marathon

Kennedy was an avid Boston Marathon runner who took in strangers, launched a Christmas charity and urged his family to serve others.

Kennedy has brought those values to the Bruins, working alongside head coach Bob Chesney preaching success starts with putting others first.

Decades before he became UCLA’s innovative offensive coordinator, Dean Kennedy eagerly waited at mile marker 24 in Boston.

Dean stood alongside dozens of members of a large Irish Catholic family every Patriots’ Day.

And while it was a time of celebration for everyone running the Boston Marathon, it was a national holiday for the Kennedy family — especially Dean’s father, Jake Kennedy, who was an avid marathoner.

“There was the Super Bowl, and then there was the Boston Marathon,” said Zack Kennedy, Dean’s older brother. “Our whole family, from as early as I could remember, would gather up. We’d find a meeting spot on Beacon Street, two miles out from the finish line, and our cousins were there, and we would all wait for my dad.”

Former Florida assistant coach Dean Kennedy, left, talks with his father, Jake, at the Swamp in Gainesville, Fla.

(Courtesy of the Kennedy family)

When he was 10, Dean got to experience the marathon in a new way. Sporting a Chicago Cubs Nomar Garciaparra jersey, Dean watched his dad do what he always did — find his group of supporters, hug his family and kiss his wife.

Before departing for the marathon’s homestretch, Jake picked up Dean, brought him onto the running path and told him, “Let’s finish this together.”

The father and son ran the final 2.2 miles of the race together, continuing one of Jake’s long-standing traditions of selecting a family member to finish the race with him each year.

“It was the coolest thing and that definitely inspired me to be a runner,” Zack said.

In 2023, Dean crossed the Boston Marathon finish line again.

But this time, he did it without Jake.

Cousins Russel Becker, Dean Kennedy, Zack Kennedy and Chip Kennedy pose for a photo after running the Boston Marathon in honor of Jake Kennedy.

(Courtesy of the Kennedy family)

Instead, Dean ran alongside his two brothers, in honor of his father, who died in 2020 after a battle with ALS — a disease that also took the lives of Jake’s brother and father.

Jake, who led a Boston-based physical therapy practice, not only helped athletes prepare for the race, but also competed alongside them, running 37 consecutive Boston Marathons with the hope of setting the record for most consecutive runs.

After Jake’s death, the Kennedy brothers made a pact that at least one of them would run the marathon, passing the torch and keeping their father’s streak alive.

“After he passed away after COVID, we created the Jake Kennedy ALS fund to raise money and then we got marathon bibs and we were able to run it in his honor,” Dean said. “… To actually cross that mile marker to cross the finish line, it was something that I can’t even explain. It was very surreal to be in that moment of something my dad loved to do to raise money for this disease, but at the same point in time being there and feeling him and feeling his spirit.”

The brothers say their dad inspired the family’s commitment to helping others.

Whether it was working 18 hours at his physical therapy practice to treat everyone that needed him, family dinners that included house guests who needed a helping hand, or wrestling a gun away from two people in a fight, Jake would take the shirt off his back and give it to anyone.

Jake’s generous spirit inspired the launch of “Christmas in the City,” a charity he started alongside his wife that gave a Christmas experience to thousands of people in inner city Boston.

The charity was formed in 1989 when Jake realized his kids had too many gifts and needed to understand the true meaning of Christmas. Today the charity is run by Zack and Chip, the youngest of the four Kennedy children, and supported by Dean and Jake’s eldest child, Alyse.

After Jake was diagnosed with a form of ALS that took his voice first, Dean asked his dad if they could skip the “Christmas in the City” event and celebrate privately as a family — knowing that it would probably be one of the last holidays they would spend together.

“His voice, he could barely speak, and he looked at me, and he said, ‘Our job is to help people who need it the most,’” Dean said. “That was how I grew up, that piece of that there’s always people that are in a worse-off situation, and you can always find the positive things in life, and that’s how he lived his life.”

Jake Kennedy, right, and his wife, Sparky, greet people during a “Christmas in the City” event.

(Courtesy of the Kennedy family)

Jake’s lifelong commitment to helping others lives on in the way that Dean mentors his UCLA players. And it fits in naturally with head coach Bob Chesney’s belief that success begins by serving others.

While Dean coaches his players hard and demands a lot, he said his main focus is showing the Bruins that he is there for them. He stresses that everyone goes through adversity, and that football is a microcosm of life.

“That’s what coaching is all about,” Dean said. “It’s about giving back and being there for these 18- to 23-year-olds in … their most transformative years. And that’s what I learned from my dad … the ability to give back and always attack every day with a positive attitude.”

Six months after his ALS diagnosis, Jake implored his son to run the Disney World half marathon with him. But after years of long nights coaching, Dean was a worn-out member of the University of Florida staff and felt like he was the most out of shape he had ever been.

“The doctors told him that he shouldn’t run, and he kind of looked at them and gave them the middle finger,” Dean said. “He looked at me, and I’d probably gone six months without working out at that point, and I said, ‘I’m not going to run.’ He said, ‘If I have ALS and I’m going to run, you’re going to run.’ And he smiled, but he forced me to run the half marathon with him.”

