Roger Pierce has been on my radar for years, but I haven’t given him the attention he deserves. Now his local paper has done the work for me, thank goodness, with this great summary of his track career. His latest honor is induction into Northeastern University’s sports Hall of Fame. I love where his bio notes that he was an NU walk-on! Also news to me: “He and his wife, Fran, live in Essex, Mass., and have three children. They are a folk song duo called Tamarack and are popular on the North Shore. They also founded a coffeeshop named One World, which is enjoying its 15th anniversary.” Congrats, Roger, and many more years of speedy running.

Here’s Roger, winning at Orono (at left):

Here’s Roger and Fran in their day job:

Here’s the story in case the link goes bad:

Beverly’s Running Man: Pierce heads to NU Hall of Fame
By Christopher Hurley/churley@cnc.com
Wed Apr 09, 2008, 08:08 PM EDT
Beverly, Mass. –
Beverly, Mass. – When it comes to the track arena, Roger Pierce has always been built for speed.
From his early days at Beverly High, to his formative years at Northeastern University, to his current status as a master’s champion, the man nicknamed “The Great Dodger” by Northeastern Sports Information Director Jack Grinold, continues to build a lasting legacy for all to admire.
Pierce, a Beverly native, has been elected to the Northeastern University Hall of Fame for excellence in track. A member of the Class of 1971, he will be inducted along with six others in formal ceremonies at Lombardo’s Restaurant in Randolph April 18.
Joining Pierce in the NU Hall of Fame Class of 2008 are Vincent Barletta (rowing), Anders Hoeyem (soccer), Harry Mews (ice hockey), Nikiya Reid (women’s track & field), Brooke Whitney (women’s ice hockey) and Kelly Wilk (field hockey).
“It’s really an honor to be inducted into any hall of fame,” said Pierce, 63. “And it’s been 40 years since I was a senior captain there. So I think it’s a great thing. I’m tickled.”
Pierce started his running career as a walk-on and 46 years later has transformed himself into a United States record holder.
To this day, he remains the top-ranked in his age group in the 400, while also maintaining a similar seeding in both the 100 and 200. He set the world indoor record at 23.4 seconds in the 200.
Pierce attributes much of his success to former Northeastern track coach Irwin Cohen.
“He is responsible for everything I did because he was so good and worked us so hard,” Pierce said.
Humble beginnings
A track legend, Pierce first gained notoriety while attending Beverly High School. The Panther proved to be quite versatile as a three-year competitor on the cross country, indoor and outdoor track teams.
“It was a three-year high school, because they had a junior high school back then,” Pierce recalled. “So you didn’t get a chance to run four years, but I ran cross-country and indoor and outdoor track for three years. I didn’t get a letter until my senior year in anything.”
Primarily known as a sprinter, Pierce was an unlikely cross-country runner his senior year, but still managed to help Beverly High secure its third consecutive undefeated season under coach Bill Jenkins.
It wasn’t until Pierce started running indoor track, however, that he really came into his own.
“I was basically only a 50-yard dash man indoors,” said Pierce. “That’s all they trusted me to run. I was really small, probably weighed about 113-pounds. So it was tough for me to run against the bigger guys. But I did well.”
Pierce continued to gain serious momentum during the outdoor track season, as a member on a couple of record-setting relay teams for the Panthers, culminating with him receiving the team’s Most Valuable Player award in 1962.
“I had a great time and they gave me MVP that year, which was really nice of them,” Pierce said.
Pierce was inducted into Beverly High’s Sports Hall of Fame in 2004.
“That meant a lot to me,” he said. “Beverly has had some incredibly good athletes, and to just be with those people is really just an honor.”
Despite his successful senior swing, Pierce was unable to find any college recruiters after graduating Beverly High in 1962.
Undaunted, the Beverly runner opted to head out west.
“I went to California to get into movies,” said Pierce. “I was interested in theater and banged around there for about eight months. I taught myself guitar, came back and kicked around for another year.”
