Dr. Lucas Was a Pioneer of Fitness

We received a nice comment from Joe Head in North Carolina yesterday to our earlier post about Dr. John Lucas.  Joe relates the inspiration that Dr. Lucas provided him back in the late 60's.  You must remember, this was a significant time before "The Running Boom", which came after the Olympic Marathon win by Frank Shorter in 1972 .  Dr. Lucas was an early adopter of the fitness lifestyle even in the 1950's, and hundreds or thousands were inspired by him.  Thanks for the input Joe.  And come golf with us; our group's umbrella is huge!  And don't forget to check out the Did You Know Section for an interesting fact about Dr. Lucas!

Here's Joe's comment:

My first memory of Coach John Lucas was the day he came out to East Halls in the spring of 1967 for an open entry cross country event for any of us in the dorms who thought we could run. Near the end of my sophomore year, I read Dr. Cooper's book, "Aerobics" and decided that I needed to get back in shape, so I signed up for my first of many P.C [physical conditioning] classes with Coach Lucas. During that time I ran my first marathon [Pikes Peak] and also finished the 1968 Olympic Trials Marathon in Alamosa. I have continued to run marathons since then [my most recent being when I turned 60]. Coach Lucas's example has been an inspiration to me ever since those undergraduate days. I can still see him running laps around the Rec Hall track while eating an apple on his lunch hour.

Joe Head
Class of 1970
B.S. Geological Sciences

And congrats to Robert Snyder's son Chris Snyder on his PR mile of 4:08.91 for UMBC! Chris golfed in our tourney 2 years ago as a member of the second generation Yanomamo clan.