The city stood still on this date 35 years ago, when a Canadian hero ran through town on his way to becoming a legend.
On this date in 1980, Terry Fox made his way through Sault Ste. Marie on his Marathon of Hope.
“When he got into the city it seemed the crowd of people just got bigger and bigger. To watch this guy and what he was doing,” said Ross Mervyn, who ran alongside Fox in Garden River.
“Myself and a few other fellows were working night shifts. It was raining down in Garden River area. We got a hold of Terry Fox and helped him in the rain get into the city,” said Mervyn.
As a member of the Sault Striders running club, Mervyn was inspired by Fox’s accomplishment — at that time having made it past the halfway point of his cross-Canada journey.
“He was a great thing for anyone who was an athlete — to see what he did,” he said.
Added Mervyn, “it’s a son of a gun that he didn’t have luck and keep going.”
His daughter Janice Mervyn — who now lives in Ottawa — was a teenager at the time and said seeing him is a moment she will always remember.
“I was working at a Burger King at McNabb and we were all working — we knew he was approaching — and the owner of the franchise said to everybody, ‘He’s coming, he’s coming,’ and closed the restaurant,” said Janice.
She also watched as he approached the family’s camp near Batchawana Bay.
“Later that day he ran by that area, it was more solitary there. In the city it was throngs of people but along the highway he was coming up a hill and I just remember him defying the concept of anything people could endure,” she said.
Ross Mervyn was so inspired, he became involved with the subsequent Terry Fox Runs for many years.
This year’s run is scheduled for September 20 and event co-chair Colette Michel-Fall said it will be great for families to participate in.
“There’s no registration fee, you just come out. If you can’t afford to register just come out and enjoy the day — if you do want to fundraise you can do that too,” said Michel-Fall.
She was inspired as much by her father Tony Michel’s enthusiastic admiration of Fox as she was from the runner himself.
“He was so inspired by Terry Fox and his determination. Being such a young man and fighting such a big battle by himself and turning a whole country into knowing who he was — it’s pretty cool,” said Michel-Fall.
Her family watched as Fox passed the IGA on Trunk Road, near the current Pino’s Get Fresh Foods.
“We were all there watching him run by — from that moment my father went every year for the Terry Fox Runs,” she said.
As Michel-Fall and her husband started their own family, her father’s enthusiasm was infectious throughout multiple generations.
“When they were babies we would walk with the buggies, and eventually they would ride their bikes. They were walking with us and now my daughter runs,” she said.
Her daughter Chanel Fall, now 23 years old, also sits on the organizing committee and remembers the last time her grandfather participated in the run prior to his death in 2008.
“He couldn’t run obviously — he went two kilometres — he was so happy," said Chanel.
The family recently found Tony’s certificate from the very first Terry Fox Run in Sault Ste. Marie, held in 1980.
City Councillor Lou Turco, who was the morning show DJ at radio station CKCY at the time, remembers the city standing still the day Fox came through town.
“We were all captured by the immensity of it, what this one person was doing,” said Turco.
A live on-air interview with Fox was a highlight of Turco’s career.
“It was quite a moment for me,” he said.
Earlier today, the Terry Fox Foundation shared photos on social media which were given to them by Mike Filipetti, who was eight years old when Fox passed through Sault Ste. Marie.
Filipetti appears in some of the photos, which were taken by his mother, Mary, at three locations — McNabb and Pine, the Civic Centre and Great Northern Road at Second Line.
“I was disappointed when he wasn’t voted the Greatest Canadian with CBC a few years back. He got second place,” said Filipetti.
Now an elementary school principal in Thunder Bay, Filipetti said Fox inspires kids even today.
“It shows nothing is impossible. To think anyone could run a marathon a day — it sounds impossible — let alone someone battling cancer and on one leg…”
Janice Mervyn, now a mother of three, said her kids have all learned about Fox in school.
“His legacy lives on,” she said.
(PHOTO: Photo by Mary Filipetti, courtesy Mike Filipetti)