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The Dallas Running Club is a volunteer-based organization that provides a supportive community for every runner.
Tal Morrison was the founder and first president of the Dallas Running Club, named Cross Country Club of Dallas from 1969 through 2006.
Tal started running in 1960 inspired by President Kennedy's push for physical fitness. “President Kennedy didn't want any fat military,” Morrison recalls. Three years later in Washington, D.C., Tal ran his first 50-miler race named after President Kennedy.
When he retired in 1967, he continued running and usually found himself at White Rock Lake. He decided to start a running club, and he wanted to pattern it off the New York running club, which had a race the first Saturday of every month at 8 a.m. To get members, he would stop other runners he would see at the lake and ask for their contact information.
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Dues the first year, dues were a whopping $3 a piece and Morrison managed to gather together about 20 members. One of those members was none other than Don Lucas, a lawyer turned shoe salesman, who ended up naming his first running shoe store after his dog, Luke.
Morrison remembers well November 1969, which was the first running of the Dallas Turkey Trot. "We had about 15 of our members run the race and everyone placed," he says proudly.
In honor of the great contribution Tal Morrison has made to the DRC and the Dallas running community, the DRC's April race is officially called The Tal Morrison Classic and a scholarship program, Scholars On The Run, The Tal Morrison Scholarship fund, has also been organized in his name.
Tal died the night of June 3, 2015, National Running Day, at the age of 93.
Here is a list of past club presidents and their years served since the founding of the club in 1969.
President | Term(s) |
| Tal Morrison | 1969-1973 |
| Ralph Taite | 1973-1974 |
| Norm Alsobrook | 1975-1976 |
| Dave Debell | 1976 |
| Dave Branning | 1976-1977 |
| Dale Hager | 1977-1978 |
| James Thruston | 1979-1982 |
| Dan Millet | 1983 |
| Ed Weadock | 1984 |
| Peggy Tibbits & Bob Hancock | 1985-1986 |
| Jean Millet | 1987-1989 |
| George Eastes | 1990-1991, 1993-1994 |
| J.D. Miller | 1992-1993 |
| Cricket Griffin | 1995-1996 |
| Dan Lipshur | 1997-1998 |
| Horace Duncan | 1999-2000 |
| Cline Taplin | 2001-2004 |
| Glenn Carter | 2005-2006 |
| Libby Jones | 2007-2008 |
| Greg Hall | 2009-2010 |
| Peggy Munroe | 2011-2012 |
| Kyle Wills | 2012-2014 |
| Stephanie Hascal | 2015 |
| Lisa Garris | 2015 |
| Teresa Pennington | 2016 |
| James Jessup | 2017-2018 |
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