Sammy Mellor

Samuel Alexander Mellor Jr. (December 19, 1879 – November 5, 1948) was an American long-distance runner who won the 1902 Boston Marathon and competed in the marathon at the 1904 Summer Olympics in St. Louis, Missouri.

Early life Mellor was born in Yonkers, New York. He attended School Two and trained in Dunwoodie at Buckwheat Track. He finished in the top 10 six out of nine years between 1901 and 1909. One year later, he was victorious in the event's sixth edition with a time of 2:43:15.4 in race conditions that featured strong winds and blowing dust. During the 1904 Boston Marathon, he would lose the lead at mile 20 and go on to finish in sixth place. Mellor was among the leaders in 1906 prior to being overtaken by David Kneeland and falling back. The next year he dropped out at Wellesley after colliding with a bicycle. He finished in 8th-place in 1908, 5th in 1909 ("the Inferno"), and 34th in the 1910 race. but he did not enter the race.

Olympian

An announcement in the August 6, 1904, issue of The New York Times indicated that the Metropolitan Association of the Amateur Athletic Union would hold a "special five-mile race" at Celtic Park on August 13, 1904, with the eight top finishers receiving a paid trip to compete in the marathon at the Olympic Games in St. Louis on August 30, 1904. Mellor, listed as representing the Mohawk Athletic Club, was named as one of 19 "probable competitors" in the event. Among his other victories are the Newark Marathon (1907), the Bronx Marathon (1909), the Mercury Athletic Club 25-mile race (1909), and the Empire City Marathon (1909).

Mellor helped establish the Yonkers Marathon with Edward Wetmore Kinsley in 1907, and finished second in the event's second running. Mellor also founded the 3.5-mile Yonkers Schoolboys Race with help from Kinsley in 1908. They had four children. He was unrelated to Charles "Chuck" Mellor, the winner of the 1925 Boston Marathon and an Olympian in 1920 and 1924.