The Boom in the Popularity of Long Distance Running

In the 1970s, the United States saw a boom in the popularity of long distance running with about 30 million Americans becoming involved in the sport. Some people took up running for fitness purposes while others began training for competitions as more and more communities began organizing running clubs, road races of various distances, and marathons (Haberman, 2017).

Just as the entire country had experienced a running boom in the 1970s, cross country running at Trinity University became a more organized intramural sport. It seems that students were also becoming more interested in the competitive aspects of long distance running. Cross country at Trinity became more than just a single intramural event that occurred once a year. It became an intramural team as a small group of runners had joined together to train and race in various meets throughout the fall semester (Dietz, 1971).

Throughout the rest of the decade, the extent of cross country as a sport on campus did not grow past small groups of runners coming together to join the intramural team. With the size of the team not being consistent and the members having varying levels of running experience, it can be argued that student interest seemed to be the only driving force behind any form of organized long distance running on campus.