Vol. 4 No. 11 The Passing of Another Legend Mike Ryan

Mike Ryan winning the NCAA meet at Van Cortlandt Park

Mike in his Wilcox HS uniform

Feb. 21, 2014
Today we just learned of the passing of Mike Ryan who once held the high school two mile record at 9:10 until Gerry Lindgren broke it two weeks later running 9:00.  Mike went on to Stanford and then transferred to the US Air Force Academy after his freshman year.   In three years '67, '68, '69  Mike finished  3rd, 1st, and 2nd at the NCAA Cross Country Championships.  His victory was at Van Cortlandt Park NYC in a collegiate record on that course of 29:16.      In '69 he was sandwiched between Lindgren and Prefontaine.  He had worked for many years as a district attorney in Bakersfield, CA.   Mike had been suffering from cardiac problems for several years.  His spirit and determination will long be remembered by those who knew him.   In the late 1970's while serving in the Air Force at Wright Patterson Air Force Base in Dayton, OH, he trained with the Kettering Striders.  I remember going to the All Ohio meet, and he was there with the team.  His best days were long behind him, but he was still giving it everything he had.  A friend was out on the course near the 4 mile mark and we were both struggling up the hill when his friend, knowing Ryan's psyche and toughness, yelled at him going up that hill,  "Ryan, use your teeth!"

Below is some of the correspondence talking about his exploits from several of his friends and acquaintances.

George-

While e-mail is amazing, it does have it’s downfalls…. I had tried to cc: you on a couple of other e-mails I received earlier today, but apparently failed because I hit the wrong button on my I-phone. Anyway, the unfortunate reason to bring this race up, is that last night Mike Ryan passed away, after a long struggle with cardiac problems. Jack Leydig at WVTC (West Valley Track Club)   in the bay area had informed me. 

 

I actually got to the academy a few weeks after Ryan graduated, with no plans to ever run after high school! Those legendary workouts of his were told to us by John Jones ,who also hailed from your area of Ohio. John was the class of 71, and has also passed away (An All- American with a 27:48 6 mile PR).

 

Take care-

 

 

Rick

 

 As a High schooler at Wilcox HS in Calif,Mike Ryan held the national two mile record for 20 days in December 63' at 9:09(broke Jim Ryun's record of 9:11), until Lindgren dropped it to 9:00 on 12/27/63; soon after that Lindgren put it out of reach, when running against Ron Clarke indoors(8:40)

 

>> Some very sad news....
>>
>> I just received an e-mail from Katie Ryan (Mike's wife) who let me know that he passed away last night from cardiac arrest at a Bakersfield hospital.  He has not been well for some time and has been unable to attend our Old Farts reunions since he was unable to travel comfortably.
>>
>> Mike finished second in the 1969(?) NCAA Cross-Country Championships to Gerry Lindgren by only a few seconds and broke 9 minutes for 2 miles while attending Wilcox High School in Santa Clara in the 60's.  He went to college at the Air Force Academy in Colorado and has been living in Bakersfield for many years.
>>
>> Mike ran for West Valley TC briefly in the early 1970's, and participated in the National AAU X-C Championships as I recall.
>>
>> Jack

 

Thanks for forwarding-while I only met Mike a few times, he was a god to the USAFA runners like me who followed, and were inspired by his fearless attitude.

> I remember running into him in the locker room after we both ran in the 72' AAU XC race at Washington Park in Chicago after I had transferred out of the academy, worried that he might snub me for not staying for all 4 yrs.
> He was very supportive, which made my day!
> Jack, I cc:Ed George for his blog.
> Rick

 

 Mike helped West Valley TC to a 4th place finish in the '72 AAU XC in Chicago, finishing an "out of shape" 50th.  We had finished 2nd to Florida TC the year before in San Diego with a much stronger team.  I'm not surprised that Mike supported your decision.  He had made a similar choice after transferring to the Air Force Academy from his freshman year at Stanford.  Mike and I were very close friends over the years, although we seldom saw each other.  Last time we met was about 15 years ago in San Mateo when he was in the area and we went on a hike together.  But we kept in touch consistently via e-mail or phone.  A great man who will be very much missed.

