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University Daily Kansan, April 16, 1982
Frame coordinates for fourth year
By JAN BOUTTE Sports Writer
There is none like her in the field of Olympic hopefuls participating in this year's Kansas Relays.
She's Ann Frame, Kinsley junior,
and this will be her fourth year at the
Relays. And she comes from a long line of trackers.
Her father's portrait hangs in Allen Field House. He is Al Frame, the 1866 N-AA cross country champion, and KU long distance runner. Her sister, Sena, met her husband while he was memorialized by the KU track squads, so her brothers followed distance running tradition.
"I was born and raised a Jayhawk."Frame said.
But Frame doesn't follow the family mold of long-distance running. So that leaves out the marathon. And she won't be in the field of world-class milers, or lying for the record in the high jump, or sprinting down the straightaway in the 100-yard dash.
ANN PREFERS to run the Kansas Relays.
She's the coordinator of the officials for the Relys—the one who tells everybody where to go, what to do and when to do it—and gets away
"I love track, but I don't compete." she said.
But having grown up with track, Frame learned the ropes of big meets. And she said she hoped to go from the biggest in the Midwest to the biggest in the world, the 1984 Olympic Games in Los Angeles.
Frame said that through her experience with the Relays and the help of Coach Bob Timmons, she hoped to work for the Olympic summer in California this summer and each summer until the big event in 1984.
"I don't care, I'll carry the hurdles—I just want to work at the Olympics," she said.
Frame first officiated at the Relays as a senior in high school four years ago. She came to visit her mother, and was drafted to be a timer.
"The Relays were pretty great to me then," she said.
FRAME SAT in her apartment near a Relays poster, and animatedly spoke about her favorite tonic.
Sitting through a notebook overflowing with Relays information, computer printouts, lists and lists. Frame tried to explain her loss to the Reals that manages to present the Relays each year, come rain, come shine.
"Just so it doesn't snow this year," Frame commented.
Frame is getting to be an old hand at handling not-so-perfect weather conditions. Last year, she had the extra student officials out squeegying the track after a memorable dowpour.
"People tend to disappear when it starts to rain," she said.
Frame uses her computer studies to coordinate nearly 450 officials, assigning them to events and shifts for the four-day track meet.
SHE SAID that about 200 of the officials are recruited through KU living groups, mostly from fraternities, sororities and scholarship halls. She said about 75 more students and the remaining 175, adult officials who volunteer to help out at the Relays.
Most of the adults are from Lawrence, the Kansas City area and Topeka, Frame said. She said that the Jayhawks Track & Field Association and the Lawrence Track Association use their power and support for the Relays.
Frame said that some come from
'At first, the adult officials were hesitant to trust me with big jobs, but now they all know that I'm capable of handling the situations.'
—Ann Frame.
—Ann Frame,
coordinator of officials
as far away as Palo Alto, Calif., and Michigan to help with the Relays.
"They try to make it every year they can," she said.
Coach Timmons and the Relays Committee take the service of volunteers seriously. Each year, awards are given to officials who have passed milestone years with the Relays.
This year, Frank Guemple will be working his 49th Kansas Relays. Others passed 15, 20 and 25 year olds who have completed receive watches from the committee.
EACH VOLUNTEER has his own reason for helping. Some, like Frame, just love track.
"Some actually competed in the Kansas Relays as students," Frame said.
One, Merle Henry, ran in the first Kansas Relays.
Frame works with Timmons, the coordinator of the Relays, the Greater Relays Committee and the tri-chairmen of the Students Relays Committee. They've been organizing since September.
give as much as he does to the Relays."
Frame said she enjoyed working with Timmons, the perfectionist.
She said that at first, the adult officials were hesitant to trust her with big jobs, but she had proven herself to them.
"He's a hard person to say no to. He really expects everyone else to
"Now, they all know that I'm capable of handling situations," she said.
Frame's officials are jacks of all trades. They time the race, joucy hurdles and run the headquarters set up in the Victory Club in Memorial Stadium to handle the entries, heat sheets and scoring.
FRAME SAID she hoped that the changes in the meet would make it easier to finish the paperwork up-stairs.
The student officials work to earn a Relays T-shirt specially designed for the workers. Frame said that last year the officials were so numerous that a two-year supply of the shirts was distributed.
She said that this year, a student would have to work two shifts, the equivalent of one day, to earn the shirt.
She said that this year the Student Relays Committee made an effort to involve students outside the Greek and scholarship hall systems.
"We wanted to get other students involved because it's not just the Greek relays or the scholarship hall rails, it's everybody's relays," she said.
The committee ran an ad in February asking students to sign up at the track office.
"To me, the people who make the effort to come down to the track office are really interested in the Relays," she said.
SHE SAID that the high jump was the most popular event with the officials this year, probably because of KU's Tvke Peacock.
Besides the manpower that Frame lines up, the Student Relays Committee handles the sponsorship of events and housing for the athletes.
Tim Harrison, Overland Park senior, is the tri-chairman in charge of sponsorship. His committee tries to line up sponsors for each event. The sponsorship helps to pay for the women's watches and other expenses.
the sponsorship committee contacted former KU athletes for support of the Relays. Frame said the response had been great, both with financial help and physical help.
Frame was quick to insist that she was only one cog in the wheel that makes the Relays turn, and like all the other relays officials, she echoes the yearly prayer, "Just don't let it rain again."
