Mad Dogs and Englishmen was started in the early 1970s by some KU professors who started running over the noon hour. For many years, the group included some Englishmen (and an Australian) who enjoyed running in the midday sun.
The group began competing in an inter-university postal competition in the 1974-75 school year at distances ranging from the 440-yard dash to 10 miles. After that, the marathon drew some -- especially the KU Relays Marathon -- while others focused on shorter runs. See the Races link above for results from those early days to the present. (Records are incomplete from the early years, but we're still looking.)
We date the group's unofficial founding as 1973. In spring 1980, the group held its first more or less organized run. This became a regular event in fall 1984 and included a predicted-time run at noon on a Saturday. Everyone predicted what time they expected to run for either three miles or four miles, and starting times were staggered so that everyone would finish together if their predictions were accurate. We gave an award to the runner who came closest to the predicted time, and in 1991 the award (a T-shirt) was named in honor of John Bunce, a founding member who died that year.
The run was followed by a banquet in the evening at which Top Dog Phil Montgomery organized various awards. In later years, we held a picnic in some years instead of a banquet. A list of the annual awards is at the following link: MadDogs Awards.
Photos and results of our annual predicted-time run are at the Annual Run link at left.
Here are some recollections of the group's origins, from some of the founders.
Jim Brewer writes about Comrades Marathon
Faculty Team, 1976 KU Relays