Kathrine Switzer made history while she was an undergraduate student at Syracuse University, becoming the first woman to officially run the Boston Marathon in 1967. She’s since made a career out of combining sports and communications, and she’s still running, too.

After having competed in sporting events around the world, she’ll return to SU to deliver the 2018 commencement speech on May 13. She was announced as this year’s speaker at the end of March. The ceremony will take place in the Carrier Dome.

Switzer said she plans to speak to the graduating class about the value of their education, finding inspiration in unlikely places and issues of diversity and inclusion.

She’ll talk about what a privilege and honor it is to receive an education from an institution such as SU, she said, and how students’ university years shape them in ways that are hard to realize.

“It’s an astonishing thing, that it’s hard for them sitting in the audience in this moment to realize,” Switzer said.

She added that she plans to advise graduating students to keep their eyes open.

Switzer will also address the Theta Tau videos that surfaced in mid-April, depicting behavior that Chancellor Kent Syverud called “extremely racist, anti-Semitic, homophobic, sexist, and hostile to people with disabilities.”

“I’m going to be talking about inclusion, equality, diversity, fairness and peace,” she said. “So if they can’t figure that out in terms of what recently has been happening, that’s their problem.”

Courtesy of the Boston Herald

Beside running marathons, which she’s done as recently as April 22 in London, Switzer is a published author, television personality and founder of the global nonprofit 261 Fearless. She earned bachelor’s degrees at SU in journalism and English in 1968, as well as a master’s degree in 1972.

Part of Switzer’s legacy in central New York is her role in the founding of the David B. Falk College of Sport and Human Dynamics.

Michael Veley, director and chair of Falk’s department of sport management, compared Switzer to Billie Jean King for the kinds of barriers King broke in women’s tennis. He said Switzer is an ideal commencement speaker and role model for young people starting their careers.

“She kind of epitomizes the ideals that we have in our academic program,” Veley said. “She uses sports as a platform for social justice and to change the betterment of society.”

Veley said that Switzer will make a good speaker because of how dynamic, charismatic and compassionate she is. Her civic engagement and community service through sports sets a precedent for people trying to create positive change, he added.

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Switzer speaks mostly at the corporate level about empowering women in the workplace, but she’s spoken to college students and groups of young kids before, she said.

She said she finds speaking rewarding, whatever age the audience is.

“When you connect, it’s an amazing thing, to really convey some knowledge to them and some belief and hope of what they can do,” she said.

Switzer said her most memorable speech was about 30 years ago, at the beginning of her speaking career. She was about to walk onstage when she was approached by a former neighbor. The neighbor said Switzer had changed her and her husband’s lives.

The woman told Switzer she and her husband decided to take control of their health after watching Switzer going out for runs. The couple started jogging and, by the time she saw Switzer on that stage, the couple was running marathons.

“My mouth fell open, and when I walked out on that stage … I wasn’t sure I had anything left to say,” Switzer said. “I don’t even remember what the speech was about.”

Although she said that was the most memorable speech she’s given to date, she expects that to change soon.

“I think it’s going to be on May 13, without a doubt,” she said.

Published on May 4, 2018 at 5:56 pm

Contact Colleen: cefergus@syr.edu | @ColleenEFergus2