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Jim Hawboldt
Jimmy Hawboldt – the Westville Runner
Westville’s annual fall sports event is called the Jimmy Hawboldt Labor Day Races because Jimmy Hawboldt ran 55 races, winning 38 and placing second or third in nearly all of the others.
When Hawboldt was 18, he ran his first race and after an 11-year break, he finally hung up his track shoes at the age of 40. Along the way, a great rivalry in distance running developed between Hawboldt and Johnny C. Miles.
The townspeople say that Hawboldt’s greatest victory was in 1927, when he successfully outran Johnny Miles!
Jimmy Hawboldt’s career began at a young age when, with other youngsters, he watched Westville’s great sportsmen such as George Dawson, George “Spinney” Wright and MacKay Baillie training for road races which attracted many competitors from the Maritimes.
George Dawson, who was a fine track runner himself, recognized the stamina and natural ability possessed by Hawboldt. Dawson entered Hawboldt in Westville’s 1922 Dominion Day five-mile race, a 20-lap event around the ball park. Although Spinney Wright won the event, Hawboldt came in a close second.
Two weeks later, he was running in the Antigonish Highland Games, where a strong rivalry existed between Antigonish Angus “D.D.” MacDonald and Spinney Wright. MacDonald came in first, Wright second, and Hawboldt third. In 1923, however, Hawboldt won the race and repeated the victory in 1924, 1925 and 1926. After three consecutive years, Hawboldt was given permanent possession of the Highland Games five-mile cup.
When Hawboldt heard that Miles would be competing in the 1926 Highland Games, he increased his training. To the surprise of everyone, he won, beating the runner who had just recently won the Boston Marathon in record time. After the race, Johnny Miles offered his genuine congratulations to the winner.
Some have said that Miles simply had an off day – perhaps Hawboldt’s victory was a once-in-a-lifetime win! Hawboldt and Miles were matched again in Westville for a five-mile race on September 10, 1926. On the day of the race, when the employees of the coal mines considered themselves fortunate to have jobs which employed them for two shifts weekly, Hawboldt worked in the pit as usual, not willing to lose a day’s pay. He did leave work early, walking up the incline to the surface, had lunch, and walked to the park to prepare for the 20 laps around the cinder track. James R. MacGregor, a Westville native, was the sports editor of “The Evening News”, and the race story was reported as follows:
“Jimmy Hawboldt, the Westville pride, defeated John C. Miles of Sydney Mines, the world’s record-holder for the marathon distance, in what was to be called the most exciting and best five (5) mile race ever run in Westville.”
Some oldtimers claim that nothing could compare with that win, except, perhaps, the Westville ball team’s winning of the Maritime championship over St. Stephen, New Brunswick.
The two runners would meet again. Hawboldt lost to Miles in a ten-mile encounter at Amherst and again in a Halifax Canadian championship. Their racing records indicate that at middle-distance running Hawboldt had the edge and, in the long distance, Miles was superior. In 1927, Hawboldt suffered from appendicitis and ceased competitive running.
In middle-distance running, three and five miles, he was the best; but he never ran a full 26-mile marathon. He competed in the 1928 Canadian Olympic Trials at Montreal, finishing third. Twice he unofficially broke the five-mile record with times of 25.30 and 25.26.
Eleven years after appendicitis took him off the track, he staged a comeback. In his long idle stretch, he kept in good shape by jogging. He was 34 in 1938 when he entered the “Halifax Herald’s” road race, finishing third. A special three-mile race was arranged at the Highland Games which he won. He then retired permanently from racing.
Jimmy Hawboldt was inducted into Nova Scotia’s Sportsmen’s Hall of Fame in 1980. The memories of his determination, athletic ability and sportsmanship live on!