Preacher's Comeback

In the same city, two years ago, Gil Dodds, the runner whose style outraged the copybooks but whose speed broke mile records, had forsaken track to preach the word of God. His old coaches had begged him to try running again. Finally he agreed. Explained earnest Gil Dodds, 28: "I prayed about it, of course. And my wife consented."

Last week the awkward, stubby, soft-spoken fellow whom sportswriters had incongruously named "The Killer" lined up against five others in Boston Garden, his spectacles firmly secured. For the first two laps Dodds lagged behind; then he spurted. As always, he ran by the clock, not by the competition--the way he set the world indoor mile record (4:06.4) three years ago. He was as graceless as ever; his arms still thrashed like windmills. But at the half-mile his time was 2:00 flat (exactly half of the theoretical four-minute mile) and he was way out front. Could he last? The 13,000 in Boston Garden wondered how much his layoff had hurt his running.

Few of them knew it, but Dodds had been training faithfully all along. He had put his "stamina to a test" at Cincinnati last fall in a six-mile race. "Through the Lord," he explained, "I was able to beat my record time by one minute." This winter he is living in a dingy brick tenement in Roxbury, and trying to support his family (wife and two children) and study theology on voluntary gifts from churches where he preaches. Sometimes they give him $5, sometimes $10, sometimes nothing. Says Dodds, grinning: "I trust in the Lord to get me by, and sometimes they do too."

In the third quarter of his race, Dodds fell two seconds short of his planned time, but still nobody was near him. His old rival, Leslie MacMitchell, had won a 4:17.2 mile the night before and was obviously overtired. Dodds broke the tape 35 yards in front of the nearest man, New York A. C.'s Tommy Quinn. Dodds's time -- 4:09.1 -- was the fastest indoor mile Boston had ever seen. The crowd cheered lustily for five minutes.

Next morning, Preacher Gill Dodds was up early to give a sermon at the Medway (Mass.) Congregational Church.

This file is automatically generated by a robot program, so reader's discretion is required.