew he was talented, but I had no idea that he was so colorful and memorable.
I found out in 1984 that not only did the Philadelphia area running community know the name Gary Fanelli, but so did runners throughout the U.S. At the 1984 NYC Marathon, Fanelli made a name for himself by racing with a GhostBusters outfit.
Orlando Pizzolato of Italy who won the 1984 NYC marathon with a 2:14:53 posting. but he was no match for Fanelli in regard to comedy and posterity. Fanelli beat everyone decisively in that category–even Pizzolato.
Key factors that got Fanelli into the Hall of Fame were some of his running accomplishments.
On Sunday, June 8, 1980, Fanelli won the Diet Pepsi 10,000 Meter Race in Philadelphia with a 30:04 finish. That win was monumental because finishing second, was the legendary Boston Marathon champion Bill Rodgers, 30:17. Besides winning the Boston Marathon in 1975 (2:09:55), Rodgers had won it again for the past three years: 1978 (2:10:13), 1979 (2:09:27), and 1980 (2:12:11). His 1980 win was on Monday, April 21, 1980, seven weeks before the Diet Pepsi Race. Rodgers came to Philadelphia to race again. Some people mistakenly assumed that because he won Boston for the past three years, he would have no problem winning a local Philadelphia race. The only runner whom people thought had a chance of beating Rodgers was Rod Dixon of New Zealand, who won Olympic bronze at the 1972 Munich Olympics in the 1500- meter run where he clocked 3:37.46.
Dixon finished third in the 1980 Diet Pepsi 10,000 Meter Race, 30:29. He trailed runner-up Rodgers by 12 seconds.
“That was a great day,” said Fanelli.
Another high point for Gary Fanelli was that he represented American Samoa at the 1988 Olympic Marathon in Seoul, South Korea where he finished 51st posting a 2:25:35 finish.
After Fanelli received his Hall of Fame plaque, he repeated to this RG writer what he said when being handed the plaque:
“The only other plaque I ever got was on my teeth.”
Another 2026 Cross Country Hall of Fame inductee was Denis Elton Cochran-Fikes.
One of Fikes’s biggest accomplishments was being the first Ivy League runner/African American to break the four-minute barrier; it happened Saturday April 27, 1974 at The Penn Relays when he clocked 3:55.0 in the Ben Franklin Mile.
“It was almost the perfect race,” said Fikes, who ran for the University of Pennsylvania. A minor drawback was that he finished second, behind Tony Waldrop of the University of North Carolina who clocked 3:53.2.
On hand to witness Fikes receiving the Hall of Fame honor at Belmont Plateau was Harvard track star Bruce Weber, whom Fikes coached while he was an assistant track coach there.
“He was a great influence,” said Weber. “We wanted to be fast like him.”
While running for Harvard, Weber set a school record in the indoor 3000 Meter Championships when he posted 8:18.2.
Another Belmont Plateau Cross Country Hall of Fame inductee who also later wore the coach’s hat was Dave Patterson. He was a friend and at times a Gary Fanelli road-racing rival.
Like Fanelli, Patterson left his mark.
A few of Patterson’s highlights include winning the 1981 Philadelphia Independence Marathon, 2:17:25. He also won the Catalunya Marathon in Barcelona, Spain in 1978 and 1979. Patterson’s best marathon time was finisheing 19th overall at the 1981 Boston Marathon, clocking 2:14:18.
Patterson said that what helped him become faster was running for Adidas from 1980 to 1984.
“I was training with and running against some of the best guys in the country,” said Patterson. “In those days, you couldn’t just jump in at the last minute in a local road race and hope to win. You had to be in good shape because you never knew who’d you be running against.”
Patterson said that his proudest accomplishment was helping two college runners break the four-minute mile. Afterwards those runners became track coaches.
Another way that Dave Patterson left his mark in the Philadelphia running community was when he and his wife Patti had a daughter, Jillian Patterson (1984 – 2012), born with Down Syndrome. As a result, members of the Philadelphia running community launched the 12-hour Down Syndrome Interest Group’s 12-hour relay, which lasted from the late ’80s through the early ’90s. The race’s objective was to educate the public about Down Syndrome.
To see a full list of 2026 Hall of Fame inductees at Belmont Plateau, go to:
Editor’s Note: The full 2026 class of inductees:
Gary Fanelli
Denis Elton Cochran-Fikes
Dave Patterson
Shelly Steely
Brother Gedeon Luke (Charles Tuppeny)
The 2017 Boys La Salle High Cross Country team.
The induction was held at Belmont Plateau, Philadelphia, PA, on Saturday, August 29.