DID CITY MAKE A FALSE STEP?

Joe Concannon, Globe Staff
Date: 07/07/1993
Page: 30
Section: SPORTS

There was considerable fanfare when the “Walkway of the Running Stars” was dedicated in 1984 outside the Eliot Lounge, but there was no publicity yesterday when the city ripped up the patch of concrete to put in a new stretch of sidewalk on Massachusetts Avenue.

The footprints and autographs in the cement included 1984 Olympic marathon gold medalist Joan Benoit Samuelson, four-time Boston and New York winner Bill Rodgers, past Boston winners Johnny Kelley (1957) and Amby Burfoot (1968) and contenders Bobby Hodge, Vin Fleming, Kevin Ryan of New Zealand, Patti Catalano and present Boston College coach Randy Thomas. “It brought tears to my eyes,” said running guru and Eliot bartender Tommy Leonard, whose footprints were also torn up. “I saw Bobby Hodge go into the back of the truck upside down.”

Fame is fleeting.