Well the first Olympics were in 776B.C. and the only competition was a foot race. Later on the athletes had to swear in front of a statue of Zeus that they had trained for the last 10 months in order to compete. So the ancient Greeks at least were aware of the idea of progressive/athletic training.

The concept of exercising wasn't limited to the elite athletes but to common people as well (in some city states) Athens being the prime example of a city state building gymnasiums (their actual word for them that we still use today) that allowed the male citizens to run, wrestle, practice long jump, lift weights etc.

I've read some books about late-19th century and early-20th century boxing that relates anecdotes about boxers conditioning themselves via "road-work," which was essentially jogging as we know it today. And while I'm sure there was a causal relationship before this regarding one's stamina and running-based cardio routines, if we are going to limit this to what we can cite by sources (which is generally appreciated on this sub), I'll just chip in with that point. I'd also add that distance running was an integral part of induction training (boot camp) for the armed forces in World War II (and to some extent, WWI). Although I've never read anything specific to this, I would imagine that like so many habits developed during one's time in the service, jogging to stay fit may well have carried over into civilian life during the 2nd half of the 20th century, and grown from there.

So to answer your question, yes, long before the 1980's, people were indeed jogging so as to stay in shape and generally be active.

[Sources - Russell Sullivan, 'Rocky Marciano: The Rock of His Times'; Randy Roberts, 'Joe Louis: Hard Times Man']

One of the key figures in popularizing running from the 1960s onward was Arthur Lydiard, the famous coach from New Zealand.

Before the 1950s, training for distance running tended to involve a lot of high-intensity intervals - the Finnish runner Paavo Nurmi pioneered this method running a number of laps at race speed (say, 12x 400m), with rest in between.

Lydiard, a former rugby player who had taken up running as a way to get in shape and lose weight, developed a new approach - emphasizing longer runs at moderate to low intensity. The key was to build a "base" of easy miles before progressing to more intense interval work.

By the late 1950s, Lydiard began to make his mark as a coach, with several of his charges winning Olympic gold and setting world records. At the same time, he also began to coach a growing number of middle-aged men and women who were using running as a way of adopting a more healthy lifestyle.

It was Lydiard, in this context, who coined the term "jogging" - low-intensity running over long distances that improved the aerobic capacity of the athlete.

Lydiard's ideas were popularized in the 1960s and 1970s, and he was joined by an American - Bill Bowerman - who was both the coach of U. of Oregon's illustrious running program and one of the founders of the Nike shoe corporation. The growth of Nike and the "jogging boom" of the 1970s went hand in hand.

I don't mean to suggest that Lydiard single-handledly created the running craze of the 1970s - there were a lot of sociological factors at play as well - but he certainly did play an important role in the story.

Here is a paper about the rise of jogging in the 60s as a form of exercise for sedentary middle aged people with: http://cgj.sagepub.com/content/early/2014/04/17/1474474013491927.full.pdf+html

The 1970's had a big boom in road running in the US. There were a number of star distance runners, starting with the 1972 Olympics, and concurrent innovations in running shoes and other equipment that made the sport more accessible. Running events such as "fun runs" changed the sport from an elite activity to an inclusive one.

http://www.runnersworld.com/running-times-info/how-the-running-boom-began

http://www.nytimes.com/2012/11/03/opinion/running-on-empty-an-american-sports-tradition-fades.html?_r=0