When I started running back in the 1980s in HS, I don't think short tights even existed. We used to run in Summer shirtless as the temps were often atrocious (Illinois), and the textiles we had were crap so inner-thigh chafing was a beastly affair. I think it was late 90s when I first started wearing half-tights and ohhhhhhhhh did it help against chafing.
What I really want to know is what happened to chest hair. Bowerman had a pic on social media asking for a caption recently and it showed all the big studs on the track milling around with most of them in the OP's dreaded look. Not a chest hair to be seen. Do you Gen Zers actually shave it?