Bob Boal passes away

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http://www.usatf.org/news/view.aspx?DUI ... 1_14_20_16

Masters athlete Bob Boal dies

A retired North Carolina State University economics professor, who began competing in masters track & field in his late fifties and competed until he was 90, Bob Boal died Sunday at Duke Health Raleigh Hospital. He was 93.

Born the same year (1912) that Jim Thorpe won the decathlon at the 1912 Olympics in Stockholm, Boal became a world champion in the decathlon 85 years after his birth.

His decathlon world record set in 1997 for men 85-89, still stands. Boal's records also include various U.S., state and meet marks in running and hurdling. But what he coveted setting most was an example. Boal, who was 5-foot-7 and 125 pounds learned to pole vault at age 70.

Boal decided to get back into shape when he read the book "Aerobics" by Ken Cooper in 1968 when he was 56. He then took up jogging to get back in shape before later traveling to San Diego to welcome his son back home from Vietnam. While there he saw his first masters track meet for athletes 40 and over. He brought the idea back to North Carolina and founded the Southeastern U.S. Masters Track and Field Association.

The annual Southeastern Masters meet is now entering its 36th year and is the oldest continuous masters meet in the country. Boal became an international leader in masters track and was inducted into the U.S. Track and Field Masters Hall of Fame in 1998.

His daughter, Marjie Boal, told the Raleigh News & Observer that her father pushed the masters competition as a way of motivating older people to stay fit. "That definitely was what he was about," she said. "Not the winning, but the doing."