Dick Hoyt of Famous Father-Son Race Team to Visit USU

Team Hoyt, comprised of 65-year-old Dick Hoyt and his 45-year-old son Rick who uses a wheelchair, has competed in endurance races for more than 30 years.

Dick Hoyt will bring his message of triumph and courage to Utah State University Friday, Sept. 21, as part of the Center for Persons with Disabilities’ 35th anniversary celebration and USU Homecoming Week. The talk will be in the Taggart Student Center Ballroom from 12:30 to 1:30 p.m. It is free and open to the public.

 

Dick Hoyt, the father half of this extraordinary father-and-son tandem from Boston, Mass., will speak to students and faculty as part of the Convocations series jointly sponsored by ASUSU and the College of Education and Human Services.

 

“Team Hoyt’s story is one of courage, strength and dedication,” said Martin Blair, assistant director of the Center for Persons with Disabilities. “It is an honor to have Mr. Hoyt share his family’s triumphs doing what others deemed impossible. They show us that we can accomplish great things if we have the right support and a gritty determination.”

 

Dick and his son compete together in marathon races and triathlons. The longest triathlons require the athletes to complete 26 miles of running, 112 miles of bicycling and two and a half miles of swimming. As a team, the Hoyt’s have climbed mountains and once trekked 3,735 miles across America. It is a remarkable story considering that Rick cannot walk.

 

At Rick’s birth in 1962, the umbilical cord coiled around his neck cutting off the oxygen to his brain. Dick and his wife, Judy, were told by doctors that there was no hope for their child’s development, and he could not be expected to live a normal life. The family never abandoned their belief that Rick would one day prove he was an intelligent human being capable of many things. The Hoyt’s refused to believe their doctors.

 

“It’s been a story of exclusion ever since he was born,” said Dick Hoyt. “When he was eight months old the doctors told us we should just put him away — that he would be a vegetable all his life, that sort of thing. Well those doctors are not alive any more, but I would have liked them to be able to see Rick now.”

 

After Rick was taught to communicate through a computer specifically designed for him, the Hoyts discovered that Rick loved sports and wanted to compete. Dick decided to help his son with this goal when Rick told his dad he wanted to participate in a benefit run for a paralyzed lacrosse player. Dick pushed his son in his wheelchair during the race, and the legacy of Team Hoyt began.

 

Over the past 25 years, Dick has pushed and pulled his son across the country, in hundreds of competitions and over hundreds of finish lines. When Dick runs, he pushes his son in a wheelchair. When he cycles, Rick is in the seat-pod from his wheelchair, attached to the front of the bike. When Dick swims, Rick is in a small, firmly stabilized boat pulled by his dad.

 

“Dad is one of my role models,” typed Rick. “Once he sets out to do something, Dad sticks to it whatever it is, until it is done. For example, once we decided to really get into triathlons, dad worked out, up to five hours a day, five times a week, even while he was working.”

 

The Convocations lecture is sponsored by Zion’s Bank, Harris Research and the Hampton Inn of Logan in conjunction with the College of Education and Human Services and USU’s Center for Persons with Disabilities. For more information, visit the Center for Persons with Disabilities Web site.

 

Contact: Frank Stewart, frank.stewart@usu.edu, (435) 797-1611