Writing a Paper on the 70s running boom, could use some input

turku, Thank you for your comment. Yes, I ran with coach Fred Foot, David Bailey, Kidd, Crothers, George Shepherd and the others in the East York Track club for five years. We trained together 6 days a week. It was a fun time and we got some great results.

I have just been looking at the results of the 1979 Boston Marathon and comparing them to my first Boston race in 1962. In 1962 there were 181 runners and the winner was Eino Oksann in 2:23.48. Only 17 years later, in 1979 there were 7,357 entrants. 14 representing 5 countries ran under 2:15. The world record in 1962 was Abebe Bikila's 2:15:16.2. Frank Shorter was 75th in 2:21.56. Even more amazing is the fact that there were 520 women entrants. Joan Benoit ran an American record 2:35.15 and the top 4 women runners broke the course record. Masters women ran 2:58.11 and 3:00.23. And until 1966 there were no women running in the Boston Marathon.

Shorter's 1972 win was a key element, but the boom was ready to take off anyway, I think. Ken Cooper's "Jogging" (or whatever the title was--"Aerobics"?) certainly had people thinking in the right direction, and plenty were running to get fit. (Weight loss was not nearly as big a motivator back then: fat people were a distinct minority.)

Still, I shouldn't belittle Frank's influence. I ran two marathons in 1972, both before his OG win. The first race had a couple dozen starters, the second (AAU national championship!) fewer than 200, IIRC, and either two or four women (two beat me, I do know that).

I was talentless, inexperienced (19/20), and lightly trained, and still finished those marathons under four hours. In each I was 'way toward the back of the pack. Most of my clubmates would not have considered me a serious runner, with my average mileage only around 50/wk and nothing more challenging than my slow weekly 15-miler.

I think that is something I remember about the boom of the 1970s: a lot of the new runners were *athletes*. There was certainly none of the "if you finished, you won" attitude--most people trained fairly hard. (Review the Boston Marathon's entry standards from back then, to get an idea of what people considered "respectable." Believe me, six-hour marathons weren't!)

I also think that the great increase in the number of road races that various businesses and polities sponsored did a lot to foster the boom. In the summer of 1972 in Central NY you had to be ready to drive a couple of hours to get to a race, where you'd generally see the same guys every week. Once all the towns started offering multiple races, more people switched from fitness running to actually competing (or at least participating) in local events. Again, I think a lot of the runners were already there; they just hadn't been racing.

The fact that Americans could tune into a big marathon and see an American win was HUGE. It was pre-East African invasion of the running scene. I think that really helped to kick off the "running boom".

Also many runners were former xc and track guys, so road races were still seen as competative events, not the "everyone's a winner" running parades of today.

A note on 70's running fashion. Spandex wasn't invented yet so "running tights" were long underwear pants (white cotton with a waffled texture) with shorts over them. Very cool.

formerly present wrote:

Shorter's 1972 win was a key element, but the boom was ready to take off anyway, I think. Ken Cooper's "Jogging" (or whatever the title was--"Aerobics"?) certainly had people thinking in the right direction, and plenty were running to get fit. (Weight loss was not nearly as big a motivator back then: fat people were a distinct minority.)

I think you're hitting on a key point that's being hinted at in this thread, and would make for an interesting paper (if done right):

The "Running Boom" of the 70s was a movement that experienced two similar but diverging phenomena from a common source. Those two are the relative success of elite distance running in the U.S. and it's fairly respectable popularity among the general public AND the rise of the running for sport and fitness as a mass movement.

They share the same roots - as some of the early pioneers of the mass movement were involved in elite athletics (Dr. George Sheehan was an elite collegiate miler in his days at Manhattan, covered the 1968 Olympics as a journalist, and was the first "elite" masters runner, while Dr. Kenneth Cooper was involved in the initial physiologic testing of elite athletes.) They brought their experiences of elite athletics to the masses, feuling both a fitness boom and interest in the sport. Thankfully, U.S. distance runners obliged and provided interest stories - Pre, Shorter, Ryun, Liquori, Dave Wottle, and Steve Scott towards the end of the decade.

One of the interesting outgrowths of the running boom was its influence on general sporting culture. Prior to the running boom, very few people outside of high school or college played any sports - in any form. Sports were reserved for the young - no such thing as masters or adult leagues in anything, save for playing golf or tennis a leisure activities. Once middle aged people started taking up running, they realized that sport could be a lifelong pursuit and the adult sports world took off.

