How a Marathon Win 50 Years Ago Kick-Started the ‘Running Boom’

For people who favor clean and simple marks for the start of something new, America’s “running boom” began 50 years ago today, on Sept. 10, 1972, when Frank Shorter, a Yale graduate and law student at the University of Florida, won the marathon at the Munich Olympics.

The legend is that America was so taken with Shorter’s triumph that it collectively stubbed out its cigarettes, traded Budweisers for Nikes, and took to the streets in a jogging craze. Needless, to say, that’s not exactly what happened, but Shorter’s triumph, the first since 1908 by an American in the Olympic marathon, remains a signature moment in distance running in the United States.

At 74, Shorter is still fit and still running, and after years of living in the running haven of Boulder, Colo., he has settled in another running city, Falmouth, Mass. on Cape Cod, home of the famed Falmouth Road Race.

Article source: https://www.nytimes.com/2022/09/10/sports/frank-shorter-running-boom.html