Ray Charbonneau
Amby Burfoot, the 1968 Boston Marathon men’s champion, was running along the Mystic River on Saturday morning near his home in Connecticut when his brother, Gary, floated the idea of putting a mask on the statue of John J. Kelley, who won Boston in 1957.
The statue stands in a park across from Mystic Pizza, the restaurant made famous by the eponymous movie starring Julia Roberts. Burfoot and his wife, Cristina, thought putting a mask on Kelley, who was a beloved coach at Fitch High School in Groton, Conn.