Lots of interesting material if you're serious about it. I'd advise you to stay away from sucking the dick of running - chances are everyone knows you are a runner already, you don't need to talk about how awesome running is, or how important it was (and thus should be.) I was lucky enough to write my philosophy master's degree thesis on some of George Sheehan's writings, and it was challenge to separate the running part of me from the philosophical part, but it made for a much better paper.

I agree...Roger's wins was cool but it was Shorter wearing that Florida T-shirt, usually running on side of the road my himself, and that beautiful stride that made me think I could

Shorter...America's best

http://images.google.com/imgres?imgurl=http://pro.corbis.com/images/U1807209.jpg%3Fsize%3D67%26uid%3D%257BC33883C8-0850-4CB8-89FB-BD069C9EB4ED%257D&imgrefurl=http://pro.corbis.com/search/Enlargement.aspx%3FCID%3Disg%26mediauid%3D%257BC33883C8-0850-4CB8-89FB-BD069C9EB4ED%257D&usg=__8hM42TOzX_B_ZMLyYvVIV2buF6M=&h=480&w=321&sz=50&hl=en&start=115&um=1&tbnid=Cp5fixGsvoP7KM:&tbnh=129&tbnw=86&prev=/images%3Fq%3Dfrank%2Bshorter%2Bphotos%26ndsp%3D20%26hl%3Den%26sa%3DN%26start%3D100%26um%3D1

In the mid-seventies many of us in Buffalo used Danskin dancing tights, as well as the classic longjohn bottoms. There were black longjohns as well as white -- I think mine were wool EMS ones. Also longjohns could be had in that early polypro fabric that stunk like crazy if you didn't wash it out, oh like five minutes after you got home. Nasty stuff, that was. Mine were some sort of blue with black stripes, or spots. I forget.

The running boom also brought about the opening of running stores everywhere. Before that, you went to a general sporting goods store to buy clothes and footwear. Of course, everyone thought they could jump on the bandwagon and make tons of money causing too many stores to open. Eventually, some went out of business and some stayed around.

Remember, the running boom was really about the masses taking up the sport and didn't have much correlation to the elite runners. The heyday of high school running was the mid to late 70's. The running boom came right at the end of that and high school times started to decline. The roadraces did provide a vehicle for the great runners to make a living off of running in comparison to the amateur status or under the table payments in track they would have endured after they got out of college. For some runners, having the elites at the races was a draw, but most started running because it was the "in" thing to do at that time. Mainstream use of treadmills, eliptical trainers, or stairmasters came later.

Right before or about the same time as the running boom, there was a "fitness" boom in the sense of joining a health club and working out there. Clubs such as Vic Tanny, Jack LaLanne, and Nautilus fitness centers were opening all over. Some would join the health clubs but many started running as a way to exercise without having to pay to workout at these places. You could just throw on a pair of shoes and run anytime and anywhere you wanted.

I realize that this post is 11 years old; however, you reference Allerton Park and I am looking for some historical information. In about 1970 or 1971 I was involved with helping at what I believe was the first Allerton Park marathon. The primary promoter was Steve Cohen[sp], a professor at U of I. Do you know anything about this history or do you have any names of persons in the Champaign area that I might contact for details? Your post was very interesting but I left the C/U area in 1971 and did not participate in the later events.

Thank you.

Started running in 1977. Shorter winning in 1972 was sort of the seed, then Rodgers winning Boston and New York and the Sports Illustrated coverage pushed things along.

But I think what finally lit the fire was the movie Rocky, and the running scenes, especially when he runs in the early morning and comes back holding his side and limping a bit. That just stuck in my head.

Still running today, doing intervals, time trials, no racing (lost interest with the high entrance fees and selfie bucket list crowd). Legs still turn to planks of wood when doing an all out 440, so even though it's way slower, it feels the same!

The Toronto Zoo had a 20 km race back in the day and I ran it in it's first year (1978). To that point I'd only run a few road races as I was a 1500 m specialist (and there weren't that many road races), but thought it would be cool to do my weekly long run with others. As I recall there were 2500 - 3000 starters and I couldn't believe it, I'd never seen so many runners and it was pretty freaky. Prior to that I honestly did not know a single runner who wasn't a hippie track runner and suddenly there were accountants and stuff running, it was a strange adjustment and I never really accepted it (I liked it as a fringe thing more).

Good point.

One thing that I haven't seen mentioned yet was the flourishing of running publications. Track & Field News had, obviously been around for a while, as had Runners World (which was then focused on serious runners), but there were many more. Joe Henderson did a newsletter, Nike did Marathoning, Distance Running News, Runner, Running, Distance Running, and many more. There were several regional publications (eg, New England Runner) and at least one that just did road race results.

Perhaps some of the other old time runners can help out with other titles.

