College Track and Field on NBC

On January 30 , 1878, rower and runner William B. Curtis founded what became the Amateur Athletic Union (AAU) in New York City. The name was formally adopted in 1887. The AAU governed the sport of track & field until 1979, when the first Amateur Sports Act decreed that the AAU could no longer hold international franchises for more than one sport.

The Athletics Congress/USA (TAC/USA) became fully operational in late 1979 with its first annual meeting, conducted in Las Vegas in conjunction with that year's AAU Convention and a constitutional convention held in Dallas/Fort Worth in 1980. The first stand-alone annual meeting occurred in Atlanta, Georgia, in late fall of 1980.

In 1992, the name was changed to USA Track & Field (USATF) to increase recognition for the organization and the sport in the United States.