Irish Rebel John Boyle O'Reilly Helped Establish the Boston Athletic Association in 1887

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The famous Boston Athletic Association (BAA) was founded in the late19th century by an unlikely coalition of leading Boston Brahmins and a famous Irish rebel, John Boyle O’Reilly (1844-90).  

The BAA was created at a time when amateur sports were increasingly popular across the United States.  There were many collegiate teams in greater Boston and numerous small associations, but the need for a major athletic association was acutely felt by local sportsmen and competitors.   

It was O'Reilly in January 1887, who suggested that interested parties meet to discuss the idea of "forming an athletic club in Boston," wrote The Boston Globe in a March 9, 1912 story on BAA's 25th anniversary. 

That initial meeting generated excitement and resolve to create an athletic organization, modeled on the popular New York Athletic Club, according to reports.  

On March 16, a general meeting was held at the Cadet Armory. A governing committee of 18 people was presented, as well as plans were presented to purchase a plot of land on  Dartmouth Street for the BAA headquarters, wrote the Boston Evening Transcript.  

Then on May 9, 1887, the General Court of Massachusetts passed an act to incorporate the BAA, listing O’Reilly as an official, along with other leading Bostonians like Henry Parkman, George Morrison, George W. Beales, Francis L. Higginson, Richard D. Sears and Harrison G. Otis.

The first official meeting of the BAA took place on June 14, 1887 at the Boston Cadet Armory. The full membership of 1,200 was already enrolled by the time the first meeting took place, wrote the Globe.

The BAA helped field the first US Olympic team that competed in Athens, Greece in 1896, and also started the now-famous Boston Marathon in 1897, a race it continues to oversee to this day.


A popular Irish patriot, poet, orator and spokesman for the downtrodden,  O’Reilly is best known as a leader of Boston’s Irish community; in his day he was well-regarded as a sportsman, intellectual, and community activist. He had escaped a life imprisonment from a British penal colony in Australia by hopping on a whaling ship out of New Bedford, MA, and he arrived in Boston in 1870, where he lived until his death in 1844 from an accidental overdose of medication at age 44.

O'Reilly was an active outdoors man, often taking week-long canoe and hiking trips, and organizing a number of Irish sporting events in greater Boston that featured Gaelic games. He taught fencing for a time at Harvard University, and befriended local sports heroes such as heavyweight boxing champion John L. Sullivan, who was born in Boston.  O'Reilly's book, Ethics of Boxing and Manly Sport, was published in 1888, and defended the controversial sport of boxing. It also delved into other topics like Irish hurling, canoeing, and hints for fitness and nutrition for the serious athlete.

A book by John Hanc, entitled the B.A.A. at 125 recounts the formation of the group and gives a synopsis of O'Reilly's life and his involvement in the forming the city's most famous athletic organization.
Today, a memorial to John Boyle O'Reilly is located in the Fens at the top of Boylston Street.

Find about more about Boston Irish history by visiting IrishHeritageTrail.com. 

Research + Text, Michael Quinlin



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