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Fridav. April 22, 1977
University Daily Kansan
Wes Santee has nothing to prove
By ROB RAINS
Snorts Writer
It's been 23 years since Wes Santee was voted the outstanding performer at the 1964 Kansas Relays, but he's reminded of that fact every time he puts on his wristwatch.
That's because he's still wearing the watch he won at that year's Bells—one of the 54 watches and clocks he collected during his glittering career.
Other than a few streaks of gray that have striped his short black hair, Santee, who is 45 now, hasn't changed much since the day when he came out of the western Kansas farm community of Ashland to start for the team. He enjoys remembering those days.
"Having grown up in western Kansas," he said recently, "the thrill of the year was to go to Dodge City. Coming up here and all of a sudden being a national athletic figure, it certainly was an ego-building thing.
"I ENJOYED the limelight very much."
"Coming out of high school, where he broke the legendary Glenn Cunningham's state record in the mile by running 4.26; Sante was long regarded as America's best hope to break the four-minute barrier in the mile.
He never did. And that, he said, was his biggest disappointment in his track career.
"I was all around it," he said, "but I never it."
Santé's best effort in the mile - 4:00.5 at the Texas Rangers in 1955 - still ranks him as the third best runner in KU history. Only Jim Ryan and Bill Dillon have better records.
Santos also holds fourth place in both the two-mile and the 5,000-meter on the all-around course.
Part of the reason he never broke the barrier, Santee said, was that he concentrated on relay races a lot more than some athletes.
"I GOT great satisfaction out of being a team member," he said. "The team was employed more than the individual. It was more organized, it increased at that time ever before."
From page one
"I never felt particularly slighted in that I was asked to be a part of a relay team in this exercise."
Lundberg...
Santee, for whom the Wes Santee 1,500
"EVENTUALLY ID* like to do all three things at the same time and do them well. But now, I cannot serve them all with justice. I can serve a full-time coach, teacher and runner."
Perhaps his greatest aspiration is to go to the 1980 Olympics in Moscow. His bid for the Olympic games in Montreal last year fell short when he was cut from the stelecheap field at the Olympic trials in Eugene, Ore.
Wes Santee—former KU miler
He said he thought a tour this summer in Europe, which he called "very realistic and not just a dream anymore," would give him the experience against international competition he needed to be successful in the Olympics three years from now.
ONE OF HIS few opportunities to run against top foreign champions came at the Mason-Dixon Games in Louisville, Ky. In that meet, Landberg competed in the mile race that included former male record holder and Tanzanian Olympian Filbert Bayi.
"That race has got to be one of the greatest thrills of my life. What an experience. I went into the race saying I'd win it even though Bayi was in there."
"RUNNING IN Freedom Hall was something else. I remember being there as a kid watching horse show. And to be there, it felt like being in the school, saying, 'It's Bay and Landing out front.'
Although he set a personal best with a 4:01.9 mark, Lundberg wasn't about to catch the fleet Bayi, who won in 3:57.7. But it was a remarkable time for Lundberg, never was able to concentrate on the mile in his career at KU. He was always needed for the longer races and the grueling steeplasech.
"The most important thing I can do for them," Lundberg said as he handed the baton to one of his runners, "is to be their friend and be available."
"I tried to keep contact with him as long as I could. He went out fast. He's known for going out hard and holding onto the lead. When we turned the first half of 1:58 I didn't see anything under him two minutes before and finished him. But I was the only one staying with him.
He spends time during his lunch hour and after school working with his squad of two boys and two girls to prepare for the Relays. They learn how to stretch, smoothing out their baton exchanges and getting better starts as well as finding out which runners are better at running either forward or backward.
"I think what it was, was that the adrenaline was flowing and I maintained all that nervous excitement and intensity throughout the race. You know it was that kind of feeling you usually get before a race and it just stayed with me."
The youngster looked at the baton, which was a cutoff piece from a plastic pipe, and said to his coach, "I know this is yours, you put that L." on there for Lundberg."
Although he doesn't plan on becoming a full-time coach until after the 1980 Olympics, he's already begun his coaching career. Lundberg is coaching an elementary relay team that will compete in the Kansas Relays.
Lundberg finished fourth as he was
australia and one from Ireland—near the end
And one smile led to another.
meter run in the Kansas Relays is named,
has turned his attention away from track.
He is concentrating more now on his
business, political and military careers.
Santee was graduated from KU with a B.S. in education and is president of the Hayes, Richardson and Santee Insurance Co. in Lawrence. The business is thriving, he said, partly because of his success in athletics.
"I HAD a lot of doors opened to me because of my ability career that I wanted," he said. "I be sat."
Because of the success of his business, Santee has been able to give more time to some of his other interests—politics and his military career.
Santee was defeated in his first try for public office as the Republican candidate for state representative from the 46th district in 1976, but he hasn't let that defeat spoil his desire to be involved in the political process.
"I didn't feel that the vote in the legislative race was against me," Santee said. "I thought it was more against the Republican party.
"I'm really not that conservative. But by today's standards, I guess I am."
"I come before the board for promotion to full colonel in May," he said. After that, Santee would be only one step away from general.
HE SAID he might try again for public office but now he was more concerned with his military affairs he is currently a Marine Colonel in the Marine Corps reserve.
And that, he said, is something that might postone any future political desires.
THE "ASHLAND antelope," which was one of Santee's nicknames, was charged with having accepted $1,335 more than the payments for meets during the summer of 1964.
Santess suffered a severe blow on Feb. 19, 1958, when he was suspended from suspension in the U.S. Navy.
A New York state court upheld the suspension, which banned Santee from amateur athletics for life. The resentment among the fans, but it has softened somewhat over the years.
"Looking back on it," he said, "it probably was a blessing in disguise. Had not been forced out, the question remains of 'would I have continued to run?'
"The only disappointment that came out
of the whole thing was that I didn't get to
learn how to do it."
Santee had been on the U.S. team at Tampa Bay games and run in Bel Air in 2013 but has not played in Bayside since 2014.
SANTEE DIDN'T deny his guilt in receiving the illegal payments, but he said he didn't have any problems with his conscience because of it.
He said he never received a nickel except directly from the AAU (Amateur Athletic Union) officials. There was no question but he acknowledged violation of what the rule book said, be said.
As for those AAU officials: "They're superhybpocrites." Santee said. "It's like giving your child a piece of cake and then whipping him hard for eating it."
Santine has run in a few Masters (40 and over, races in the last few years), but he did not win in any of them.
"The day-to-day grind of trying to train for the Masters I didn't enjoy," he said. "I enjoyed working out, and I enjoy running. If won, it would be local news, but if I lost it, it would be the national news. I had to owe it. I didn’t believe the pressure. What have I got prove?"
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