Mad Dogs and Englishmen was the faculty and staff running group at the University of Kansas for about four decades. It was started in the early 1970s by some KU professors who began running over the noon hour, initially just for exercise. Not only did the group run at noon, but several early members were in fact Englishmen (and Australian).

At first, it was just a few guys running a few laps around the indoor track at Allen Field House as fast as they could. Some photos from these early years are available at the Photos link. Over the years, the group grew in numbers, peaking in the 1980s and 1990s. The group was varied and diverse and included members from many departments on campus as well as some community members and students. Runners met Monday through Friday at noon at the east side of Robinson Gymnasium on the KU campus. (See the History link for further information on the early days.)

During this period, many of the members participated actively in road races up to the marathon distance. Some members were highly competitive and several made the Kansas Road-Running Honor Roll. The group also fielded teams and individual runners some years for events at the Kansas Relays.

A typical noon run for many years included 10 to 20 runners, sometimes as many as 30, running from three to seven miles, and for many years some members met for long weekend runs.

The group's organizing spirit was Phil Montgomery, a math professor, and many of the early members were from the math department. Phil would often lead the group from campus to South Park in downtown Lawrence, where it would then divide into smaller groups for runs across the Kansas River bridge at city hall and perhaps onto the levee for some, or the seven-mile cornfield route east of Lawrence, or various routes around town. Phil suffered a back injury in 1993 that prevented him from running but remained active for about 10 more years. .

The group's only organized activity was a predicted-time three- or four-mile run in the fall followed by a banquet in the early years and a picnic in later years.

The group's numbers declined after the early 2000s as original and early members aged and we we were unable to recruit younger faculty and staff. In later years we fielded masters teams for events like the Olathe marathon relay and the Brew-to-Brew 44-mile relay.

This website was begun in the late 1990s and eventually became a comprehensive source for club photos, race results, and other information, probably the most comprehensive site of its type of any small club in the country. It's no longer being updated as of 2019 but will remain online for a while longer. As of 2019, several members are continuing the predicted-time run and picnic.

The group run south of town, 1980.