When the running world talked about Greg Rice, it always commented first on his slight stature, then marveled at his achievements.

On the day 70 years ago that the Notre Dame distance specialist won the NCAA’s first cross country championship, he was well on his way to becoming one of the giants of the sport.

He stood about 5-4, but apparently seemed even shorter. Legendary Irish trainer Eugene “Scrap Iron” Young, calling Rice the “greatest runner that I ever knew” in his memoirs, said the native Montanan “was only 4 feet, 11 inches tall, and weighed 135 pounds.”

He also ran with a bit of a secret. He arrived on campus as a miler, but soon was stopped in his own tracks by a recurring hernia. After a pair of doctors advised Rice to quit running, Young designed a truss that enabled a return to action.

“He was a courageous lad, determined to make good,” Young wrote. “Every day, rain or shine, the little fellow was on the track, running, running, running. He never seemed to tire.”

Impressed by Rice’s stamina, coach John Nicholson moved him to the two-mile run. By the time Rice – well on his way to becoming the first American to run that distance in less than nine minutes – journeyed with the Irish cross country team to Michigan State’s newly created four-mile cross country course for the inaugural NCAA Cross Country Championships in 1938, he already was a dominating presence in track.

According to a mechanical drawing for the course approved by Spartan cross country coach Lauren P. Brown, the race began and ended at a track and field facility that was finished less than two years before the championships. The first mile consisted of a loop that skirted Spartan Stadium and then circled northwest around the area where Munn Ice Arena now stands, before bringing runners back through the track. From there, the pack ran about two miles east, eventually circling what was known as the College Sugar Bush – a wooded area where dormitories stand today. Runners then returned along the Red Cedar River and followed roads back to the south end of Young Field, where they then circled three-quarters of the track to the finish.

Leaving the stadium on a clear but cold day to tackle the eastward heart of the course, Michigan State’s Richard Frey led the way. But Rice eventually moved to the front and approached the track as the 20-minute mark neared. His winning time of 20:12.9 was 3 seconds better than Drake’s William Feiler, while Frey finished sixth, more than a half-minute behind.

Due to campus construction, the route was altered for the 1939 championships. But the site remained the same for 26 years (interrupted only for one year by World War II), as Michigan State nursed the championship through its formative years.

It’s fitting that the race’s start and finish line was in what’s known today as Ralph Young Field, named for the longtime Spartan athletics director who brought the championships to East Lansing. It’s also appropriate that Brown served as secretary of the National Collegiate Cross Country Coaches Association through the entire time that Michigan State hosted the event – making good use of the “mimeograph” office he also headed at the school to faithfully produce detailed race results and meeting minutes.

Most of all, on the 70th anniversary of those inaugural championships, it’s worth remembering the first NCAA cross country champion. “(Rice) fought his way to the top by willpower alone,” Scrap Iron Young wrote later.

The “little fellow” also played a major role in establishing what today is one of 88 NCAA championships.