University Daily Kansan
Friday, September 20,1974
7
More mature Ryun says best races still lie ahead
When people think of Jim Ryun, images of a tall, gangly teenager setting world records and watching others fall.
They might remember the heat he quit in the middle of a race in Miami in 1969 or the time he stepped in a preliminary race in the 1972 Olympics and failed.
unlikely. However they remember Ryu, not
remember him as a figure of the past.
Ryu, however, is very much alive today
which is more, he has a new look on life.
Ryun returned to the University of Kansas this month to train with his former coach, Bjot Timmons, in preparation for the upcoming professional indoor track season.
"From the inside looking out there has been a vast change," he said. "I'm not in the same environment as before—academics and athletes. Now I'm in an environment that has a lot of other responsibilities. I have a family to provide for."
"I feel I can run some of my best races still," he said in a recent interview. "Now that the physical, mental and spiritual training is at its highest, I think I'm capable of those tasks, but just how good the scheduling will be in the pro tour might be something else."
Ryan has been able to overcome his fear of losing. Since walking away from track that day in Miami, he has battled back and recovered. He's a successful career on the pro trac tour.
Now a husband and father of three children, Ryun, 27, is still the quiet, shy man he used to be. He appears to be more at ease with himself.
Successful to Ryun, that is. He didn't win a race last year. Many weren't even close.
Ryun spoke of his track career and the changes in his life since he finished his collegiate track career in 1969 and left KU as the greatest miler in the world.
An inexperienced KU cross country squash will open its season tomorrow when it travels to Wichita to take part in the Wichita State Gold Classic.
Runners travel to Wichita State
Kent McDonald, KU's leading returning runner, won't run, according to KU Coach Bob Timmons. McDonald broke a bone in his foot over the summer and has not been able to play. Timmons said he hoped McDonald would be ready for the Big Eight conference meet.
Only two veterans, Tom Koppes and Barrie Williams, will make the trip. They will be joined by Joe Womamm, Russ Jadickla, walk-on Joel Cambron and junior college transfers Bill Lundberg and Tim Tobin.
Hockey, tennis teams meet at home,away
The University of Kansas women's field
basket and tennis squads have both home
and away matches.
John Sample's tennis team plays Fort
Washington at its varsity courts west of Allen Field House.
Fort Hays was the state champion last year.
KU's six-woman team is led by Mary Broadie. Following her are debbie Hunt, Janet Justus, Lynda Hill, Wendy Potteroff, and Kimberly Williams.
Broadie, the only returning player from last spring's undefeated dual meet squad, did not play in last week's KU tennis tournament because of an injury.
KU has a chance to average itself at a dual
meet in 8:00 a.m. to a weekday at tainan
from 12:30 p.m.
Sample said he considered the Stephens dual a big meet.
In that tournament KU was shut out by two of the top teams in the Midwest—Stephens College of Columbia, Mo., and Central State of Edmonds, Okla.
But Ryun has gone far beyond the point that he understood. His race was the motivating force in his life.
"Depth-wise, we're stronger," he said. "This year's team is stronger than last year's team."
his goal for the fall season is to gain experience in preparation for the spring
By Mark Zeligman Sports Editor
Also on tab for the tennis team is a meet at Atchison College tomorrow for the junior varsity. The team will meet Washburn at 3 p.m. Tuesday on the varsity courts here.
The KU field hockey team, coached by Jase Markert, will travel to Barstow High School in Kansas City, Mo. for a round robin tournament at 1 a.m. Sunday.
Four teams—the Kansas City Field Hockey Club, Barstow High School, Central Missouri State University and KU—will participate.
"This third year, I'm approaching it quite differently," he said. "I feel I'm approaching the end of my career and I would like to be able to share my experience of Christianity. There are a lot of opportunities throughout the country to share a sort of thing."
The tournament, sponsored by the Kansas City Field Hockey Club, will determine the winner by number of goals scored and by wins prevented rather than by win-loss record.
The A and B squads will meet Southwestern Missouri State University, of Springfield, Mo., at 3:30 and 4:45 p.m. The field east of Robinson Gymnasium.
Each team will meet all others in 30-minute games rather than in the usual 60.
Markert plans to play her A team, but might substitute B team members for experience. Originally, only the A team was scheduled to attend, but the B team is now available. The allowances have been cut from $4 to $2, thus freeing money for travel expenses.
