RASAC's Roots
In 1965, the club, in its embryonic form, consisted of a group of workers at the Army's Nuclear Effects Laboratory, who participated in both group and individual sports at Aberdeen Proving Ground, and went first under the name of Theoretical Physics Branch Athletic Club and then Nuclear Effects Lab Doves, before taking the name RASAC. In 1966 the club expanded to include other members of Aberdeen Proving Ground (APG) in order to form a competitive team for the APG Team Doubles League and went on to win the APG Team Doubles Title Later that year, as RASAC, held the First Annual Airfield Run, which was won by Jack Grayer in a time of 18:30.
In its early years the club held competition in several individual activities including basketball (one-on-one), chess, golf, kayaking, skiing, table tennis, and tennis.
Competitors in each of these categories were ranked according to a uniform power rating formula, so the best competitor in each event was roughly as good in that event as any other event leader.
The club took the name RASAC from a German short story by Nobel Laureate Heinrich Boll (the RASAC were a particularly enthusiastic group of people in the story). The point
was that a true "renaissance person" would be good in all competitions, and each year the "RASAC of the Year Award" would go to the person that had scored the highest in up to ten different categories.
Individual rankings in Track and Field, and in Long Distance Running were included in the categories. During this period many rasaci, as the members called themselves, took part in the RASAC of the Year competition, while some others (misaci) were just content to use the system to find competition in their favorite activity.
In 1970, the Airfield Run got serious, with a trophy to the winner and
ribbons to all finishers. This was the beginning of a gradual transition of the club from a
predominantly multi-sports club to a running club. In 1973, RASAC started publishing
its newsletter, which has been printed at least three times a year ever since.
Multi-sports activity continued at a
decreasing rate into the late eighties, with chess and tennis still popular among members of the club
who worked at Aberdeen Proving Ground, probably because it was easy for them to get together at
lunch time or after work. On the other hand, during the mid seventies RASAC had
begun to become a local powerhouse in track and field, and cross country (XC).
RASAC won the first ever competition among the local Road Runner Clubs with a convincing victory in a 20-mile relay, and started building what was to
become, for a period of time, possibly the best "Junior" running program in the country winning
three National team titles between 1977 and 1980. The club also won the National
AAU 4-mile relay in 1979, and national masters XC titles in 1981 and 1982, thus
winning national titles every year during the championship years (1977-1982),
along with seven national individual titles.