Mystic — In 2007, when the Boston Marathon Association honored him on the 50th anniversary of his Boston Marathon victory, the late John Kelley grumbled about why everyone was making such a big fuss.

Those who went into the running shoe store at Olde Mistick Village that bears his name would have to look long and hard to find any mention of his achievements, which included being on the 1956 and 1960 U.S. Olympic teams and winning the national marathon an unmatched eight years in a row. And Kelley would never tell an unknowing customer about his victories, always asking about their running instead.

Local runner Nick Checker remembers as a 12-year-old boy asking Kelley for his autograph.

“Oh for gosh sake, why would you want that?” Kelley asked him.

So its likely the extremely humble Kelley would have been uncomfortable seeing the more than 300 people, many of them wearing running shoes, who packed the small park at the intersection of West Main and Bank streets Sunday afternoon for the unveiling and dedication of a bronze statue honoring him and his dog Brutus.

“Oh for gosh sake, why are you doing this?” said Checker, giving a spot-on imitation of what Kelley would have likely said before Sunday’s ceremony began.

Local runner Spyros Barres, who was one of those involved in the statue effort, agreed.

“He would have hated the idea to start with. But when he saw the turnout of the community and how it’s inspired people, he would have smiled,” Barres said.

Sunday’s unveiling was the culmination of an effort by Kelley friends to honor him that began just after his death in August 2011. Led by Jim Roy of Mystic, who had Kelley as a teacher and coach at Fitch High School, they raised $87,000 to commission sculptor Brian Hanlon of Toms River, N.J., to create the sculpture.

Among the speakers and special guests on hand Sunday were 1968 Boston Marathon winner Amby Burfoot of Mystic, four-time champion Bill Rodgers, and a host of other Boston Marathon winners and elite runners. Kelley’s three daughters, Julia Washington, Kathleen Gabriel and Eileen Edwards, wiped away tears as they addressed the crowd and removed the tarp that covered the statue.

“He would have thought he didn’t deserve this,” said Gabriel before the ceremony began, adding that her father would have instead asked why a statue was not going up to honor his late wife, Jessie, for “putting up with him for 50 years.”

Gabriel called the turnout overwhelming.

“It’s nice to see how dad was loved,” she said.

Also on hand Sunday was Way Hedding, who has directed the annual John and Jessie Kelley Road Race at Ocean Beach Park for decades.

“John and Jessie, I love them. That’s why I’ve been involved in the race for so long, to keep their memory alive. This is another way to do that,” he said.

He added the statue was not necessarily for Kelley “but for us to remember John going forward.”

Those who spoke Sunday emphasized that Kelley’s humility, friendship, love of nature and years of inspiring students as a teacher and coach at Fitch High School, were more important than his race victories.

Roy, who said he was “blessed” to have met John Kelley in the fall of 1974, called him “ a coach, a teacher and the kindest man I ever knew.”

“So it’s fitting to honor him today on the International Day of Peace,” he said as the crowd applauded.

Roy said he was honored to have been involved with a project in which people expressed so much love and told so many warm stories.

He likened the three-year fundraising and approval effort to running a marathon, saying the beginning was full of excitement, the middle required concentration and in the end the group had to dig in to get to the finish. Looking out on the crowd Sunday, he said it reminded him of Boylston Street, where the Boston Marathon finishes.

He said that the statue was not the result of any one person’s work but that of the community and its support.

Rodgers, an Olympian who also won the New York City Marathon four times, called Kelley “one of the kings of the sport” who made it what it is today. He said Kelley competed at a time when running was hard, a reference to athletes of the time not being able to earn prize money or be paid for endorsements.

“It was an honor to just know John Kelley,” he said.

Burfoot, who wore his Fitch letter jacket with the cross country letter awarded to him by Kelley, said it was appropriate the larger-than-life-size statue stood on a pedestal overlooking downtown Mystic as Kelley was a “teacher of towering inspiration and influence.”

“He taught us lessons of respect and humility,” he said.

Burfoot said Kelley had a “deep, abiding respect for the innate dignity of people” no matter what their position in life. He also talked about Kelley, the compelling storyteller, also being a great listener and how he loved nature, conservation and animals.

“People say Kelley would not have wanted a statue. That is true. But history decrees that those of us in the following generation get to decide these things,” he said. “It is extremely fitting to honor him today.”

Out in the crowd, runner Nick Bottone called Kelley a “man of character” who was one of the most modest people he had ever met.

“He was friend to everyone, a coach to everyone and a mentor to everyone,” he said.

Checker said that since Kelley’s death, people have remarked that they missed seeing Kelley running through downtown Mystic, often passing the site of where the statue now stands on his way to or from his home on nearby Pequot Avenue.

“Now we get to see him again,” he said.

j.wojtas@theday.com

@joe wojtas