Three Extraordinary Films Show How Title IX Forever Changed Women’s Running — And Countless Lives — For The Better – Forbes

On June 3rd, 1972, 78 women and girls ran the 6-mile loop around Central Park, in Manhattan. It was the New York Road Runners Club’s first-ever road race exclusively for women, and it was considered a smashing success. While NYRR, which also founded the New York City Marathon, had never barred women from entering its events, running, like most sports at the time, was considered a man’s domain.

But things were changing. Five years earlier, Katherine Switzer had become the first woman to complete the Boston Marathon, and in November 1971 Beth Bonner and Nina Kuscik became the first American women to run under three hours in the marathon, both in the second annual New York City Marathon. Sensing an opportunity, NYRR’s president, Fred Lebow, had the idea of holding an all-women’s race, and went looking for a sponsor.

He found Johnson Wax, which made a shaving gel for women called Crazy Legs. The company suggested a marathon, but Lebow knew they’d never fill the field. There simply weren’t enough female runners. He suggested a loop of the park instead. They’d call it the “Mini Marathon” — a playful allusion to both its relatively short distance and the mini skirt, which was fashionable at the time.

A few weeks later, President Nixon signed Title IX of the Educational Amendments Act into law, making it illegal to discriminate in any academic setting on the basis of sex, including in athletics. The timing was a coincidence, but the passage of Title IX turned the Mini into a symbol whose significance would only grow stronger over the years and decades to come. In 1973, the Mini saw 103 runners complete the race, and then 157 in 1974. In 1977, five years into Title IX, the number jumped to 2,277. Now, the Mini 10K welcomes between 8,000 and 9,000 runners to Central Park each June, including a professional field of the best female distance runners in the world.

Three short documentaries from the era, housed at the Reserve Film and Video Collection of the New York Public Library, capture this pivotal moment in American history, just after Title IX was passed and long before women would represent 60% of runners in the United States, as they do today.

Each of the three films, which were screened on Monday, June 17th at Lincoln Center and are detailed below, further show how running transformed lives throughout the New York metro area, from the Upper East Side to Bed-Stuy and Long Island. Together, they reflect the quiet revolutionary spirit of women’s and girls’ running in the 1970s, when those runners might not have seen themselves as part of a movement, lacing up to make make a political statement, but simply as people who wanted to run, to push themselves, and to enjoy the camaraderie of an athletic community.

Even decades removed, their exuberance is infectious. They prove that Title IX didn’t just ensure that they had access to sports programs in American schools, it also helped to instill confidence that would carry over into all areas of their lives.

Mini-Marathon, directed by Yvonne Hannermann in 1977, explores the running boom from a female perspective against the backdrop of that eponymous race in Central Park, focusing on a handful of runners whose ages span more than a half-century. In the film, two women in their 50s describe the sense of well-being and accomplishment they derive from running. A young businesswoman relates sitting in a conference room across from her male colleagues and feeling empowered to know that she’s stronger than they are, that she can run for miles and they can’t. A 12-year-old girl lists the names of her rivals with the focus of a pro. And at the race itself, a 5-year-old girl charges across the finish line as the crowd teems with encouragement and support.

Ellen Freyer’s 1976 film Girls Sports: On The Right Track profiles three young athletes on Long Island as they discover and then excel in track and field, culminating with footage of the first all-girls track meet in the United States, in 1975, at West Point. The film reports that 1,200 spectators attended the event. The film also features archival footage of Babe Didrikson Zaharias, who won two gold medals in track and field at the 1932 Summer Olympics, and Wilma Rudolph, who in 1960 became the first American woman to win three gold medals at a single Olympiad, in Rome.

Finally, Bonnie Friedman’s award-winning film The Flashettes, from 1977, tells the story of an all-girls track team in Bedford-Stuyvesant, Brooklyn, that was formed to provide a positive, confidence-building outlet for the girls at a time when many of their peers were being lured by drugs and prostitution, according to their coach, Andre Beverly. Active throughout the 1970s, the Flashettes began as an underdog team and went on to win awards at track meets across the country. Some of the girls would later run for Division 1 universities, and even become coaches themselves. In 1980, Friedman recut the film into a 5-minute short for Sesame Street, highlighting the Flashettes’ triumph at a New York metro-area championship on Randall’s Island.

Seen from the vantage point of 2019, the films offer a glimpse into the not-so-distant past, a reminder of how far we’ve come in just four short decades, and evidence of the extraordinary impact a piece of legislation can make on people’s lives, practically overnight. Fortunately, in the case of Title IX, that impact was a positive one.

Each of the three films can be viewed at the New York Public Library, in the Reserve Film and Video Collection.