America’s early attempts at organizing an official championship for cross-country running were marked by inconsistencies, stardom, major affiliate investment, court-scandal, and poor decision making. These sorts of controversies might be commonplace in 2015, but for a popular amateur sport in the Victorian era they were very out of character. The ramifications have been far-reaching: today the records of cross-country’s official national governing body, USA Track and Field, are incomplete and inaccurate, omitting numerous events and their winners. And for some of the people and organizations involved in the 1880s and ’90s, the consequences were devastating. This post will try to shed some light on this unique and interesting tale.

Following its introduction to America, cross-country running expanded along the East Coast, drawing the most interest in and around New York. Derived from the game “Hare and Hounds”, the sport appealed to most athletes for the same reasons we love cross country today: it required teamwork, was strenuous but not over-taxing, involved the outdoors, and could be conducted in a fairly contained area. E.H. Baynes wrote in Outing Magazine in 1894, “As the number of clubs rapidly increased, a friendly rivalry sprang up, and the thoughts of those interested turned to interclub races. Then the sport began gradually to change. Instead of jogging along over the country for several hours, the men were taken over shorter courses at a greater speed. Most of the clubs dropped the old-fashioned paper-chase, and offered prizes for runs over measured courses.”

By 1880 the New York Athletic Club was the largest, oldest, and most esteemed amateur social-athletic club in the nation. It boasted a membership of over 1,500 men, with a waiting list of over 300 more, and was also responsible for laying the first cinder running track on American soil. In November 1883, the club’s location in the Bronx’s Mott Haven neighborhood was chosen for the inaugural “Amateur Individual Cross Country Championship of America”, the first national cross-country championship in the United States. The event was a success, the sport flourished, and the New York Athletic Club basked in the glory. Subsequent cross-country championships were held every November for the next four years during which the NYAC gained a reputation for being well-organized and offering substantial prizes.



The NYAC’s biggest local rival was the Manhattan Athletic Club, founded in 1877, but the sport wasn’t just confined to those two. Cross-country running had spread beyond New York to other major metropolitan areas to the west and south, along with Canada, in addition to the abundance of harrier clubs along the East Coast. Races were ostensibly restricted to “gentleman amateurs”, but there was a dark underside to non-sanctioned, “open” running events being conducted by the less-reputable clubs. Betting, gambling, roping, staging, and wagering were prevalent. The clubs with reputations to uphold sought to clear up the problem by uniting to enforce stricter guidelines. In 1880 eight athletic clubs, the NYAC and Manhattan Athletic Club included, formed the National Association of Amateur Athletes of America, or NAAAA.



Unfortunately, the association soon splintered. Following several controversies (including the mismanagement of funds) the NYAC withdrew in 1886, and the National Association of Amateur Athletes of America was reduced to six active member clubs.



The Manhattan Athletic Club virtually became the National Association of Amateur Athletes of America after the NYAC withdrew. But the New York Athletic Club did not remain independent for very long. In January of 1888 the Amateur Athletic Union of the United States was formed, organized in large part by the NYAC. In the interim, the Manhattan Athletic Club began to form an organization to oversee American cross-country running: the National Cross Country Association, founded on March 29, 1887 with the Manhattan Athletic Club and three additional clubs as charter members: the Olympic Athletic Club (New York), the Prospect Harriers, and the Suburban Harriers. One of the NCCA’s first goals was to establish a team championship for East Coast clubs, and within a month of the new group’s incorporation, the first “Team Championship for the National Cross Country Association” was held on April 30, 1887. And soon all hell broke loose.

Three things happened simultaneously: the first was that the adoring public fell in love with the cross-country team championship (sponsored by the Manhattan Athletic Club and its fellow NCCA clubs). The second was that the Amateur Athletic Union (driven largely by the NYAC, Manhattan’s biggest rival) gained support and prominence by aligning with other international amateur federations. And the third was that in March, 1889, a court battle broke out over the right to use the National Cross Country Association name.



First, the springtime-instituted “Team Championship for the National Cross Country Association” rose to prominence in 1887 by advertising a team title, thereby dissuading athletes in the NYAC’s “individual championship” later in the year. Without the appeal of team rivalry, the fall-instituted individual championship disappeared after its fifth running. The Manhattan Athletic Club celebrated, and runners turned out in droves to represent their club teams: the Prospect Harriers and Suburban Harriers, specifically, saw epic clashes between 1887 and 1892.



Meanwhile, the newly formed Amateur Athletic Union was doing everything right. It focused on keeping amateur athletics free from corruption, and crowds were attending boxing, fencing, swimming and track events like never before. The old National Association of Amateur Athletes of America could not keep up, and the NAAAA dissolved in August of 1889.



But despite its influence and prestige, the NYAC still found itself excluded from the cross-country championship. They filed a lawsuit claiming ownership of the National Cross Country Association name, and won the case. The result was devastating for the Manhattan Athletic Club and its partners. After the sixth “Team and Individual Championship for the National Cross Country Association” in 1892, America’s second iteration of a national cross-country championship event came to an end. The Manhattan Athletic Club subsequently filed for bankruptcy in 1893.



