Will Cloney, 91; Executive, Sportswriter Saved Boston Marathon

Will Cloney, 91, who saved the Boston Marathon by encouraging cash prizes for the amateur race but lost his director’s job for his efforts, died Thursday in Weymouth, Mass., of unspecified causes.

For a token amount of $1,500 a year, Cloney served as race director of the Boston Marathon, which was founded in 1897, from 1946 to 1982. But after international track and field officials authorized trust funds for such events in 1981, Cloney feared that the Boston event, which provided only trophies and laurel wreaths, would be unable to compete with races developing in other cities.

When the Boston Athletic Assn. refused his plea to provide cash prizes, Cloney made a deal with a Boston lawyer to sign commercial sponsors for the race. The Boston Athletic Assn. directors overturned the contract in court and eased Cloney out of his job.

Nevertheless, what Cloney fought for eventually occurred. The Boston Marathon got a full-time paid director, money for prizes and expenses for the top runners and now has a budget of about $5 million a year. The number of runners grew from a few hundred when Cloney took the job to about 10,000.

Born in Dorchester, Mass., Cloney earned a degree from Harvard and served in the Army during World War II, rising to the rank of lieutenant colonel. He worked as a high school teacher and football and hockey coach, a sportswriter for Boston newspapers, an investment company vice president and a journalism professor at Northeastern University.