Excerpt from "FrontRunners: How it All Began" by Bud Budlong

The First "Other" FrontRunner Club

In the Spring of 1980 Bob Plantz got a call from Malcolm Benjamin (Robinson), who was editor of the club magazine for the New York Roadrunners, a huge club with about six or seven thousand members. It is the club that puts on the New York Marathon. Malcolm said he was starting a gay running club and wanted to call it Front Runners New York. He asked for permission to use the name. Bob explained that we did not control the name, and yes, it was OK. Malcolm was a nationally rated runner and he knew many other top runners who were gay. He like the way that our club welcomed all runners and discarded the idea of forming a club for elite runners. Other FrontRunner clubs formed in rapid succession.

Front Runners New York has since grown to a diverse club of more than 400 members. For a more detailed history of the club, please go to the Family Album.