Francie Kraker Goodridge - AbsoluteAstronomy.com

Francea Norma Kraker Goodridge (born in Ann Arbor, Michigan

Ann Arbor, Michigan

Ann Arbor is a city in the U.S. state of Michigan and the county seat of Washtenaw County. The 2010 census places the population at 113,934, making it the sixth largest city in Michigan. The Ann Arbor Metropolitan Statistical Area had a population of 344,791 as of 2010...

) is a former women's track and field

Track and field

Track and field is a sport comprising various competitive athletic contests based around the activities of running, jumping and throwing. The name of the sport derives from the venue for the competitions: a stadium which features an oval running track surrounding a grassy area...

athlete and coach from the United States

United States

The United States of America is a federal constitutional republic comprising fifty states and a federal district...

. She set a world record in the 600-yard indoor event and was the first Michigan-born woman to win a place on the U.S. Olympic team

United States at the Olympics

The United States of America has sent athletes to every celebration of the modern Olympic Games, except the 1980 Summer Olympics, which it boycotted.The United States Olympic Committee is the National Olympic Committee for the United States....

(Mexico City in 1968

1968 Summer Olympics

The 1968 Summer Olympics, officially known as the Games of the XIX Olympiad, were an international multi-sport event held in Mexico City, Mexico in October 1968. The 1968 Games were the first Olympic Games hosted by a developing country, and the first Games hosted by a Spanish-speaking country...

and Munich in 1972

1972 Summer Olympics

The 1972 Summer Olympics, officially known as the Games of the XX Olympiad, were an international multi-sport event held in Munich, West Germany, from August 26 to September 11, 1972....

). She later coached women’s track at the University of Michigan, Wake Forest University

Wake Forest University

Wake Forest University is a private, coeducational university in the U.S. state of North Carolina, founded in 1834. The university received its name from its original location in Wake Forest, north of Raleigh, North Carolina, the state capital. The Reynolda Campus, the university's main campus, is...

and the University of Wisconsin–Milwaukee, where she was also the Coordinator of Women's Athletics. She has been inducted into the University of Michigan Athletic Hall of Honor

University of Michigan Athletic Hall of Honor

The University of Michigan Athletic Hall of Honor, founded in 1978, recognizes University of Michigan athletes, coaches, and administrators who have made significant contributions to the university's athletic programs...

, the University of Michigan Women's Track and Field Hall of Fame and the State of Michigan Women's Hall of Fame.

Early years

Kraker Goodridge was the middle of three daughters of Dr. Ralph and Norma Kraker. She describes herself as having been a "tomboy." She went to sporting events with her father who helped raise money for the high school gymnasium, a facility that girls were not allowed to use. She was the first girl to train for track at Slauson Junior High School in Ann Arbor, Michigan

Ann Arbor, Michigan

. She noted, "When I was in junior high I wanted a letter jacket, but they were just for boys teams and cheerleaders. I never ran for a school team in my career." In 1960, when she was thirteen, she caught the eye of former runner Kenneth “Red” Simmons and his wife Betty, a junior high physical education teacher. "Red and Betty made me their hobby," Goodridge recalled. "He was a firm believer in overall training for strength and flexibility, and he trained me just the way he would have trained a boy, including lifting weights." About a year later, the Simmonses founded the Michigammes, an all-girl track and field club. Kraker recalled that in the 1960s girls were still discouraged from participating in sports because it was said to be “bad for their internal organs.” Simmons put Kraker through a vigorous weight training

Weight training

Weight training is a common type of strength training for developing the strength and size of skeletal muscles. It uses the weight force of gravity to oppose the force generated by muscle through concentric or eccentric contraction...

program: “He trained me like a man.” When President Kennedy came out with a national fitness test that included a 600-yard run; Kraker ran the distance and beat the boys.

Track and field competitor

Because there was no women's track team at the University of Michigan in the pre-Title IX

Title IX

Title IX of the Education Amendments of 1972 is a United States law, enacted on June 23, 1972, that amended Title IX of the Civil Rights Act of 1964. In 2002 it was renamed the Patsy T. Mink Equal Opportunity in Education Act, in honor of its principal author Congresswoman Mink, but is most...

era, Kraker continued running for the Michigammes while attending school there. There were no athletic scholarships for women, and Kraker worked as a waitress to pay expenses. "I made good money and it was fun. I had flexible hours so I could train and go to meets." She noted: "Things are better now. There's equality and that's good. But sometimes when you're given everything, you have less motivation." As a freshman at Michigan, Kraker was named to the U.S. National team earning top-ten world ranking for the 800 meters in 1966. She set a national record for the half-mile indoor in 1967 and a world record for the indoor 600-yard event at Madison Square Garden

Madison Square Garden

Madison Square Garden, often abbreviated as MSG and known colloquially as The Garden, is a multi-purpose indoor arena in the New York City borough of Manhattan and located at 8th Avenue, between 31st and 33rd Streets, situated on top of Pennsylvania Station.Opened on February 11, 1968, it is the...

