History
This photo was taken just before the Reading Hospital Road Run in 1982 and includes all 7 of the original founding members of the club.
What started out as a small running club of seven members 30 years ago has grown to the second largest running club in Pennsylvania, with over 450 members! At first, the new club members called themselves “The Reading ‘Y’ runners” since they had all known each other for several years, and had been running together primarily at the indoor track in the first Reading YMCA. But they settled on the Pagoda Pacers, according to John Baranski, the first club president. ”Johnny Santoro (one of the original seven) said that we’ve got to have ‘Pagoda’ in the name because running from the ‘Y’ to the Pagoda is the toughest run of our lives,” Baranski said. ”Then, we thought, what rhymes with Pagoda and Lou Rizzuto (another of the original 7 members) said, ‘How about Pacers?’, so we became the Pagoda Pacers.”
The club members often referred to themselves as the PAC, as in a pack of wolves, since they would run together in a close group. On the first uniform shirt of the new club were the initials PAC, which stood for the Pagoda Athletic Club.
General Historical Photos
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Reading Y Runners (Pagoda Pacers) at the 3rd Annual Reading Hospital Road Run, May 17, 1981 (first photo). The other two photos are RHRR 1982 or 1983.
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Pagoda Pacers at the 1982 Sea Isle City Beach Patrol Island Run
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Pagoda Pacers at the Grings Mill Run – 1982
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Pagoda Pacers at the 3rd Annual Mifflin Firecracker 5-Miler, 1981
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Atlantic City Marathon, December, 1984. This is the third oldest marathon in the country after Boston and Yonkers
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1982 Pagoda Pacers @ St. Patty’s Day 10 Miler in Oley
