From the start: Bobby Crim reflects on changes


Flint Journal assistant sports editor Bill Khan interviewed Bobby Crim, the race's organizer, as part of his contrivution to The Long Blue Line, a book The Journal published in 2006 as part of the event's 30th anniversary. Here's an excerpt from that May 11, 2006, interview.

Bobby Crim shows an old black-and-white photo of himself, speaking on the floor of the Michigan House of Representatives in 1965: 33 years old and rumpled and overweight at 185 pounds.

“I’m healthier now than I was then,” says Crim, now 74 and — at a fit and trim 145 pounds — able to run circles around his past self in the picture.

Over three decades, this is the man whose very name has come to mean running and fitness: The Crim 10-mile road race, the Crim Festival of Races, the Crim Kids Classic, the Crim training program, the Crim Fitness Foundation — Crim himself may not have had a hand in all of them, but he kindled and fanned the flames.

The race Bobby Crim founded has evolved over the years since 576 finishers struggled through a grueling 10-miles on a hot, muggy Flint afternoon in 1977.

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Crim and his staff worked tirelessly in the early years to put on the race, usually meeting in the kitchen of longtime race director Lois Craig, his administrative assistant in the state House. Control over the Crim organization rests in 2006 with a board of directors, chief executive officer Gerry Myers and race director Deb Kiertzner.

It’s no longer only about the nationally ranked 10-mile run on the fourth Saturday of August, but is a year-round organization with the stated mission of improving local residents’ health and fitness.

Bobby Crim couldn’t be more pleased.

Watching from a distance, Crim fully approves of the new emphasis outlined upon Myers’ hiring in 2005.

“It’s going to be tremendously helpful,” Crim said with trademark concern for the well-being of others. “As I understand it, a lot of schools have had to cut phys ed. I look around now and I see so many young people who are out of shape physically. Our hope is this will affect many of them and get them to where they’re in physical condition and will continue to stay fit.”

Perhaps the current vision brings the Crim full circle: Improving the lives of young people was the aim of the race at the outset.

Crim, a Democrat from Davison, Mich., was state House Speaker in the spring of 1976 when he was invited to attend a Michigan Special Olympics track and field meet at Kearsley High School. What he saw that day inspired him to do something to help the mentally and physically handicapped athletes served by Special Olympics.

“They were enjoying themselves, having fun, winning medals and ribbons and being hugged,” Crim said. “Their parents were there with them. I thought, ‘My goodness, this is something.’ When I was growing up, I remember Special Olympics kids. You didn’t see them. They were hidden in bedrooms, in basements. They were kept home, that sort of thing.

“When I saw these kids out there having fun, having something normal in their lives and having some success — which they would (otherwise) have little of — I was extremely impressed.”

Crim returned to Lansing, told his staff about the experience and asked, “What can we do?” Because Crim had been a runner since 1969, the logical thing seemed to be holding a road race to raise funds.
Nobody on Crim’s staff had ever put on a race, which became glaringly apparent when one of his workers chose a noon start. After suffering through the hot and humid conditions with a time well short of his expectations, Crim sought out that staff member at the finish line.

“I said, ‘As soon as I get my breath, I’m going to punch your lights out,’ ” Crim joked.

Though the first Crim was a financial success, raising more than $30,000 for Michigan Special Olympics, nobody could have envisioned what the race would become.

“We thought it would be successful, but the whole community reached out and embraced the race,” Crim said. “It just shows something about this community. That’s what made it the huge success it has become. In five, six, seven years, it was already a huge success that nobody dreamed about. I didn’t.”