60 years ago on this day (1966): it was another banner day in the career of Wichita track legend Jim Ryun.
Heavy rain from the previous night left the track wet in Lawrence, yet on a dark and cloudy day, there were 15,000 fans in the stands at Memorial Stadium on the University of Kansas campus; they were there to see Ryun in the mile run for the first time in the historic 41st annual Kansas Relays.
It was Ryun's freshman year at KU; at that time, freshmen were ineligible to compete at the varsity level in college. At the Kansas Relays in '66, Ryun competed as an "unattached" athlete.
Less than a week away from his 19th birthday, Ryun excelled on the soaked track, easily smashing by seven seconds the mile-record at the Kansas Relays that had stood for 12 years.
Ryun finished that day with a mile time of 3:55.8, which at the time was the fifth-fastest mile in American history, and the fastest mile-run in the world that year, up to that point.