Dean and his brothers now try to live up to their father’s high standards.

“Our dad had this incredible, insatiable ambition to help the world with the tools he had, and for my siblings, we live the same way,” Chip said. “We found these passions and the ways that we’re going to help the world. The way that Dean’s making football the best possible sport, he can see it.”

Rachel Apa, a former Division I field hockey player and first-time marathon runner, died Sunday after she collapsed while participating in the New York City Marathon. She was 24.

Apa experienced a “medical incident” during the race, according to marathon organizers New York Road Runners, and a bystander administered CPR until medical staff arrived. Staff continued with CPR and also used a defibrillator in their efforts to revive her. EMS transported Apa to Mount Sinai Medical Center, where doctors tried to save her life for more than six hours, her father, Steve Apa, told the New York Times.

“We are deeply saddened by Rachel’s passing following running in Sunday’s race,” the Road Runners said in a statement. “Our thoughts and sincere sympathies are with her family, friends, and the entire running community.”

According to multiple media outlets, the family was told by doctors that Apa had died of rhabdomyolysis — “a rare condition in which muscle cells break down and release a substance into the blood that can lead to kidney failure,” according to the Mayo Clinic. Marathon runners are listed as people that could be affected by the condition.

The Office of Chief Medical Examiner in New York did not immediately respond to an inquiry for this article.

Apa spent four years with the Bucknell University field hockey team before graduating in 2024 with a degree in business administration. She made 42 starts in 63 overall games, compiling 40 points on 17 goals and six assists.

A product manager at TE Connectivity who was pursuing an MBA at Charleston Southern University in South Carolina, Apa decided earlier this year to run the New York City Marathon as part of the Parkinson’s Champions team.

“My grandfather was my role model growing up,” she wrote on the team’s fundraising page. “He taught me to stay active, push my limits, and embrace challenges, shaping my love for sports and movement. Later in life, he was diagnosed with Parkinson’s disease, and I watched as the disease slowly took away the freedom to move that he once loved so much. He passed away in 2022, but the lessons he taught me continue to drive me forward.”

The fundraiser garnered more than $21,000 in donations, far surpassing Apa’s stated goal of $4,000.

Her father, Steve Apa, told the New York Times she had been training for the marathon for months.

“It’s unfathomable,” he said of his daughter’s death. “Perfect health, perfect shape, 24 years old.”

He told multiple media outlets that his daughter was accompanied to the race by her mother and some friends, while he stayed home in Lewisberry, Pa., and tracked her progress on an app, texting with her along the way.

Several miles into the race, Steve Apa told NBC News, his daughter texted “I feel amazing” and “I’ve never felt this good.”

Soon after, at around the 14-mile mark, Apa’s mother shot a video of her daughter smiling and waving as she ran by.

A few miles later, Steve Apa told the outlets, he started receiving texts from his daughter that said things like “ugh” and “ow.” He stopped hearing from her around mile 20 or 21 but could see on the app that she was still running, until her progress stopped at mile 24.

According to the New York Police Department, police officers assigned to the marathon “observed a 24-year-old female experiencing a medical episode near mile marker 24” at around 1:40 p.m. “EMS responded and transported the female to Mount Sinai Hospital in critical condition,” NYPD said in an email.

Apa’s mother rushed to the location and was told by an EMS worker that her daughter had been taken away in an ambulance, Steve Apa told NBC News. Michelle Apa received a ride to the hospital in another ambulance.

Apa was declared dead at around 9:40 p.m., Steve Apa told the New York Times.

According to the Road Runners, the last time a New York City Marathon participant suffered a medical incident during the race and later died at a hospital was 2024.

Andreas Almgren continued his remarkable year by winning the New York Marathon men’s race on his debut over 26.2 miles.

The 31-year-old Swede broke the European half-marathon record in September, having already won 10,000m gold at the European Athletics Championships in August.

Almgren then lived up to the anticipation surrounding his marathon debut by finishing in two hours, six minutes and one second in New York – 13 seconds in front of Italy’s Yemaneberhan Crippa.

Lesotho’s Kamohelo Mofolo finished a further 12 seconds back in third.

Almgren became the first European-born man in 30 years to win the race in New York, after Italy’s Giacomo Leone in 1996.

“I just thought, ‘I’ve got the legs today’,” said Almgren.

“I’m about to start crying. It’s better than anything I could have ever imagined.”

In the women’s race, Kenya’s Sheila Chepkirui claimed her second New York Marathon success.

The 35-year-old finished in 2:24:36, which was six seconds ahead of American Jessica McClain, with Kenya’s Hellen Obiri a further second back.

“The last mile was really tricky and I had to be patient because I knew Hellen was really strong,” said Chepkirui.

“I had to really push up to the finish line.”

The race marked the 50th anniversary of the marathon, which links New York’s five boroughs of Staten Island, Brooklyn, Queens, the Bronx and Manhattan.