Rick Hoyt & Dick Hoyt
The Story of Team Hoyt

In 1962, Dick and Judy Hoyt gave birth to their son, Rick Hoyt. During child birth, Rick’s umbilical cord was wrapped around his neck, cutting off the supply of oxygen to his brain. He was diagnosed as a spastic quadriplegic with cerebral palsy.

The doctors advised Dick and Judy to institutionalize Rick because he was never going to be anything other than “a vegetable.” Dick and Judy refused and brought Rick home, to raise him like any other child.

Rick told Dick that he wanted to compete in a 5-mile running road race to help raise money for a high school lacrosse player who had been paralyzed in a recent accident.

Dick, a non-runner at that time, pushed Rick for the full 5 miles. They finished next to last, but not last. Later that night, Rick typed “Dad, when I’m running, it feels like I’m not handicapped.” And that is when it all started.

Since that fateful day in 1977, Dick and Rick, becoming known as “Team Hoyt,” had finished 255 triathlons (6 being Ironman distance and 7 being Half Ironman distance), 22 duathlons, 72 marathons (32 being the Boston Marathon), 95 half marathons, 35 Falmouth 7.1 milers, and a handful of other various distance races.

Team Hoyt had a marathon PR of 2:40:47 and half marathon PR of 1:21:12. Dick and Rick are also two of only 27 total members of the Ironman Hall of Fame, carried the Olympic torch in 1996 and in 1992 they ran and rode a bike from Santa Monica, California to Boston Harbor in 45 consecutive days.

Team Hoyt had competed in, and finished, more than 1,100 events.