Tom Longboat

Thomas Charles Longboat, whose Onondaga name was Cogwagee ("Everything"), was born on the Six Nations Reserve near Brantford, Ontario. Longboat pioneered modern training techniques—alternating intense speed runs with recovery walks—decades before interval training was recognized by sport scientists.

In 1907, Longboat won the Boston Marathon in devastating fashion, shattering the course record by four minutes and fifty-nine seconds in a blinding rainstorm. In World War I, he served as a heroic dispatch runner with the 107th Pioneer Battalion in France, running urgent messages across active frontlines under shellfire.