Juggernauts: The Making of a Runner & a Team in the First American Running Boom

Destined to be a cult classic.

As the first running boom was sprouting in the early 1970's, a group of Kentucky teenagers were brought together by a young coach who was ahead of his time. Cross country was regarded as a sport for the slightly odd and unathletic, a means of "getting an easy varsity letter". Among this group of runners was a particularly odd (though strangely athletic) teenager who was taken in by the joy of running over the grass, hills, and mud of cross country courses. The coach and seasonally growing team rose to dominance of Kentucky cross country in the span of four short years. Along the way, they "learned the lessons every runner has to learn, mostly the hard way, many of them twice." From humble backgrounds and with guidance from a ground breaking coach, the Lloyd Memorial High School Juggernauts led the way for high schools in Northern Kentucky to win State Championships for over thirty consecutive years. This is that story.