I’m surprised to hear of ~2000 people in a 20k in 1978 at the Toronto Zoo. I’d love to hear more about that. I’ve never heard of it and it’s a strange distance to run especially back then. At that time the Toronto Spring Road Races (forerunner of the Brooks Spring Run Off) were attracting several hundred runners across many age groups. The Zoo was still new and relatively far out for a lot of people. Do you have any more info about this?

RW's "Booklet of the Month" kept us watching our mail! Full of precious material that nowadays is free of charge on the internet.

I was the typical skinny vegetarian hippie marathoner all through college, running 80-100 miles/week and working towards sub-2:30. This phase turned south on two very bad knees at age 22. That I can run pain-free today is freekin miracle.

When studying a particular era of sports, ancient or modern, you first have to understand what the functions of sport have been since the beginning of time:

1. Competitive measure

2. As an educator

3. Pathway to virtue - both the person and the spectators

4. As a pastime

Next, understand that sport is a capture and release of ritualistic physical energy.

Now we can help mold the 70s template :

* The decade began with young people disillusioned with government and society because of Vietnam, Civil Rights Movements and things like Watergate especially

* There were many strikes during the 70s including teacher strikes that stopped school but sports continued

* The era before it -- estimated 60 to 67 -- began embracing sport specialization and year round training at the HS level. The 70s continued this trend.

* Then you have ambassadors Bill Rodgers and Frank Shorter who basically toured the states racing every day at the end of the decade. They were huge catalysts at each local level.

Running was an expression of freedom and a way to let out all that pent up disillusioned energy. Running offered health benefits. Running could be both a competitive measure for student athletes in track/cc and older participants could make the activity their leisurely pastime including for weekly exercise. Then there was Prefontaine who became a symbol of the youth and interpreted running as an art. The birth of Nike and Asics Tiger around the same time. Plus many who embraced a spiritual context of running and became ambassadors on their local level like Roger Eischens.

Sometimes competitive sport and the intrinsic value it yields (i.e. spectators understanding results) function as a vehicle to deeper human meaning for everyone involved. I am thinking the 70s was absolutely primed with populations looking for that deeper human meaning.

Los Angeles natives and USC and UCLA had always dominated the Summer Olympic Games for decades before the 1940s which is still the casse today. The Southern California sports and fitness lifestyle spread across the world starting after WWII when millions of Gis stayed in Southern California rather that return home to frigid and humid parts of the US. Hollywood TV and movies promoted bodybuilding, running, volleyball, swimming, surfing, exercise, yoga, etc. The Running Boom started at the 200 mile long Southern California beaches. 100,00s of runners flock to the board walks every morning. Now everyone like running. Have a nice Run ;-)

Er... wrote:

I’m surprised to hear of ~2000 people in a 20k in 1978 at the Toronto Zoo. I’d love to hear more about that. I’ve never heard of it and it’s a strange distance to run especially back then. At that time the Toronto Spring Road Races (forerunner of the Brooks Spring Run Off) were attracting several hundred runners across many age groups. The Zoo was still new and relatively far out for a lot of people. Do you have any more info about this?

Sure, it was won by Rick Rojas in about 1:01 I think with (if memory serves) Paul Bannon in 2nd and Jerome Drayton third. It was a hot day, the race started just outside the Zoo gates, did about 17 km on the road and then finished with 2 or 3 km on the windy paths inside the Zoo. I think I ran 1:10 or so. Oddly, the next road race I ran was in Mississauga and was a 1/2 marathon - the first time I'd ever heard of the distance.

In 1980 Herb Lindsay won in 1:01 the Zoo race (called the Star Trex race) as well.

The seventies:

Frank, Wottle, Pre, Ryan.

Billie

The Kenyans seemed mysterious.

Races..popsicle sticks to determine your place in the chute.

A big race was 300 people.

An entry fee was $3

lots of people stayed around for the medal ceremony and the post race feeling of belonging to something.

Ovett vs. Coe

worn out copies of Track & Field news passed around.

Rumors of large crowds in Europe at track events.

The look on Franks face as he entered the stadium in 72 Olympics.

Jim McKay

Any road race before the public obsession with marathons was kinda weird.

Proudly carrying my AAU card in my wallet.

Runners on the cover of Sports Illustrated.

Being the only runner in the park

traveling miles to the one running shoe store in the area.

ABC Wide World of Sports

shorts without built in athletic supporters

seeing people jogging in Chuck Taylor Converse

what's a sports doctor?

Everything imperial distance

rumors of blood doping

awesome Alberto Salazar

We are not going (1980 Olynpics)