NYC Marathon Created the Modern Marathon

As we witnessed a new record at this year's NYC Marathon, we are reminded that the NYC Marathon is the model for all modern marathons.

New York Road Runners

The New York Road Runners, a non-profit founded in 1958, organized the first ever NYC Marathon in 1970. That pioneering effort created the modern marathon. The New York Road Runners organization has more than 60,000 members and continues to produce the NYC Marathon each year along with many other races.

In the first NYC Marathon, only one woman started the race, and she did not finish.Fifty-five men finished that race. By 1978, the race had 9,000 participants. Last year, 47,000 people finished the NYC Marathon. The growth and development has been impressive and influential.

NYC Marathon

This year's marathon was yet another tremendous success. The men's champion set a new course record, and the women's race was the second closest in history. The second place finisher on the women's side was a competitor from the Bronx. A record number of runners, 47,107, participated in this year's New York City Marathon.

The NYC Marathon is the model for all modern marathons. Here is an except from the NYC Marathon web site.

Around the world, the word "marathon" evokes images of New York City. Before the New York race began, marathons were modest events run by a few athletes and followed by a few fans interested in the limits of human endurance. Today many marathons are huge media events that take over entire cities around the globe. None is as prominent as the ING New York City Marathon, but all city marathons are modeled on it. Modern marathoning owes its start -- and its world-class status -- to New York.

While the marathon has always been a focus of community spirit, with more than two million New Yorkers lining the streets to support the runners, that aspect of the race was most apparent in November 2001. Less than two months after the September 11 terrorist attacks, the New York City Marathon became a race of hope and renewal for participants, spectators, and all New Yorkers, and patriotism ran high as the marathon hosted the men's and women's USA Marathon Championships.

New York has continued to lead in race management. In 2002, New York Road Runners ("NYRR") created a separate start for the professional women as a way to highlight the most competitive women's field in race history. In 2003, ING became the title sponsor of the race and joined with NYRR to fund grassroots running and fitness programs among the city's youth through the ING Run for Something Better program. NYRR hosted the 2008 U.S. Olympic Team Trials -- Men's Marathon in Central Park on the same weekend as the ING New York City Marathon 2007. In 2008, the marathon was successfully staged with three wave starts. The 2009 race was the marathon's 40th running and hosted the USA Men's Marathon Championship. In 2010, the marathon expanded its reach to friends, family, and fans with the I'M IN theme.

Forty years after its start, the ING New York City Marathon continues to grow in size and to be the leader among marathons around the world.

NCAA Abuses Defenseless Men of Color

With tonight's end of the college football season, we are reminded that Manhattan is the home of the Heisman Trophy and that the men who seek that trophy are being abused by the collegiate athletic regime currently in place. The NCAA controls nearly aspect of the lives of the college athletes and will not allow those athletes to benefit in any way from the billions of dollars of value they create for others.

Heisman Trophy

The Heisman Trophy is the most prestigious award in college sports. It is provided each year to the most outstanding football player in college football.

The award has always been headquartered in Manhattan. John Heisman was a legendary player, coach, and athletic director in college football. After his incredible career, he retired in New York City. At the Downtown Athletic Club in lower Manhattan, Heisman organized a process to select the most outstanding college football player. The first award was announced in 1935, but Heisman died before the 1936 award presentation. The Downtown Athletic Club named the award after Heisman and hosted the award ceremony until the September 11, 2001 terrorist attacks damaged the Dowtown Athletic Club. Other Manhattan locations have hosted the ceremony in the years since 2001, and the Heisman Trophy's connection to Manhattan has been strengthened by the past decade rather than weakened by it.

Pay the Players in the Revenue Producing Sports

Maryland's Basketball Coach has advocated paying the student-athletes in the sports that generate large revenues for their schools. He has suggested a $200 per month stipend. But, one wonders why there are so few advocates for his suggested approach.

The NCAA generates more than $700 million each year, primarily from television rights. The schools represented by the NCAA generate additional revenue from merchandise sales and other opportunities. None of that revenue is shared with the athletes that are responsible for the creation of that revenue.

The NCAA's use of the likenesses of student-athletes in video games, on apparel, and on television promotions has caused a lawsuit based on the NCAA's apparent monopoly in the area of collegiate athletics, and the plaintiff is hoping to create momentum for paying student-athletes.

The monopoly's determination to avoid sharing the benefits of the athletes' talents with the athletes has an unmistakable racial component. In the modern era, as television revenues have exploded and wealth has been created by college sports, the athletes competing in the revenue producing sports of football and basketball are increasingly persons of color. The sports generating the largest amount of revenue are dominated by young men of color. The National Football League is nearly 70% Black, and college football is nearly 50% Black. The Division I college basketball rosters are approximately two-thirds Black. Young men of color have become the typical winners of and top competitors for the Heisman Trophy, and no athletes have been able to share in the revenues created by these individuals.

No Advocates for Student Athletes

The whales have Save the Whales. Professional athletes have unions;but student-athletes have no advocate.

The NCAA is $700 million each year to spend of defending its interests. Student-athletes are forbidden from even selling their own property to generate cash to defend their interests. When the NCAA takes action against a student-athlete, there is no defense attorney provided. The colleges look out for themselves and no one is positioned to defend the student-athlete.

If the NCAA continues to forbid student-athletes from receiving discounted services, they should face additional legal action. The NCAA is, in many ways, the adversary of these young men of color that generate all of the NCAA's revenue. The NCAA has attorneys, accountants, experts, consultants, and every type of professional guidance. The student athlete is not only on his/her own in battling the NCAA, but the NCAA's rules would both forbid the athlete for paying for guidance by selling assets and prevent the athlete from accepting guidance at no charge from a non-profit. They have twisted the concept of amateurism to mean that the NCAA has unlimited power to abuse the young people that create the NCAA's revenue and that those young people are violating rules by preparing the defend themselves against the NCAA.

These young people need an organization to defend them against the NCAA monopoly, and the NCAA must recognize the rights of these young people to accept guidance from professionals seeking to level the playing field.