A Brief History of the Big Beaver Big Dawgs

Lou Lodovico, John Antinossi and Lou Alaksin had been training together and carpooling to races for several years. Someone noted that there was a group of elite runners in Pittsburgh doing the same thing called the Pharaoh Hounds.

During an episode of "Runners High" a suggestion was made that we needed a name also. Something less elite, small townish and more mixed breed...the Big Beaver Dogs.

Big Beaver is the Boro where Lou Alaksin lives and where a lot of training runs take place. Later on, Harry Green and Dave White joined the group and we expanded our training sites.

On or about June 7, 2009, the "Dogs" became "Big Dawgs" and Harry's wife made up some t-shirts for the group with a bulldog picture and the "stay on the porch" quip.

During the winter of 2009/2010, our training group expanded to include Emmett Santillo Sr, Emmett Santillo Jr, Mike Johnson, Lenny Yensull & Gale Mussey. It was soon decided to get "Big Dawgs" singlets and John Antonssi had them ordered.

As the racing season progressed, others expressed interest in joining the Dawg Pack and was expanded again to include Bob Walker, Boone Weatherly and Eugene McClain. A web site was also developed spelling out our "bylaws", our "strict" membership requirements and other interesting and useful pages.