In 1901, John McCluskey came to Manchester from Ireland because he had heard the Cheney Brothers silk mill was hiring workers. Two years later, he returned to Ireland to marry his fiancée, then brought her back to start a family.
His son Joe, one of six McCluskey children, was born in 1911 and grew up in Manchester. He started to run as a delivery boy for the Manchester Evening Herald and the two Hartford newspapers. He ran for Manchester High, where he was the first CIAC champion miler, graduating in 1929.
His older brother John had won the first Manchester Road Race in 1927 (Joe was too young to enter but rode his bicycle alongside his brother). Joe would go on to win the race three times from 1930-32. The race didn’t take place between 1935 and 1944 because of a lack of interest, the Great Depression and World War II.
After winning a bronze medal in the 1932 Olympic steeplechase, McCluskey returned to Manchester to help revive interest in the Thanksgiving Day race in 1946. Charley Robbins beat McCluskey that year (he finished third), but McCluskey would come back to beat Robbins in 1947 for his last Manchester Road Race win.
“Joe came in ’46 and ’47 and [the race] really took off again,” the sports editor of the Herald, Earl Yost, now deceased, said in 2000.
“[McCluskey and Robbins] are mainly responsible for the early success of the race.”
Joe and his wife Anne had eight children. The kids played sports in high school but none of them were runners, although a few would join their father here and there at the Manchester Road Race over the years. Joe, who lived in New York City most of his life but moved to Madison upon retiring, died in August of 2002 at age 91.
This year, for the 81st running of the 4.748-mile Thanksgiving Day race and the 70th anniversary of Joe’s last victory, his daughter Mary Cotard is coming from Paris to run the race for the first time. Her twin sons Julien and Antoine will run with her.
Cotard, 61, is excited to run in the race that meant so much to her father.
“There are a few things you do in your life that are a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity,” Cotard said. “It’s going to be an unforgettable experience.
“My sons will be there; they knew my father really well. They’d see him running, they know about his history. I’m thrilled they’re going to be running with me, although I’m sure they’ll be a lot faster. I’m going to get a feel for what he felt when he was running the race because he loved Manchester and he loved running.”
Manchester loved McCluskey. On Aug. 1, 1932, a crowd of 600 people waited outside the Evening Herald’s office to hear if he had made it to the finals of the Olympic steeplechase in Los Angeles. At 10:37 p.m. the news came over the wire that he had and a reporter went outside with a megaphone to tell the crowd.
“A great cheer went up from the assemblage,” the Herald reported.
When McCluskey set a world record at the Olympic trials in July, the manager at the State Theater stopped the movie to announce the feat. Crowds of people gathered at Metter’s Smoke Shop, the State Soda Shoppe and Cleary’s Lunch, where news bulletins about McCluskey were posted.
“Some were so electrified with the news,” the Herald reported, “that they predicted the former Herald newsboy will go on to win the Olympics. Well, here’s hoping.”
McCluskey, who ran for Fordham, won the bronze in 1932, the first of two Olympic Games in which he would compete. In the early and mid-30s, the New York papers were full of his track exploits. He held world records, American records and won 25 national championships in the two mile run, the 5,000 meters, the 10,000 meters and the steeplechase.
Despite his success and the fact that he lived in New York, McCluskey never forgot his roots. He came back to Manchester often to run the race.
“We lived in New York City,” Cotard remembered. “He’d leave at 5 or 6 in the morning, drive to Manchester, run the race, get home around 2:30 or 3 and sit down and have dinner. My mother was used to it.”
Cotard knew about her father’s Manchester connection and spent a lot of time at the track while growing up as her father was a coach at the New York Athletic Club, but never wanted to run until recently. She ran her first marathon in 2014.
“I understand why my father loved it so much,” she said. “There’s something liberating, so free. You can do it by yourself. Every time you go out running you come back feeling fantastic. It’s something you never regret having done.”
The 81st MANCHESTER ROAD RACE will be run Thanksgiving Day starting at 10 a.m. The course is 4.748 miles and begins on Main Street just above Oak Street at St. James Church. Registration is open until noon Nov. 16 or until there are 14,000 registered runners. If the 15,000 maximum registration has not been reached through walk-in registration at the Sports Expo, online registration will reopen Nov. 19 by noon and will close on Nov. 21 at noon or until the 15,000 maximum has been met. No registration on race day; registrations done online from this point on must be picked up at either the Sports Expo or at Packet Pick-up on race day from 8 to 9:15 p.m. at Bennet Academy.
Spectators may watch from along the entire length of the Manchester Road Race. Downtown parking is limited and some streets will be partially or completely closed. Free shuttle buses leave from Manchester Community College between 7:45 and 9:15 a.m.; return trips will run continuously between 11 a.m. and 12:30 p.m. Buses will depart continuously between 7:45 and 9:15 a.m. before the race. More information, registration and downloadable walk-in forms available at manchesterroadrace.com
The CTNOW costume contest is from 8 to 10 a.m. before the race near the Mary Cheney Library on Main Street. Participants must dress up in a costume, and show up to have their photo taken after signing a release form. All pictures will be posted online by Nov. 24 for public voting, which will end Dec. 3 at 11:59 p.m. Prizes are being finalized, but are likely to include a grand prize of $150 American Express card; second prize a $100 Max Restaurant Group gift card; and third prize a $50 Max Restaurant Group gift card. Rules are still being written, but will be available at ctnow.com/mrr-rules.
