A star runner at Boston College and one of television’s foremost track & field and marathon analysts, Emmy Award-winning broadcaster Larry Rawson has offered his keen insight on the majority of ESPN and ESPN2’s coverage of the sports since 1980 (Paul Short Memorial at Lehigh), including the U.S. Olympic Festivals, the 1996 U.S. Olympic Track & Field Trials, the NCAA Track and Field Championships, the Boston and New York City Marathons, and many major international events.  He also served as an ESPN SportsCenter and NBC Radio reporter at the 1996 Summer Olympics.  In recent years for ESPN, he has worked NCAA and high school events, including the SEC and ACC Cross-Country and the Indoor and Outdoor Track and Field Championships on the SEC and ACC Networks.  In 2017 he covered his 50th NCAA track and field championship. Overall, he has covered more than 100 of the “big three” marathons – Boston, New York and Chicago.   

Rawson broke into broadcasting in an unusual manner.  At the 1974 Boston Marathon, he corrected the announcer after he had made several factual errors on local radio, and as a result, was offered a chance to be part of the coverage over the air.  Since that time, Rawson has been the “Voice of the Boston Marathon,” covering every year of the prestigious event on radio or TV, including many on ESPN.   

His other broadcasting credits include color commentary for NBC radio and reports for ESPN from the 1992 Summer Olympics, reports from the 1983 World Track and Field Championships and the 1984 Summer Olympics for ABC Radio; and the 1984 New York City Marathon for CBS Radio.  He also reported on the 1988 Olympics for NBC television and radio and has called the Los Angeles Marathon for local television.   

Rawson was a part of the 1991 Emmy Award-winning team for ESPN’s Outside the Lines:  Steroids — Whatever it Takes, which won in the Sports Journalism category.  In addition, Rawson was a member of the broadcast team for the 1988 Millrose Games which won a New York Broadcasters Association Emmy Award as Outstanding Live Sports Programming.  The latter award, presented by the National Academy of Arts and Sciences, recognized outstanding sports production done at a sporting event held within 100 miles of New York.   

Rawson is a 1963 Boston College graduate with bachelor of science degrees in business and English.  As an undergrad, he posted a 4:07 mile.  Soon after college, his running career was interrupted when he was deployed to Viet Nam as a Captain in the United States Marine Corps.  He was an intelligence and artillery officer and served in combat in Vietnam as an artillery forward observer. During his time serving the USMC, he was an All-Marine Track and Field Champion and competed internationally representing the U.S.A.   

Upon returning to the states, he began a long career in finance, working at firms such as Kidder Peabody and Paine Webber, Lehman Brothers, Morgan Stanley, CRT Capital Group, LLC and Greenwich Investment Partners, LLC.  A former New England college record holder in the mile, he is a member of the school’s Athletic Hall of Fame.  He also has been inducted into the Hall of Fame of Running USA (the organization that oversees all road races and marathons and was the first commentator to be inducted) and the New York Athletic Club.  In 2011, he received the Penn Relays Lifetime Achievement Award (the first time given to a commentator).  In 2005, he overcame stage IV throat cancer with radiation and chemotherapy.   

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