Roger Pierce, Class of 1971, has been elected to the Northeastern University Hall of Fame for excellence in the sport of track & field.
Pierce started his running career as a walk-on dash man and 46 years later is an American record holder.
At Beverly High School, he was a three-year competitor on the cross country and indoor and outdoor track teams. Though voted outdoor MVP in 1962, he was not recruited and took several years off to go to California.
In 1964, he was a walk-on at Northeastern and tried out for the freshman track team. His position was solidified when he won the dash at the Greater Boston Collegiate freshman indoor meet.
Pierce's varsity career, 1966-68, was a time proliferated with dual meets, and teams were judged by regular season records. He was a valued team member, scoring points in the dash, long jump and relays. In his sophomore season, NU went 10-0 indoors and 6-1 outdoors.
In his junior season, Pierce continued to pour on the points and the Huskies went 9-1 indoors and 5-0 outdoors. In his senior year, NU went 7-2 indoors and 6-0 outdoors. During Pierce's career Northeastern had a 43-4 regular season race record.
In his senior year, he was elected captain of both the indoor and outdoor track teams. That year, he also won the Greater Boston indoor dash and the outdoor 100-yard dash. Pierce was voted the Northeastern Trackman of the Year and won the Parsons Award as the outstanding indoor competitor. He graduated holding the Husky 50-yard indoor dash record at 5.4 seconds and was a member of the 4x400 relay team that set both the NU indoor and outdoor records.
Fifteen years later and a few pounds heavier, Pierce again started to run. The big breakthrough came when he turned 45 and set the world indoor record at 23.4 seconds in the 200. In 2001, at 56 years of age, he went to the World Championships in Brisbane, Australia, coincidentally the country where he was born. He won the 400-meter run, placed fourth in the 200 and was a member of the U.S. teams that won the 4x100 meter and 4x400 relays. Pierce won more gold medals at the World Championships in 2003, '05 and '07.
He has won 29 U.S. National Championships and he has set 10 U.S. records. In World Championship competition, he has set eight records and has won gold 10 times. Pierce still looks forward to many years of national and international competition.
He and his wife Fran live in Essex, Mass., and have three children. They are a folk song duo called Tamarack and are popular on the North Shore. They also founded a coffee shop named One World.
