Tribute to Wes Santee
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| Dick Wilson (left) and Wes Santee and KU's NCAA-championship cross-country team on the way back from the national meet at Michigan State University, 1953. Coach Bill Easton at right. |
As many of you have heard, Wes Santee died Sunday (November 14, 2010) of cancer at age 78.
Wes was one of the all-time great milers and could -- probably should --
have been the first to break 4 minutes. He was a teammate of Dick
Wilson's at KU and, among many other accomplishments, was the NCAA
cross-country champion in
1953 and led KU to the team championship (its only cross-country team
championship) that year.
I was a youngster growing up in Kansas and later Southern California
when he was at the peak of his career and when he was banned for life
from competition by the AAU, so he is among my earliest athletic
memories.
I had not heard or thought of him in many years when I met him in spring
1986.
At the time, I was with the KU Army ROTC department, and one of my duties then was to coordinate awards for our cadets. One fine spring day, a Marine colonel walked into the office to ask about cadets who might be eligible for an award from an organization he represented. I saw the nametag "Santee" and immediately realized who he was. He was still in the Marine reserves, and I think still lived in Lawrence.
At the time, the north wall in Anschutz had a large collection of
plaques listing KU track records. Wes's name was still on one of them,
for the indoor 1,320-yard run (rarely run, needless to say) as I recall, dating from 1952 or 1953.
Wes made the US Olympic team in 1952, but in the 5,000 meters rather
than the 1,500, which was his best event. That's a whole 'nuther story,
but I think he would likely have been a medalist in the 1,500 with a
good chance for gold.
Bear in mind that he was a 20-year-old college sophomore at the time.
Like Jim Ryun 15 years later, he was a phenom of a sort that we haven't
seen in this country for many years. And as great as he was, his career
was over at age 24, when he would have been at his peak in time for the
1956 Olympics.
I had the chance to interview him later, when I was with the Associated Press. Here are
links to a couple of articles:
Before retiring from AP, I wrote obituary preparedness on Santee that was used by many papers across the country today, including the Los Angeles Times, the Boston Globe, and USA Today. You can see it at http://sports.espn.go.com/oly/trackandfield/news/story?id=5807119.
Neil Bascomb's book, "The Perfect Mile," about the competition to break the 4-minute mile, is excellent. I recommend it highly.
--Dick Lipsey