Beloit President Issues Challenge to ACM Rivals to Run for Glory

In a message and dramatic newsreel, Beloit College Runner-in-Chief (and President) Scott Bierman has issued a challenge to his fellow ACM college presidents – try, if you dare, to wrest the prestigious Shoehorn Trophy from reigning champion Beloit at the 51st annual Olde English Classic on September 21.

A long-time feature of Beloit’s Homecoming Weekend, the Olde English Classic is a 5K race over a steeplechase course that has runners overcoming obstacles such as bales of hay, steeplechase barriers, logs, and two creek crossings. The Classic begins with the President’s Open Race, traditionally started with a bugle call and pistol shot, followed by collegiate races for men’s and women’s cross country teams from about a dozen colleges.

Bierman’s challenge calls for teams of faculty and staff from ACM colleges to participate in the President’s Open Race. The newsreel opens with the narrator setting the stage for this year’s high stakes showdown:

For three years running, the talk of the Associated Colleges of the Midwest has been the epic battles between those lightning-fast Lawrence University speedsters, the rapid Ripon College runners, and those freakishly-fleet Beloit College staff and faculty on the Olde English cross country course. And for three years running it has been Team Beloit that has retained bragging rights and ownership of the coveted Shoehorn Trophy.

The trophy, fashioned out of running spikes from the Beloit athletic department and an antique bugle donated by a Beloit faculty member, resides on the campus of the winning team until the following year’s Classic. The race is run at Leeson Park in Beloit, and the President’s Open Race is scored like a cross country meet, with times adjusted for age and gender using a Runners’ World formula.

Following a video montage showing the Beloit team’s rigorous training regimen, the newsreel concludes with Bierman’s tongue-in-cheek musings about his ACM rivals, as he asks:

Will Carleton, Coe, Colorado, and Cornell come? Will Grinnell get here? Do they dare? Will Knox tiptoe across the border and tie on cleats? Will Lake Forest join our Wisconsin brethren on this field of competition? And what of Macalester, Monmouth, and St. Olaf? Can they, will they challenge us? Doubtful …

In the spirit of the Shoehorn Trophy’s growing tradition, Bierman’s challenge to his consortial colleagues included an invitation to a convivial dinner for ACM faculty and staff participating in the event.

Links:

• Beloit College newsreel “The Olde English Classic“
• Details and registration information for the 2013 Olde English Classic