Feliz cumpleaños, Ted Corbitt

Today, January 31, we celebrate the birthday of Ted Corbitt (1919-2007), the father of long-distance running and the founding president of NYRR. Without Ted, so much about the pursuit, the sport, and the health of running would not be what it is today—and NYRR wouldn’t be the organization it has become. As our first president (1958-1960), Ted established us as a service organization for the community of runners, focused on New York but open to the world.

Ted believed that athletic training and competition should be accessible to everyone, and he brought those values to his running (he ran over 200,000 miles in his lifetime) and to his work as an administrator, a race organizer, a physical therapist, and a tireless advocate for a more open, more inclusive, and fairer sport. The balance in our mission between competition and community—between hailing world records and encouraging personal bests, between training hard and celebrating our collective love of running—is something we can trace to Ted.

The New York Pioneer Club: A Legacy of Inclusiveness

NYRR, established in 1958, drew many of its founding members from the New York Pioneer Club, an organization founded over two decades earlier by three Black coaches and businessmen in Harlem. At the time many NYC sports organizations excluded Black runners, but in 1942 NYPC’s constitution chartered the club to serve all races, creeds, and abilities. As Ted’s son, Gary Corbitt, recalls, in the Pioneer Club “you had an integrated running team that predated the integration of pro sports.”

Ted joined the Pioneer Club in 1947. As many as 27 of the founding members of NYRR—then known as the Road Runners Club – New York Association—wore the NYPC singlet. More than a third of NYRR presidents, including Ted, have been Pioneer Club members. Led by Ted, NYRR's founders modeled a culture of inclusiveness—welcoming everyone committed to the pursuit of running, no matter who they are or what their ability level—on the inclusive charter of the Pioneer Club.

Pillars of Corbitt’s Work, and Ours

Competition
Ted understood that competition was one of the reasons why people run. But competition is given its legitimacy by fairness, and despite being a runner of global stature who represented the U.S. at the 1952 Olympic marathon and was the 1954 national marathon champion, Ted suffered racial injustices as a runner—from outright discrimination due to Jim Crow regulations and practices to encounters with law enforcement as he trained on the streets of NYC.

So, Ted strove on behalf of the running community to make competition fairer: He increased the opportunities for women and people of all races to compete, and he worked to establish standards and practices for fair and accurate course measurement.

It’s in part because of Ted that NYRR rerouted the New York City Marathon out of Central Park and into the streets of the five boroughs of New York City in 1976, making it an event for everyone. That, in turn, helped to kick off a run-up in our membership from under 1,000 in the early 70s to over 30,000 by the end of the 80s, significantly broadening the range of people we serve.

Health
Ted’s professional work as a clinician also influenced the direction of our organization. He taught physical therapy for decades at Columbia University, pioneered and became expert in a range of therapeutic techniques, and practiced for over 40 years at the International Center for the Disabled (ICD), America’s first outpatient rehabilitation center. ICD was founded with the mission of equipping people with disabilities for equal participation in a world of mostly able-bodied people, and that was a commitment Ted considered fundamental.

At NYRR, we aspire to live up to Ted’s example by encouraging and enabling people with disabilities to compete, train, and participate in a wide range of our activities, including in flagship programs like the New York City Marathon and our Rising NYRR youth program. And we work to help everyone train, according to their own abilities and condition, for long-term athletic health.

Community
For all his personal excellence as a runner, Ted viewed running as a community activity. In his NYRR presidency and in his tireless social advocacy and professional work, he made clear that running should be for everyone and the community of runners should welcome all.

At NYRR, we strive to maintain that legacy. Our events and programs now reach nearly 700,000 people every year and have continued during the pandemic as we continue to provide the social support and institutional structure to help people of all ages, from youth to seniors, experience the emotional and psychological benefits of movement.

Every year, Rising New York Road Runners and other NYRR free youth programs serve more than 240,000 young people. Through our programs, they learn that they can set a goal, work and train, and then achieve more than they ever thought possible.

Our programs provide coaching and training, but more importantly, they provide the social support and institutional structure to help young people experience the emotional and psychological benefits of success. Year after year, participants credit Rising New York Road Runners with giving them confidence and pride that crosses over into other areas of life and that they carry with them into adulthood.

We owe so much to Ted Corbitt. On his birthday, throughout Black History Month, and always, we’re proud to carry on his life’s work and we gratefully acknowledge the legacy he left us.

To learn more about Ted Corbitt, visit the Ted Corbitt Archives, maintained by Gary Corbitt. And stay tuned here for more content celebrating Black American runners throughout Black History Month and beyond.