One Foot in Front of the Other

 by Susan Zehnder, Education Director

Runners in the Finger Lakes welcome the arrival of autumn—temperatures are cooler, the humidity is less oppressive, and the colors in the hills can be stunning. Although the Wine Glass Marathon (held since 1981) was virtual last year, this year it returned in person, attracting male and female competitors from more than 41 states. Today we take for granted that both women and men can participate in the event, but a look back at the history of long-distance running shows that women have had an uphill battle when it comes to marathons. The story of one local runner can be an inspiration to keep going.

In 1984, the women’s marathon was added to Olympic events. It was the same year that Molly Huddle and her twin sister Megan were born in Elmira to mom Kathleen, an artist, and dad Robert, a physician. The Huddles, including siblings Christine and Katie Rose, were an active family and Molly enjoyed both school and sports.

Star-Gazette photo of 18 year old Molly running the Elmira-thon in 2002

Huddle attended Notre Dame High School, where in addition to her studies she played on the school’s soccer, basketball, and track teams. During fall of her senior year, she decided to pursue long-distance running. 

Notre Dame didn’t have a cross country team, so after petitioning the district’s athletic governing board, it was arranged that she could run and her father would coach her. She became Notre Dame’s one-person team, representing the school in meets, and the five-foot four-inch Huddle not only won races but broke league records. Huddle went on to attend Notre Dame University, where she continued to set personal bests and win national recognition.

Since then, Huddle has proven herself on the world stage time and again. Her career to date includes 5 world finals, 2 Olympic finals, and 7 personal bests. She was set to compete in this year’s Olympic Games but had to pull out due to hip and ankle injuries.

Early in the 20^th century, women were prohibited from entering races due to health concerns that sound strange to us today. One thing some said was that running would cause a woman’s uterus to fall out. The first woman on record to run a marathon was Violet Piercy of Great Britain in the fall of 1926. Her time was 3:40:22, a record which stood unbroken until 1963. Almost one hundred years later, the women’s record in 2021 is 2:14:04. Molly Huddle’s own record is 2:26:33, set in London in 2019.

The Boston Marathon, one of six exclusive world-class races, began in 1897. When marathons became popular amateur sports in the late 1960s and 70s, women were still prohibited from participating. It seems old myths persisted. The Boston race’s rule book did not even mention gender until the late 1960s, after a 23-year-old woman named Bobbi Gibb attempted to enter the 1967 race but was denied on the basis of her gender. She went on to unofficially run and clocked in at 3:21:40, coming in well ahead of many of the male runners.

The following year, Katherine Switzer entered as K. V. Switzer, using her usual signature. This time the officials didn’t notice her application. To run, she wore a baggy sweat suit. When race officials discovered she was a woman, they and other runners physically attacked her, ripping her race number off her jersey. Today almost half the runners qualifying for the Boston Marathon are women.

Boston Herald photo of Katherine Switzer running

Switzer became an advocate for other women runners. She influenced Avon and Nike to lend corporate support for women runners and women’s races, thus elevating the sport. Things were slowly changing. In 1972, NYC Marathon officials allowed six women to enter the race, but insisted they begin ten minutes before the men. The women decided to strike. When the starter pistol fired, they sat down and held up signs pointing out the inequity of the situation. This deeply embarrassed the race officials, and since then, women have been allowed to compete with men and start at the same time.

In 1984 the Olympics added the Women’s Marathon. Molly Huddle first qualified for the 2012 London Olympics. She was now part of an organization very different than a team of one. She has worked hard through injuries and disappointments. Today, in addition to running, she is elevating other women runners through a podcast she’s created called Keeping Track: Women in Sports . In her podcasts, she highlights the stories of women track and field athletes often overlooked in the general media. It’s just the latest part of the impressive career that Molly Huddle has made by putting one foot in front of another, something she clearly loves to do.

