The Dalhousie Tigers - Dalhousie University

Richard Munro is a quintessential winner as a runner and as a person. He never lost a race in high school and continued his unbeaten string in university competition from 1968-1973. In 1971 he won the national open cross country championship by an enormous 42 second margin of victory. He won every track race he entered and dominated cross country with an undefeated university career.

The rules of the day only allowed teams to participate at the CIAU cross country championship; one could not qualify as an individual. With this rule in place, Richard’s first attempt at the national university title didn’t come until the fall of 1972. He won. He won in smaller league races. He won whenever he faced the national champions of his day in invitational races. No matter who he faced or the what the competition, Richard Munro won in black and gold. He won the Dalhousie University Climo Award in 1972-73. Had he been able had to qualify for CIS nationals individually he may have been CIAU champion in each of his four years; a fact made so clear by Richard’s win in 1972 that the rules were changed the following year.

Clearly, a runner with this kind of success had a base of physical talent. However, what truly set Richard apart was his exceptional ability to compete. He was tough and relentless in his pursuit of excellence but above all he kept a positive attitude. The inner calm that he displayed in this most grueling of sports has remained unequalled in more than forty years of cross country excellence at Dalhousie. Having completed a race, Richard would continue running, back along the route he had just run, until every teammate had crossed the line. After one such race where he had defeated the national champion of the previous year, he was confronted by his coach who was puzzled as to how he could finish, looking so free of strain, stress, and pain. Richard took coach Al Yarr aside and whispered in his ear, “to tell you the truth coach, it hurts like hell”. He had won that race, as he did all his races, with such ease that it belied the real struggle that all distance runners experience. He was never one to express doubt or fear.

Richard’s positive attitude and optimism transcended to his teammates and he thus became the team leader. During one pre-race course tour that revealed deep mud, terrible footing and a course that seemed to have been measured incorrectly, other competitors talked about the difficulties they would be facing traversing the course later that day. Richard clapped a hand on his teammate’s back and said simply, “This makes it tougher on everyone else. It’s going to be fun.” Richard, of course, won.

Dalhousie won its first ever conference championship in 1972 and Richard provided the spark and belief that led the team to victory, defeating a strong UNB squad on their home course.

Unfortunately, Richard suffered a career-ending plantar fascia strain in a non-running incident that never fully healed, despite Richard’s persistence. Although his Olympic dreams were thwarted by his continuing injury, he left Dalhousie with a university record that may never be equaled and with a legacy regarding the spirit of running and of winning that is still told every year to Dalhousie’s aspiring national cross country champions.