An appeal has been launched for the return of trophies won by 1936 and 1939 Boston Marathon winner Tarzan Brown ©Boston Marathon

The granddaughter of two-time Boston Marathon winner Tarzan Brown has launched a campaign for the return of the trophies her grandfather won during his career.

Brown, christened Ellison Myers, but who was nicknamed "Tarzan" early on in his life, is one of only two Indigenous North Americans to have won the Boston Marathon and the only one to have more than one victory having triumphed in 1936 and 1939.

It was Brown’s first victory on the famous course from Hopkinton to Copley Square in Boston that gave rise to the legend of "Heartbreak Hill", probably the most famous landmark in marathon running.

The defending champion Johnny Kelley caught Brown on the hill in Newton and patted him on the shoulder.

Brown responded by pulling away to win in a time of 2 hours 33min 40sec, "breaking Kelley’s heart," Boston Globe reporter Jerry Nason wrote.

"Heartbreak Hill" was christened after Tarzan Brown's first Boston Marathon victory in 1936 ©Boston Marathon

Before his victory in the 1939 race, it was claimed that Brown arrived shortly before the start, eating hot dogs and drinking milkshakes because he had missed breakfast.

It did not stop him winning in 2:28:51, a course record by more than two minutes. 

Tarzan Brown was a direct descendant of the last acknowledged royal family of the Narragansett Tribe of Rhode Island, also known as Deerfoot amongst his people.

He represented the United States at the 1936 Olympic marathon in Berlin, although he failed to finish due to cramp having been among the top five for half the race.

He also qualified for the 1940 Summer Olympics, which were ultimately cancelled due to the outbreak of World War Two.

Anna Brown Jackson, the granddaughter of Brown, never knew growing up that her grandfather was a Boston Marathon winner.

"I never saw him running, I heard the stories, I had heard that he was very fast," Jackson told Boston radio station WBZ.

Anna Brown Jackson, the granddaughter of Tarzan Brown, is leading the campaign for the return of trophies he was forced to sell so he could provide for his family ©Anna Brown Jackson
Anna Brown Jackson, the granddaughter of Tarzan Brown, is leading the campaign for the return of trophies he was forced to sell so he could provide for his family ©Anna Brown Jackson

Jackson claimed that her grandfather faced discrimination after he stopped running, making it hard for him to find a job.

Brown sold his winning trophies and medals to provide for his family.

"During that time, he had four young children and a wife, and they lived in a two-room shack," Jackson told WBZ.

She is now trying to track down the current owners of the trophies and medals to get them back and help keep his memory alive.

"We don't want to sell them or anything else we would just like to keep them to have something that's a part of him," Jackson said.

Brown died in 1975, at the age of 61, when he was hit by a van outside a bar in Rhode Island.