2021 from Womensrunning.com

Fun fact: According to her Wikipedia page, Huddle is credited in part for the female runner emoji.

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Drew "Lefty" Rader

 by Susan Zehnder, Education Director

Wouldn’t it be great to travel back in time to find out the missing part of a story? A case in point involves "Lefty" Rader, a local baseball star, whose 1921 foray into the major leagues lasted two innings of one game.

"Lefty" was born Drew Leon Rader in 1901 to parents James Benjamin Franklin Rader and Ida May Vanatta Rader of Elmira. His father was a fire fighter then worked as an engineer for the Pennsylvania Railroad. Rader was the couple's only child. They lived on Jefferson Street, later moving to Pennsylvania Avenue to live above the Red Brick Food Mart, a small neighborhood grocery they owned and operated. 

Former Red Brick Food Mart

Young  Rader attended Grammar School Number 9 and finished 8^th grade in 1914. He entered Elmira Free Academy that fall. In the EFA yearbook for 1920, it notes that senior Rader was “slow and steady” in his academic pursuits, which may account for why he shows up as a sophomore in the 1916, 1917, and 1918 yearbooks. He graduated when he was 20 years old in 1920.

Grammar School, No. 9

A 21^st century lens suggests World War I, the 1918 flu pandemic, or lack of academic skills may have slowed his progress, but there’s no evidence for this. There is evidence that he had athletic and management skills. As a sophomore, Rader played on, and was team captain, for the varsity basketball team, something he repeated as a junior when the team had a championship season. As a sophomore, junior, and senior, he competed in the high jump for the track team. As a junior he was manager for the varsity baseball team and served on the school’s Athletic Council. And in his senior year, in addition to athletics, Rader served on the Athletic Council, sang second tenor in the Senior Glee club, and helped organize the Senior Reception, a large formal event. Outside of school he was Captain of Company B 10^th regiment Military training commission. The wide range of his activities looks familiar to any current student applying to college. The description next to his senior portrait says that despite taking his time with academics “(h)e intends, however, to go to college…” which he did.  He enrolled and graduated from Syracuse University. So if Rader was the baseball manager, but didn't play for the school’s baseball team how was it he earned a berth as a pitcher for the 1921 Pittsburgh Pirates?

Apparently Rader showed such athletic promise and pitching prowess, he'd been been recruited and played for the Arctic League, a local semi-pro team. Articles in the Elmira Star Gazette praised his pitching, cool headedness, and overall potential for success in the game. The reporter also wrote of comments his father made that nothing would interfere with his son’s college aspirations.

Rader was 6’ 2” and 185 lbs.  Described as “husky” for his time, it was his left-handed pitching that earned him his nickname. Crowds would gather to watch him pitch. It was also his powerful southpaw style that brought in major league recruiters. Impressed, they offered Rader a spot on the 1921 Pittsburgh Pirates team. The 1921 season was notable for another reason. It was the year professional games were broadcast using the new medium of radio, and the  Pirates' games were among the first to hit the airwaves. 

When the twenty-year old joined the team, he proved in practice he could hit and throw with both hands. Things looked very promising. On July 18^th, 1921, Rader made his debut in the seventh inning of a game against the New York Giants. He gave up two hits but kept the Giants scoreless. The Pirates went on to win the game that night. Later, two of his teammates and two of his opponents from that game were inducted into the Hall of Fame. In October the Giants won the 1921 World Series against the New York Yankees.

In February of 1922, Rader was traded to the Minneapolis Millers, a minor league team for “more schooling.” He never played for Millers, apparently unhappy with how he was treated. The feeling must have been mutual since he was placed on a voluntary retired list that May. He approached the Arctics about playing in Elmira again, but was turned down by the manager when his salary request was deemed “too high.”

In the fall of 1921 Rader entered Syracuse University. His affiliation with a professional team however came with restrictions. He was prohibited to play with the university baseball team. He studied business administration, was active in the Square and Compass club, manager of the Boar’s Head Dramatic Society, and a member of Beta Theta Pi, an honorary accounting fraternity. When he was a junior he was appointed team manager. 