While attending a summer track meet, Pierce literally ran into Cohen, who urged him to apply to Northeastern.
“I hadn’t even thought about going to college until that point,” Pierce said. “It never even occurred to me, but I wound up going to Northeastern.”
Northeastern Exposure
A walk-on at Northeastern in 1964, Pierce tried out for the freshman track team. His position was solidified when he won the Greater Boston Collegiate freshman indoor dash. Although freshmen were unable to compete at the varsity level at that time, Pierce and Carl Farmer helped form one of the best team’s in the state.
“We had an incredible freshman team,” Pierce said. “Between Carl Farmer and myself, no one beat us in anything. We just had a really tough freshman team. We ran as well as the varsity guys were running.”
Pierce was a valued team member over the course of his varsity career, 1966-68, scoring points in the dash, long jump and relays.
Running the 100 and 200 in his sophomore season, Pierce helped NU go 10-0 indoors and 6-1 outdoors. In his junior season, Pierce continued to pour on the points, and the Huskies went 9-1 indoors and 5-0 outdoors.
In his senior year, he was elected captain of both the indoor and outdoor teams, and the Huskies finished at 7-2 and 6-0, respectively. That year, he also won the Greater Boston indoor dash and the outdoor 100-yard dash.
“Coach Cohen was an excellent coach,” Pierce said. “He pushed us really hard and showed us that we could do a lot more than we ever thought we could. I learned a lot from that.”
Pierce was voted the Northeastern Trackman of the Year and won the Parsons Award as the outstanding indoor competitor. He graduated holding the Husky 50-yard indoor dash record at 5.4 seconds and was a member of the 4×400 relay team that set both the NU indoor and outdoor record. During Pierce’s career, Northeastern had a 43-4 regular season record.
“We got so strong that we could beat people that were better than us just from our training,” said Pierce, who left Northeastern to serve in an army reserve unit in Vietnam in 1968, before returning home and graduating in 1971. “If you work out harder in practice, the meets just aren’t a big deal. That’s exactly the focus we had when we went into a track meet.”
Returning to glory
Pierce would pass on his vast knowledge of the sport as head track coach at Stoneham High for four seasons.
At the age of 39, he rediscovered the sport participating in the Masters Track and Field division, an international program.
“I just got tired of not being active, so at 39 I started running again,” said Pierce, who trained for two weeks after a 10-year layoff before entering his first competition.
After initially struggling through his first meet, the 5-foot-5, 140-pound runner kept up his training regimen, eventually winning the Eastern Indoor Championship.
“Within three-years, I was one of the top-ranked runners in the world in the 400 meters,” said Pierce.
At the age of 45, he continued to cruise as the top-ranked runner in the 400, while also maintaining a top three seeding in both the 100 and 200, setting the world indoor record at 23.4 seconds in the 200.
In 2001, at the age of 56, he went to the World Championships in Brisbane, Australia, where he won the 400-meter, placed fourth in the 200 and was a member of the U.S. teams that won the 4×100 and 4×400 relays. Pierce won gold at the World Championship in 2003, 2005 and 2007.
He has won 30 U.S. National Championships and has set 11 American age-group records. In World Championship competition, he has set nine records and has won gold 10 times.
Even at 63, Pierce continues to push himself in the track arena. He set a world record in the 4×400-meter relay at last weekend’s National Championships in Boston with his team Mass. Velocity, a sprint club that recruits plenty of talented athletes from masters to young runners.
Looking back, did Pierce ever think his track career would still be going strong some 40 years later?
“No, I just wanted to run,” he said. “I always loved running. I went to college because I wanted to run; I stayed in college because I wanted to run. That’s one of the things that kept me there.”
And Pierce’s lasting legacy can be expected to go the distance for years to come.
Tickets to the Northeastern Hall of Fame induction ceremony can be purchased by calling George Makris at 617-373-4821.