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Common in a lot of cars, especially at this age. Mine was a low-mile garage queen and shifts smoothly into 1st at speed with a single-clutch heel-toe, though I prefer to stop in 2nd and use 1st as just a launch gear to prevent wear and keep my transmission as nice as it is. The only time I've ever down-shifted to 1st was to see if I could, and I haven't done it since.
The 1st synchro gets used a lot with age and miles, as it does a lot of work at launch since the input shaft is near engine speed and the output is at zero when you shift into 1st.
Last time I drove a car with a bad 1st synchro, a 73 Spitfire, the only 2 ways to get it in were to either stop the input shaft with the 2nd gear synchro by clutching and going into second, then to first without letting the clutch out, or by clutching in and waiting 5 seconds for the input shaft to stop. What I usually did was quickly shift into 1st when it reached 5-7mph, which was the idle cruise speed. It was an ordeal if I missed that little window on the slow-down and needed to set off again quickly.
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