Rader graduated from Syracuse in 1926 and in 1931, he married twenty-six year old Annette J. Cullen from a suburb of New York City. Rader worked for the New York Telephone Company and they lived in Rockville Center, on Long Island, NY. The last reference to him playing ball shows up in a small article that mentions him playing for the 1931 Red Stars, a team sponsored by Macy’s. 

Here the trail ends. Rader died in 1975 with no obituary printed in the newspapers. An online search brings up a picture of him wearing a Pirates ball cap. This picture was added just a few years ago.

What circumstances stopped him from excelling as a ball player? Was he able to pursue his interests in managing and leadership the rest of his life? And what advice would he give to young players today? One can only dream.

W. Clyde Fitch, A Father of the American Stage

 by Susan Zehnder, Education Director

Playwright William Clyde Fitch once said he “would rather be misunderstood than lose his independence” and embraced his individualism. As a gay man living at the turn of the twentieth century, Fitch had always lived the life he wanted to, often going against established expectations.

Born in Elmira in 1865, Fitch grew up in Schenectady. His father, William G. Fitch was a former captain in the Union army during the Civil War, and his mother was a vivacious southern belle. Clyde, as he was known, was their only child and he showed an early ability to tell amusing stories and entertain others.

By the time he was in his early teens Fitch was considered a dandy by his peers. He attended Amherst College, graduating in 1886. While a student at Amherst he was known for his keen sense of fashion and amateur acting. He was thought to capture women’s roles quite believably, often dressing in women’s clothing for the stage.

The cast of The Rivals at Amherst College, 1885. Clyde Fitch is seated on the far right.
 Photo courtesy of the Archives & Special Collections blog at Amherst College.
Courtesy of the Archives & Special Collections blog at Amherst College.

After graduation Fitch’s father encouraged him to pursue architecture or business as a career. Fitch had other ideas. The two came to an agreement that his father would support him as a writer in New York City for three years, and if unsuccessful, Fitch would return home and follow his father's advice. He moved to the city and began writing short stories for Life and Puck magazines. His work caught the attention of the renowned New York Times drama critic, E. A. Dithmar and they became good friends. Through this relationship he was commissioned to write his first play “Beau Brummel” (1890) for the popular actor Richard Mansfield. The play dramatizes the life of Brummel, a character in British history who set the standards for men’s good looks and style, and was the very definition of a dandy. The play was a great success and launched Fitch’s playwriting career.

The social satire, biting wit, and intriguing character studies in his plays were popular. Clyde Fitch’s work was so successful that he once had five plays running on Broadway at the same time. He worked with leading actors of the day including Ethel Barrymore, Maude Adams and John Drew Jr. His playwriting earned over $250,000, a sum roughly equivalent to over 7 million dollars today. He spent lavishly on his own lifestyle, and bought residences that included a Manhattan townhouse and “Quiet Corner,” a summer estate in Connecticut.

Between 1890 and 1909, Fitch wrote and adapted more than sixty plays for the stage. In 1909, after suffering many appendicitis attacks, he chose to avoid surgery and to follow the advice of European specialists who suggested an alternative cure. However, Fitch died of sepsis in France, at the age of forty-four. He left his Connecticut estate to the Actor’s Fund of America, and today, his writing is housed in a special collection at Amherst College. He is known as one of the fathers of American drama.

Although Fitch’s work has faded from popularity, Elmira College theater students have recently been studying his drama The Girl with the Green Eyes. At its peak, this 1902 play had a run of 108 performances at the Savoy Theater in New York City and starred top actor Robert Drouet in the lead role. Elmira College Theater Professor Hannah Hammond’s students were blind gender-cast in their roles to honor Fitch, and have shared their reading for you to enjoy. https://youtu.be/mwpVzqbrDmQ