. After a year of setbacks, including severe tendinitis, an appendectomy, and a disastrous Olympic Trials where she finished fourth, Kraker made the U.S. Olympic team in a high-altitude race when injured 400 meter champion Jarvis Scott opted out of the 800 to concentrate on her specialty. She was the first native-born Michigan woman to win a place on the U.S. Olympic track team. In Mexico City

Mexico City

Mexico City is the Federal District , capital of Mexico and seat of the federal powers of the Mexican Union. It is a federal entity within Mexico which is not part of any one of the 31 Mexican states but belongs to the federation as a whole...

, Kraker finished fifth in her preliminary heat in a time of 2:07.3. In 1970, Kraker won the national indoor championship for the half-mile. She qualified for the Olympics again in 1972, this time in the inaugural 1500 meter race for women. Kraker's 1500 meter time of 4:12.76 in the Munich semifinals was the second-fastest all-time performance by an American woman, and she retained that position for three more years.

Track and field coach

Kraker began her coaching career while still in college, as a volunteer coach for the first girls' interscholastic track and field teams at Huron High School and Clague Junior High

Clague Middle School

Clague Middle School is a public school in Ann Arbor, in the U.S. state of Michigan. It is located at 2616 Nixon Road on the northeast side of Ann Arbor, located around the Maplewood and Bromley neighborhoods. The school serves grades 6-8, with its principal being Ms. Cynthia Leaman...

. In 1975, at the University of Wisconsin–Milwaukee, she was among the first Division I university female administrators appointed after the passage of Title IX

Title IX

. She later returned to Ann Arbor as admissions director and coach at Greenhills School. She took over as women's track coach at U-M in 1981, a job she held for three years. While at Michigan her cross-country and track and field teams won the program's first NCAA Regional Cross Country Championship and posted the first NCAA Top Ten National finish with an eighth place in 1982, going on to win the first Big Ten Championship in track and field in 1983. In 1984, Kraker and husband, John Goodridge, next took over the women's and men's track teams at Wake Forest University

Wake Forest University

. The North Carolina school was known for basketball and golf, but not track. The Goodridges lifted Wake Forest's men's and women's programs to national status and spent 15 distinguished years there.

Later years

In 1999, the Goodridges returned to Ann Arbor, where John Goodridge coached Athletics America, a post-collegiate Olympic development club. Kraker Goodridge accepted a job as a counselor in the U-M Undergraduate Admissions Office. In a 2002 interview, Kraker Goodridge said: "I really enjoy representing the University, and my background in athletics, with years of experience in recruiting, going on school visits and making speeches, is a big help when I'm advising potential students, their families, and guidance counselors," she says. She added: "Athletically, I jog, bike, ski cross-country and kayak. I'm working to stay ahead of the aging process."

Awards and honors

Francie has received numerous awards and honors for her achievements. In 1994, she was inducted into the University of Michigan Athletic Hall of Honor

University of Michigan Athletic Hall of Honor

, the fourth woman so honored. And in 1995, she was the second person inducted into the Michigan Women’s Track and Field Hall of Fame, following her mentor Red Simmons. In 2001, she was inducted into the Michigan Women's Hall of Fame

Michigan Women's Hall of Fame

The Michigan Women's Hall of Fame honors distinguished women, both historical and contemporary, who have been associated with the U.S. state of Michigan. It is housed in the Michigan Women's Historical Center and Hall of Fame building, located at 213 W. Malcolm X St. in downtown Lansing, Michigan...

, a group that includes 170 members as diverse as civil rights leader Rosa Parks

Rosa Parks

Rosa Louise McCauley Parks was an African-American civil rights activist, whom the U.S. Congress called "the first lady of civil rights", and "the mother of the freedom movement"....

, former First Lady Betty Ford

Betty Ford

Elizabeth Ann Bloomer Warren Ford , better known as Betty Ford, was First Lady of the United States from 1974 to 1977 during the presidency of her husband Gerald Ford...

, and entertainers Lily Tomlin

Lily Tomlin

Mary Jean "Lily" Tomlin is an American actress, comedienne, writer, and producer. Tomlin has been a major force in American comedy since the late 1960's when she began a career as a stand up comedian and became a featured performer on television's Laugh-in...

and Aretha Franklin

Aretha Franklin

Aretha Louise Franklin is an American singer, songwriter, and pianist. Although known for her soul recordings and referred to as The Queen of Soul, Franklin is also adept at jazz, blues, R&B, gospel music, and rock. Rolling Stone magazine ranked her atop its list of The Greatest Singers of All...

. Kraker is one of only two athletes inducted into the Michigan Women's Hall of Fame.

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