Former assistant coach and current beloved professor Kevin Boyle is lacing up for the Marine Corps Marathon on October 26. He’s running every mile to support American’s track and cross country program — and he wants the AU community to show their support by making a donation here.

Boyle, now a professor in the School of Public Affairs’ Department of Justice, Law and Criminology, served as an assistant coach for AU’s track and cross country program from 2015 to 2020. Having run track and cross country at St. John’s University, he started coaching while in law school, acting as a track coach and gym teacher for Great Neck South High School and attending law classes in the evenings.

After retiring from a 26-year career in the U.S. Army, including serving as the Chief Instructor of all Army prosecutors throughout the world, he returned to coaching at the recommendation of his own college coach: former AU head coach Matt Centrowitz.

“Matt Centrowitz was my coach at St. John’s in 1981,” Boyle said. “[When I retired,] I kept saying, ‘Matt, I want to get back into teaching and coaching. So he said, ‘Come to American and you can be a track coach.’ So I came to American.”

Though Boyle turned his focus to teaching full-time at AU in 2020, he continues to support the program and student athletes through his friendship, mentorship and guidance. On October 26, he will run the 50th anniversary edition of the Marine Corps Marathon, with the goal of raising money for AU’s track and cross country program. Having earned many of his own opportunities through running, he aims to do the same for the next generation of student-athletes.

“The real reason I got here is because I got cut from eighth grade baseball,” Boyle said. “That made me go out for track, which got me a college scholarship, which got me a job when I was in law school, which got me to AU… And part of society, part of this university, part of being on a team is to give back to our students so they can get those same opportunities I had when I was growing up.”

He’s lost count of how many marathons he’s run in his lifetime. He ran his first at age 15 as an attempt to train for cross country. “I’ve done one every decade of my life, except ages one to nine,” he joked. The Marine Corps Marathon will check off the 60s, he added.

It’s not his first time running this particular race. He ran the Marine Corps in 1988, his first time ever visiting D.C. “I thought D.C. was really, really nice. I thought the Metro looked like a Disney ride.” He finished the race in an impressive 2 hours, 48 minutes, and 20 seconds, placing 137th of 400 runners.

Over the past decade he’s run several 50th anniversary renditions of marathons he’s raced in the past. In 2022, he ran in the 50th anniversary Virginia Beach Shamrock Marathon and Honolulu Marathon. His goal for this race? “To finish,” he said.

The added cause of supporting the team he used to coach, he said, was inspired by a David Marchick, the dean of the Kogod School of Business. “Last summer, Dean Marchick did a bike ride across the country as a fundraiser. So I figured if, if he did that bike ride, I should try to see if I could do something with the marathon to help the athletes out.”

Boyle offered to match every dollar donated up to $2,600 — $100 for each of the 26 miles he’ll complete on October 26. In the two weeks since the fundraiser began, supporters have given more than $8,000 to the program. With three weeks to go in the challenge, the program aims to reach $1,000 donated for each mile he races, or $26,000 total.

If you would like to learn more about the fundraising challenge and how
you can support American University Track and Cross Country, click here.