Despite winning the court case, the NYAC failed to keep any type of national cross-country championship going (in the fall, spring, or otherwise). An article printed in Outing Magazine in January 1893 helped to explain the situation: “Time and again this fall a meeting of the National Cross Country Association has been called at the insistence of the various athletic clubs without producing a quorum; so that the sport has been limited to the meetings of a few sporadic associations.” Finally, five years later in the spring of 1897, a national championship event returned: “The Cross-Country Championship for Morris Park”. The NYAC was fully behind the event itself, but, despite having the first and second men home in the race, ironically failed to win the team title. The Knickerbocker Athletic Club reigned victorious – and it was the Knickerbocker Club which hosted the subsequent event the following April.



Angry and alienated once again from their attempt to host a proper championship, the New York Athletic Club finally became motivated: in the fall of 1898 the “The Cross-Country Individual and Team Championship of the Amateur Athletic Union” came to fruition, and suddenly, the NYAC had reason to stay involved. Meager attendance at this “inaugural” fall event in 1898 would force the organization to relocate the championship a few times in following years, but eventually they would produce consistency for the next 80. It wouldn’t be until the development of the Athletics Congress in 1979 that another organization’s name would appear on the National Cross-Country Championship (despite the best efforts of the United States Track and Field Federation in the 1960s and 1970s, they were never legitimately accepted by an international governing body).



In a strange twist, several of these early national championships vanished from the historical record, but there was an understandable explanation. For 50 years (including the period of the 1880s and 90s) Spalding Almanacs were the “journal of record” for record-keeping pertaining to American amateur athletics, and for official national cross-country events, only results approved by the AAU after the lawsuit were published. Since the NYAC won the National Cross Country Association case in 1889, the AAU could then verify the championships were properly run under the proper jurisdiction. Thus Spalding Almanacs (and therefore other sources as well), incorrectly listed the national cross-country championship as “beginning” in 1890. For the AAU, and eventually USA Track and Field, this historically incomplete list was the only “legitimate” one available, and it’s been a mistake that’s been perpetuated into the present day.



But there was one additional mistake made. With the knowledge that there was only an 1897 and 1898 championship run within the final five years of the decade, research wasn’t pushed to uncover the additional AAU Championship held in the fall of 1898. Eventually, it faded from record completely, and the early spring edition, held by the Knickerbocker Athletic Club remained the “official” 1898 championship, despite the AAU officially backing the fall event.



For all intents and purposes it’s finally time to set the record straight, and correctly address a national champions list which suffered from a corrupt and controversial battle of wills—featuring two of New York’s most powerful athletic clubs before the turn of the century.

Sources:



“Cross Country Running: A sport becoming popular among athletes” New York Times - http://query.nytimes.com/mem/archive-free/pdf?res=9D04E5D81F31E033A2575AC1A9649C94629ED7CF



“The History of Cross Country Running in America” Outing Magazine - http://library.la84.org/SportsLibrary/Outing/Volume_23/outXXIII06/outXXIII06m.pdf



“The New York Athletic Club” Outing Magazine - http://library.la84.org/SportsLibrary/Outing/Volume_04/outIV06/outIV06a.pdf



“The Manhattan Athletic Club” Outing Magazine - http://library.la84.org/SportsLibrary/Outing/Volume_16/outXVI03/outXVI03b.pdf



“The National Association of Amateur Athletes of America: Historical Sketch” A History of American Amateur Athletics and Aquatics: With the Records - https://books.google.com/books?id=7a5MAAAAYAAJ&lpg=PA9&ots=nF7OrfkiJb&dq=National%20Association%20of%20Amateur%20Athletes%20of%20America&pg=PA9#v=onepage&q&f=false



“Cross Country Runners Ahoy!” New York Herald - http://fultonhistory.com/Newspaper%2014/New%20York%20NY%20Herald/New%20York%20NY%20Herald%201890/New%20York%20NY%20Herald%201890%20-%201222.pdf



“Ruhl v. Ware” Century edition of the American digest: a complete digest of all reported American cases from the earliest times [1658] to 1896 - https://books.google.com/books?id=bHZQAAAAYAAJ&lpg=PA1184&ots=Rk8tzxGtST&dq=ware%20ruhl%20%22cross%20country%20association%22%20suit&pg=PA1184#v=onepage&q&f=false



“The National Cross Country Association met last night…” New York Times -

http://query.nytimes.com/mem/archive-free/pdf?res=9502E1DC1030E633A25753C3A9619C94689FD7CF



“Such running as this is especially significant…” Outing Magazine - https://books.google.com/books?id=j5hUAAAAYAAJ&lpg=RA1-PA72&ots=KYafprcRjX&dq=%22+1889+outing+-staten&pg=RA1-PA72&hl=en#v=onepage&q&f=false



“Cross Country Running: Contestants of the Amateur Athletic Union at Morris Park” New York Daily Tribune - http://fultonhistory.com/Newspapers%206/New%20York%20NY%20Tribune/New%20York%20NY%20Tribune%201898%20Nov%20Grayscale/New%20York%20NY%20Tribune%201898%20Nov%20Grayscale%20-%200402.pdf



“Senior Cross Country – Individual” Spalding’s Official Athletic Almanac - https://books.google.com/books?id=CcJCAQAAMAAJ&lpg=PA81&ots=nBIn_uMg_a&dq=spalding%20kennedy%20carter%20%22cross%20country%22&pg=PA81#v=onepage&q&f=false

