Dalton's Doug Hawley A Running Force For A Long Time

Former Sports Editor Has Had Interesting Life In The Sports World

  • Monday, May 25, 2015
  • John Hunt

DALTON, Ga. – Most of Doug Hawley’s running days are behind him now, but oh, what a force he was on the road when he was training and in shape back in the 70s and 80s.

The fellow who graduated from Cordele High School in 1958 before earning a degree in sports broadcasting from the University of Georgia isn’t as active as he used to be, but for a guy who’ll celebrate his 75th birthday on Dec. 5, he has quite a colorful past in the sports world.

Doug was a quarterback on the football team in high school before moving to wide receiver as a senior.  He was a pretty good football player, but even better runner on the track team where he specialized in the mile run. 

He also played basketball in the winter and was named Most Athletic in his senior class.  He earned a scholarship to run for Georgia and was on the track team for four years before graduating in 1962.

Running got put to the side for the next 11 years but he moved to Dalton in 1972 where he took a job as the sports editor for the Dalton Daily Citizen News where he stayed for 17 years.

My earliest memory of Doug involved the Dalton Heart Run.

He was the race director for this race, which included a 5K and a 10K.  He took care of all the details, but would run the race when the gun sounded.  He always finished near the front, but afterward, he presented all the age group awards, took pictures for the paper and went back and wrote the story.

“My first race was the Chattanooga Chase in 1974,” Hawley expressed last week while sipping on a glass of tea at Shoney’s on Walnut Avenue.

“Jon Robere got in touch with me and said he wanted to come run with me.  He wanted me to join him in a group at Chickamauga Park and he got me started,” Hawley remembered with a laugh.

“That Dalton Heart Run was a big race and the publisher of the paper asked if I would direct it.  It seems like I did it for seven or eight years, but I always put age-group records on the entry forms.  We had some really good races in those days,” he recalled.

Hawley did a lot of running in Dalton, but he also got involved with runners from Chattanooga and was elected president of the Chattanooga Track Club in 1976, just a few years before the running boom hit.

“I was the first one to get an awards banquet started, but there was a lot of comraderie among the runners and we had a lot of fun.  It seems like I ran most of the races and that’s when I got involved in marathoning.

“My first marathon was in Georgetown, Ky.

in May of 1974 or ’75.  I had done a 30K in Knoxville and felt like I could handle the distance.  I called the race director to get some information and he told me it would be nice and cool for that race.

“We all know that race directors don’t always tell the truth, but it was about 80 degrees that day and I wanted to lay down when we finished.  There were only about 25 or so in the marathon that day as numbers weren’t big in those days, but there were four of five of us running together that day and we just kept passing a water bottle around,” he remembered a pleasant running experience.

Hawley ended up running 15 marathons with a personal best of 2:36:46 at Boston in 1978.  Jay Paty ran by me and ran a 2:34 that day and Leroy Fanning was right behind me.  There was another fellow from Chattanooga who ran a similar time, but the quality was better than the quantity as we had four local runners all under 2:40 that day,” he said with a note of pride.

“The marathon was probably my best distance when I was in good shape, but I always liked the two mile.  I’m not sure I can pinpoint my favorite race as I liked them all, but I ran the first marathon at Snow Hill and I liked the Chickamauga Chase.

“Most of the running I did at Chickamauga Park was in training for marathons.  I’ve run off and on for the past 50 years and have probably logged about 80,000 miles during that time.  I had the opportunity to run against some awfully good runners in those days,” he added.

“I probably averaged 70 miles a week during marathon training and I normally got about 3,000 miles a year.  And I went under 2:50 for at least the first 10 or 12 marathons I ran,” he said matter of factly.

“Running has meant a whole lot to me.  I weighed 183 pounds when I first came to Dalton and I’m about 150 now, which is more than I want to be.  There were very few races in the early days, but it motivated me to stay fit and keep my weight down.

“Running was at the top of my priority list for so long, but I need to get more active.  I’d love to tour all the major league baseball stadiums before all is said and done, but I may be running out of time,” he added.

While newspaper work occupied most of his work career, he also was involved in broadcasting in both television and radio.  He still dabbles in sports writing on a part-time basis, so you can tell that sports has been and will continue to be a major part of his life.

Doug is your typical sports writer who can remember dates, names and scores of memorable athletic events he’s covered in his career.  His life has slowed down in recent years as his health hasn’t been as good as it once was.

He’s now the proud owner of a pace maker, but he doesn’t have any plans to stop doing what he’s been doing for so long.

Running isn’t a part of his life like it once was, but he’s had more than his share of glory in days past.  After all, he was one of the best way back when.

(This is the 52nd in a series of runners in the Chattanooga area.  If you know someone who might make an interesting story, email John Hunt at nomarathonmoose@comcast.net)

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