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Santee
Lawrence High School Cafeteria 19th and Louisiana Lawrence Kansas
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In a career full of accomplishments,
this race still stands out as one of his
greatest.
record, at a meet in Compton, Cal., where he ran the 1.500 meters in 3:42.8.
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7 pm - 10 pm April 17 $1.50
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"That was a very exciting meet," he said. "There were 17,000 to 20,000 people yelling and screaming, pushing me on. It felt real good."
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Santee had a chance at becoming the first American to break the barrier, and he almost did it. At the 1955 Texas Relays, he ran his fastest time. 4:00.5
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BUT THE distinction of being the first to break the four-minute barrier would not be his. That same year, Roger Bannister, a milfer from Great Britain, ran a time of 59.4 at a meet in Vancouver, Canada. Later that year, John Landy, an Australian, ran it in 3:58.
Santee was to hold the world record in the mule twice. He set it the first time while still a senior at KU, running a 4:04:9 at a meet in East Lansing, Mich., in 1954. The following year, he tapped that with a 4:03.8.
But that was as close as he got.
Shortly after the Texas Relays, Santee was barred from amateur competition forever by the Amateur Athletic Union. According to the AAU, Santee accepted $1,333 above the amount he earned and he competed in that summer. Santee didn't take it sitting down. He took the AAU to court.
Soon he became a celebrate. Frank Carlson, then a Senator from Kansas, defended him on the Senate floor. Phoog Allen, the KU basketball mentor who had no love lost with the team, rules on an alumnus status 'antiquated.'"
BUT ALL OF this support was to no avail. The New York State Supreme Court upheld the AAU's decision . . .
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He seems especially bitter toward Avery Brindage, the long-time head of the International Olympic Committee. A man with much leverage over the AAU, Brindage declared publicity that Santee would not run in the 1966 games.
To this day, Santee remains bitter.
"I guess I'll never forgive Avery Brundage," Santee said. "I thought he was an American, but he allowed me to get away and to get away with so many rules. He even
thought that if we were on scholarship, we were tainted athletes.
"I think a lot of these people were very misjudged. A position like that gave them a sense of great power. They won the game of great athletes and that's really sad."
DESPITE CLAIMS by the AAU that he asked for extra money to hire a booking agent and take his wife to some of his meets, Sante claims that he had only one demand at a meet—and it wasn't for money.
"And then I get home and I'm put on the carpet by the AAU and I'm accused of hitting this guy over the head with a knife, looking back on it, I wished I would've."
"There was a double set of standards for the American athlete and the Russian athlete."
Today, Santee still isn't very positive about the regulation of amateur swimming.
"This athlete kept trying to step on me from behind," he said. "I wanted to prove myself."
"I felt that the money I took was utilized for expenses. I wasn't able to set up a trust fund or anything."
What was probably his most bizarre confrontation with the AAU occurred at a series of track meets he ran in Germany one summer. At that time, it was a team of four away prizes such as watches, crystal and other valuable items to winners.
But Santee had enough of these souvenirs by this time. Instead, he asked a German AAU official, who spoke English, if he could trade in his prizes on a camera he wanted. At the end of each recording to Santee, the German agreed.
"I WAS under the impression they were trying to clean up the mess, but with the current revelations about basketball players getting past scrimmage and track and athletes getting $8,000 a meet, then Iston and wonder," he said.
"I DIDN'T think there was anything illegal or unethical," he said. "They were spending the money anyway."
But when he tried to cush in, he was met with a big surprise. Not only did the official claim that he never agreed to a deal, but suddenly couldn't speak English anymore.
"If they are going to allow that, then they should come to me and apologize
"I didn't have any family to go home so, when I needed counseling, I'd go to Easton, and like a stern task master, he'd tell me what to do." Saeee said.
Easton was more than just a coach for Santee. To him, he's more like a father figure. In fact, they are still very close friends.
Most ex-athletes dread growing old. To them old age means a further decline of the skills that meant so much harm during an earlier time. It's very had to take.
"I was fortunate to have such good leadership, Hell. I could've gone wrong easily. I was a wild farm kid when I first came to KU."
"He would've whipped both Bannister and Landy with no doubt in my mind," he said.
"He could hear my voice above all the yelling and screaming," he said. "Now that's what you call concentration."
BUT NOT for Wes Santee.
"There's no argument that if I was in that race (the one in Vancouver where Bannister set the record) I would've blown them away."
first. What I did was technically wrong, and they tried to make an example out of me, but I don't think they succeeded."
The thing Easton remembered the most about Santee was the way he could concentrate in a race, even with crowds screaming all around him.
out one thing the AAU did succeed to do, at least in Santee's mind, was to keep him from the four-minute mile. He said that a lack of cooperation on the AAU's part kept him from meeting Bannister or Landy.
BILL EASTON, the KU track coach during Santee's days as a Jayhawk, agreed.
"If people are healthy and take care of themselves, why should they fear themselves?"
"Being older hasn't caught up with the population," he said. "My health has been super-excellent."
Indeed, Santee does look healthy for a man of 50. The crew cut is a little gray, but the boots are black and sagging, but he still looks very much like the young miler from Ashland.
"I like to think that for the next 30 or 40 years I should be able to keep doing the things that I like to do."
The Ashland Antelope is still running.
West Coast Saloon As a sponsor of the Kansas Relays, we urge everyone to come out and support one of the Midwest's finest traditions.
Afterwards run down to the Coast and quench
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