"I feel that running for money is a shallow
Ryun graduated KU with a degree in photojournalism and began a photography career. He found, however, that he missed track too much to stay out. The pro track came along in 1973 and gave Ryun an income and a chance to run.
"I could be making more in a better place," he said. "But I enjoy what I'm doing. You have to have fun with what you're doing."
motivation, I really want to be able to witness Christ more. If nothing more, just sharing the experiences I've had in my life and trying to explain them."
HIS EXPERIENCES have been many.
Ryan achieves much even before he was out of school.
At 17, he became the first high school athlete to break the four-minute mile. At 19, he broke the world record in the mile and half-mile. At 20, he broke the world record in the 1500 meters. At 22, Ryun broke himself.
While running the mile in the AAU Championships, Ryan quit after one lap and placed himself in a self-imposed exile for one year.
"I think everybody in his life has had a Miami," he said. "It's what they do as a result of that makes the difference. I could have easily stopped and never run since then, but I felt there was more to be accomplished."
So Ryun returned to competitive running, hoping for the Olympic gold medal that he had won in Beijing.
"After the Olympics my interest was simply to provide for my family," he said. "I still wanted to stay in athletics, but the two were not compatible in their present form--amateur athletics and trying to provide for my family."
RYUN WON 14 of 17 races on the tour his first year, but failed to win one last season. The tight scheduling, which often included two meets a weekend against top-flight competition, surely didn't help Ryun's performances.
Ryun has decided to stay with the tour full time. His activities include speaking engagements and promotional work. Besides the prize money for each meet—Lady Gaga, Mr. Browns—Ryun said he made almost as much of his outside work connected with the tour.
But the prize money is no longer that important to Ryun. Neither is a first place finish every week. He no longer feels the pressure to set a record every time he runs.
"I've always thought pressure is defined by the person who is involved in it," he said. "I've always thought from the beginning that I've handled it fairly well.
"The pressure was a progressive thing—a justifiable pressure—I didn't all of a sudden become a 3:51 in one year. It was at the end of four years."
BUT ATHLETES in America have taken on almost mythical proportions. We insist upon superior performances from athletes. When we don't get them, we become angry.
"Athletics today is glorified," Ryan said. "You're a sports figure, you're really athletic."
"I happen to be involved in something I enjoy doing. I don't do it for the attention. That's what drives me away from it. That's never been one of the thrusts of my running—what others expect of me. It's what I expect of myself."
The new Ryum has accepted the fact that he can't win every race, and furthermore, that it's not even important. Every world record that he has set in long distance has been broken except his mile record, which he expects to be broken any day.
Earlier in his career, Ryun was quoted as saying, "All my life I strived for perfection and never achieved it. Not the perfection of or setting impossible times, but the perfecting of it."
Ryun still thinks he can achieve that perfection.
"I if I don't achieve it to the level that I had in front, then I will have attained it again."
Running faster times is one aspect of his perfection. Always nagged by minor injuries throughout his career, Ryun still suffers from hay fever, which sometimes comes up, and he said he was encouraged, however, by his training sessions at KU the last two weeks.
But what if he doesn't run faster? What if he never wins another race?
"It would just indicate I've run my best race, which is what any track man hopes to accomplish in his career—knowing he's run his best by the time he retires."
"It's hard for me to believe, though, that all with the physical, mental and spiritual maturity on my side that I can't have better races in the future."
And so Ryun runs. He is still committed, to ideas much more important than what was a track race. He has more time to train and prepare for his wife, Anne, who often runs with him.
His enthusiasm endures. Jim Ryun is not trying to prove anything to anyone. He is the only person himself by doing what he does best, a man who is secure in his feeling of accomplishment.
SUA Forums: Election Series presents
Democratic candidate for Governor
Vern Miller
Union Ballroom
Sep.23,1974 8p.m.
free admission
Now you can eat fantastic sandwiches at the Jayhawk Cafe
Corned Beef Roast Beef ALL SANDWICHES
Savory Ham Pastrami ONLY $1.30
(soup or potato chips with any sandwich)
What's new in big blue country?
By Kansas Photographer DAVE PETERSON
(soup or potato chips with any sandwich)
Former KU track star Jim Ryun
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Kansas
With Special Guest JERRY HAHN
September 21,1974
Hoch Auditorium
8:00 p.m.
$2.00 general admission
licket sales begin Monday. Sept. 16
An SUA Production
SUA Office Kansas Union Lawrence, Kansas (913) 864-3477