HEAVY FAN MAIL
Ryun, a frosh celebrity cager for varsity runs
JIM RYUN
Fame at age 18
Timmons said, "Every day it's something; somebody wants to see him, talk to him, take his picture. We're grateful for all the attention. It's a great thing for the school and the team, but I'm worried that it's too much at times for Jim."
THE UNIVERSITY DAILY kansan
To look at him one would think he is just another student, a bit more slender than most perhaps, but still a typical student. What sets Jim Ryun apart from other KU male students is that he can run the mile faster than anyone in this country.
RYUN IS SEEMINGLY unconcerned about the attention he receives as he talks with sincere interest to strangers. Often times he is called out of bed at 1:30 a.m. to talk to reporters as far away as New York and Boston.
FRESHMAN RYUN has been doing quite a bit of "talking" in his relatively short track career. Last year in the national AAU outdoor meet, he ran the mile in 3:55.3 and this year in the indoor season, he breezed through the mile with times of 3:59.6 and 4:00.3.
Because of his rare talent presenting itself while Ryun is relatively younger than most great milers, the Wichita East High School graduate has been subjected to somewhat severe mental and physical pressures. He has experienced more press coverage than many entertainers and statesmen receive in a lifetime. Every time he runs, he is expected to better some previous record.
KU's head track coach, Bob Timmons, said, "He talks with his legs."
"People forget about the time
change," he said. "I talk to them anyway."
Like the true celebrity, Ryun also receives a great amount of fan mail. During the track season, he gets about 10 or 12 letters a week. Most are written by young boys asking for pictures, autographs and training methods.
Making the transition to college track was relatively easy for Ryun and he seems to like running even better now.
Ryun said, "There's more variety now, with both indoor and outdoor track, and next fall there will be cross country."
LOOKING AHEAD to his varsity career, Ryun views the next three years with pleasure as he said. "I think varsity track will be exciting. There are some good distance runners in the Big Eight Conference and there should be plenty of competition."
Ryun's daily routine is cramped as he must go to classes, run three
See RYUN on Page 10
RYUN'S EARLY rise to track stardom has been more than just a matter of conversation. When he was just a junior in high school he was competing against and beating such great milers as Dyrol Burleson of the Los Angeles Track Club, Tom O'Hara of Chicago Loyola, and John Camien of Emporia State. Although he admits that perhaps his muscles matured early, Ryan attributes most of his success to training ordered by Timmons when Timmons was his coach at Wichita East.
"We worked out twice a day, Ryun said, and I don't think too many high schools do that. It made our team better."
Serving K.U. for 76 of it's 100 years
76th Year, No. 120 Friday, April 22, 1966
Wes Santee still holds special mile
This year's running of the Glenn Cunningham mile will bring together, at least in spirit, two of KU's outstanding runners, as Jim Ryun, the outstanding freshman miler from Wichita, goes after the 12-year-old mile standard of Wes Santee.
Santee set the mark in 1954 with a 4:03.1 clocking. He established an American record that same year, winning the Compton (Calif.) Invitational mile event in 4:00.6.
FOUR YEARS prior to that, the "Ashland Antelope" burst into prominence by shattering Cunningham's 20-year-old high school mark, posting a 4:26. In contrast, Ryun last year became the first prep school athlete to run a sub-4-minute mile and set the existing American outdoor record of 3:55.3.
"I if the perfect distance runner could be created from the ground up, he would come out looking very much like Jim Ryun," Santee said recently in an interview, while relaxing in his Lawrence office of Santee Apartments.
The trim-looking Kansan with the close-cropped flat-top and the ready smile, who is also an agent for Occidental Life Insurance of
California, rambled freely across the field of his favorite topic: track.
"RYUN IS the proper height and weight (6-2, 150), has speed, plenty of desire, and the most powerful-looking pair of thighs I've ever seen on a distance runner. That's where he gets his strength.
"But he lacks one thing — the killer instinct," said Santee, whose fierce competitive spirit — often taken for cockiness — was his trademark. "He's too nice and nite guys are notorious second-place finishers. Right now he's so good that it isn't necessary, but he'll have to learn to get meaner."
"When he does, he should be able to run the mile under 3:50 without batting an eye," Santée predicted, also without batting an eye.
IT WAS recalled that when Santee began to make headlines across the country, his hometown supporters plastered a big sign on a billboard outside of town that read: "Welcome to Ashland—Home of Wes Santee."
"I always appreciated that," he
See SANTEE Page 10
The Lawrence Coca-Cola Bottling Plant
wishes the Kansas University track team GOOD LUCK in the Kansas Relays!
To keep cool at the relays...
646 Connecticut
Have a Coke!
VI 3-7517