Bill Ruth runs to the second transition area barefoot and carrying his bike in the 1983 rendtion of the Wilkes-Barre Triathlon.
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I had the pleasure this week to speak to a true legend of triathlon, Bill Ruth, nicknamed the Beast of the East.
He is 71 years old now. After last week’s piece on Wayne Devine, my friend Karl Glassman forwarded the article to Bill in Colorado. If you recall, Wayne had mentioned Bill Ruth as an inspiration for racing triathlon back in the ’80s when he first got started. Ruth and I connected by phone this week and exchanged messages after our long conversation.
Bill Ruth grew up in Bethlehem and graduated from Freedom High School. He worked as a Physical Education teacher and cross country and swim coach for Liberty High School in Bethlehem.
He now lives in Estes Park, Colo., with his wife and partner of 50 years, Sherry Kopko. Sherry is originally from Edwardsville and graduated from Wyoming Seminary in 1970. She is in the Seminary athletic Hall of Fame for her swimming and field hockey careers.
Ruth won the inaugural Wilkes-Barre Triathlon in 1982. He also won it in 1983 and 1985. During the second ever Wilkes-Barre Triathlon in 1983, he was a pro athlete, sponsored by Mizuno Sport. They made running shoes and other athletic footwear.
Back in the day, the race consisted of a 1500-meter swim in Harveys Lake, a 35-mile bike route that wound its way out to Tunkhannock before heading back to the second transition area (T2) at then-College Misericordia. Toward the end of the bike course and leading the race, Bill picked up a lot of speed descending down Lake Street toward Misericordia, and his tubular tire came off the rim and he crashed.
The rules stated that you needed to finish the bike leg of a triathlon with your bike. So Bill got up, took off his wheels, took off his bike shoes and ran barefoot down Lake Steet to the transition area at Misericordia. He took a pretty good beating from the crash, but he finished the 10-mile run course and won his second consecutive W-B Triathlon.
A picture appeared in the Times Leader the next day showing Ruth running barefoot with his wheelless bike. As a sponsored athlete, he was wearing his Mizuno singlet, but no sneakers. He took a lot of ribbing about that afterwards.
He won again in 1985, but in 1987 he came back to compete again and got two flats on the bike course, which forced him out of the race. Suspicion was that someone has placed tacks on the road to intentionally impact the cyclists.
During the 1980s when Bill was a professional triathlete, he competed at the highest levels of the young sport. He maintains friendships to this day with the legends of triathlon, including Colleen Cannon, Scott Molina (also a former Wilkes-Barre Triathlon winner), Kurt Madden and Paula Newby Fraser. And, of course, his wife Sherry, his partner and training partner, who also competed at the highest level of the sport.
Ruth coached Liberty High School cross country and track from 1987-2007. He was also a swim coach for 34 years – first at Freedom High School, which was the high school he attended near his home in Bethlehem, and then later at Liberty High School.
Ruth was a 12-time All-American in swimming at Springield University in Massachussetts, and it was here that he met Sherry (also an All-American swimmer). After running and swimming to stay in shape, he started to get involved in the fledgling triathlon community in the Lehigh Valley.
He decided to do IronMan in Hawaii in October 1982. He came in 11th overall. Sherry was the 15th female to complete the 140.6-mile distance. Although he has a lot of great memories from Hawaii and was ranked in or near the top 10 for much of the 1980s, a few years ago he was hit by a car on the Queen Ka’ahumanu Highway on the Big Island of Hawaii, and he hasn’t been able to train the same way since.
What kept Ruth going for all those years of racing and training when injuries and even heart surgery threatened to sideline him?
“The feel of riding fast or swimming open water pulls hard,” he said.
In 2012, then race director Joann Gensel invited Ruth back for the 30th anniversary of the Wilkes-Barre race. Bill started the swim as part of the 60+ men’s wave. He was the first athlete out of the water, first off the bike at Penn State Wilkes-Barre, and ended up finishing seventh overall in 2:26:42. He was 61 years old at the time.
But it was coaching that always gave Bill the most satisfaction in life. In addition to working with young adults, he and Sherry had the first triathlon training camp, held at Camp Akiba in the Poconos in 1985. The friend who connected Bill and I was amateur triathlete Karl Glassman, who served as the training camp’s staff doctor.
“The worst thing I ever did in life was to stop coaching cross country,” Ruth said.
He started coaching cross country at Liberty in 1987. Prior to his arrival they had never had a winning team. His first year as coach they were undefeated and ranked 25th in the country.
“Coaching in a city school is so much more rewarding,” he said.
Since his professional triathlon career, there have been plenty of amateur races. He has raced on his bike a lot including classics like Leadville, Dirty Kanza and Masters World Trials. He’s also had a serious heart surgery that saved his life, and the aforementioned bike accident.
Now in his 70s, Bill Ruth has slowed down. But only a little. Wish I could have been there to see him back in the day running barefoot holding his bike on the way to a victory at the second ever Wilkes-Barre Triathlon.
Dave Bass is one of the organizers of the Back Mountain Triathlon and a longtime triathlon competitor.
