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

by Steve Adkisson

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.

298 pages, Paperback

First published November 28, 2008

Reviews

[Rachel · Rating 5 out of 5]

Welp, now I wanna go for a run.

[Jeff Kline · Rating 4 out of 5]

Four stars because I'm a sucker for memoirs. That and the stories just ooze with nostalgia for my old cross country days in southern Ohio. Those of us middle aged runners who competed in rural HS cross country will easily relate. Others maybe not so much

[D Donnell · Rating 5 out of 5]

A fun read for anyone from Erlanger or who attended Lloyd Memorial High School, or who worked there. I taught there 18 years and found Steve's stories and history of the Cross Country team to be funny and yet informative.

[Derrick · Rating 3 out of 5]

This book had a lot of colorful and exciting runs. My favorite story was the pool run and the shenanigans that run entails. My favorite competition story was the Senior Year state meet. Easy to relate to if you were ever on a competitive and fun-loving sports team. I had difficulty finding a unifying theme or reader take away from this biography, such as what to attribute the teams success. Coach Daley's style, leadership of key athletes, and the blue collar work ethic are all given some credit. Nevertheless, I had fun reading it.

[Jeff · Rating 2 out of 5]

Book ranges from boring to a little interesting. There's not much of a story here, except for the running. Those parts were okay, but let's just say it's not difficult to understand why this was self-published.