Title IX at 50: Dr. Susan Mallery with a Successful Run at Ohio State

Susan Mallery competed on the Ohio State track and field and cross country teams from 1973-76, before the introduction of the NCAA championships. However, she did participate in events run by the Association for Intercollegiate Athletics for Women (AIAW), the predecessor to the NCAA championships. Mallery garnered three Top 10 finishes at the AIAW nationals, including eighth-place finishes in the 2-mile (10:40) and the first AIAW cross country meet (17:46) in 1975. During her junior season, she finished fourth in the 2-mile in the Madison Square Garden Invitational in New York City, competing among an elite field of runners. At the inaugural Women’s Big Ten Track and Field Championships in 1976, Mallery finished second in  the 3-mile. She was selected the co-captain (track) and captain (cross country) during her sophomore, junior and senior seasons and was inducted into the Ohio State Athletics Hall of Fame in 2007.  

Mallery was the first female winner of the Marine Corps Reserve Marathon in 1976, completing that event with a finishing time of 2:56:33. She successfully defended her title the following year, finishing in first place with a time of 2:54:04, a time that ranked her among the Top 20 women in the world. She was inducted into the Marine Corps Marathon Hall of Fame in 2012. 

Mallery went on to earn her dental degree from the Ohio State University College of Dentistry in 1981. She also earned a master’s in exercise science from Ohio State in 1978 and a PhD in experimental pathology in 1990. She is currently the chair of the Division of Oral and Maxillofacial Pathology at the Ohio State College of Dentistry. She has been a faculty member at Ohio State since 1990.