Jack

 

http://runningentertainment.com/runningshots35.html  While looking for more information about Mike Ryan, we found this link in letsrun.com showing fotos of individual NCAA XC champions in the first 40 or so years of that annual race.  In a time of mourning, some things nostalgic can help.  George Brose  George & Steve,    Thanks for letting us all know about the passing of Mike Ryan.  I met him several times including a day at Fairmont East HS during a Kettering Striders practice.  He was working at WPAFB and running with the Striders.  Steve, you suggested that Mike and I do a workout together, not an easy task for me.  We decided to do 10 x 220 in 26 seconds with a 220 jog.  That was a very legitimate workout but was made much more diffiult by Mike whose intrepretation of a 220 jog was very different from mine.  Nevertheless, we ran all 10 and they were in 26 seconds.  I almost died during that workout but was mighty please to have finished it.  Years later I ran into Mike and we discussed that day.  Amazingly he said I almost killed him with those 26 second furlongs.  It really made me feel good that I challenged a great such as Mike Ryan.  I know that he more than challenged me as it took the rest of the day for me to recover.  He was a very good person, extremely motivated and high charged.  I am truly saddened by his passing.     Bill Schnier   From:Don Betowski

 

George,

Mike was a teammate of a good friend of mine, John Jones.  They ran together at the AFA.  John was stationed at Minot, ND after graduating.  That must be the coldest place in the US, so John did not get too much taining in while there.  However, he always tried to go to  the Drake relays.  One year he finished 5th in the 6 mile to Frank Shorter.  I believe at that time it was the 5th fastest time in the US at 27:48.  I knew John, when he was a grad student at UCSB, and we trained together on Saturdays.  Like Mike, John died much too soon, as he had a massive heart attack about 10 years ago.

Vol. 3 No. 59 A Documentary Film in Production about Steve Prefontaine

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3o9SPH-GNu8

Here is a 15 minute preview of a documentary in production about Coos Bay, Oregon and the people who grew up with and knew Steve Prefontaine as he was growing up.  There is also a pitch at the end to raise money to complete the project.

Thanks to Mike Solomon for bringing this to our attention.

GB

Vol. 3 No. 22 A Classic Race Between Four of Our Great Ones

Our normal format is to follow Track and Field as it evolved during the 1950's and 1960's in a chronological order.  We are now up to July , 1963.   But we also take license to interrupt that plan on occasion when we feel that it would interest our readers.   Today I'm making that decision.    A few days ago,  Mike Solomon, a former Kansas Jayhawk, and tough California high school miler back in the day, sent me a youtube clip of a two mile race in  1969 between Gerry Lindgren, then at Washington State,  Steve Prefontaine, a recent high school graduate on his way to Oregon,  Frank Shorter, the new NCAA 6 mile champion, and Marty Liquori, the AAU mile champion.  It was held in Hawaii.  The meet name is not identified.  Every step of the way is on film and a knowledgable commentary goes with the race.  

A few days later, Dave Elger, posted the same race on his Facebook account,  and none other than Gerry Lindgren made comments about it.    For that reason I felt the story was worth putting in our blog right now.
I've put the youtube link below and Gerry's comments that appear on Dave's Facebook page below the link.
Dave by the way was the NCAA marathon champion for Steven's Point WI, which was DII or DIII,  back in the 70's.   He works at an American army base in South Korea as a fitness guru and still runs sub 3 hour marathons in his 60's.  I think he has run a sub 3 hour in every decade since the 1970's which is a superhuman achievement.  Dave and I put a few miles together (when both of us weren't hurt) on the roads around Muncie, Indiana back around 1977-79 when we were grad students at the Human Performance Lab, Ball State University under Dr.  David Costill.

When you open the link below, you will also see a number of historic track and field clips posted down th e right side of the page on youtube by our friend Leif Bugge of Denmark who has contributed so much to the success of this blog.

Below are the link and the comments from Dave's Facebook page.

You will also note that Marty Liquori added what he remembered about this event.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=t9fmOY7YWMg

1969 - Gerry Lindgren vs Steve Prefontaine, Marty Liquori, Frank Shorter - 2 miles - Hawaii

www.youtube.com from Historic Films

Daniel MacCracken You "psyched" Pre ... amazing 

o                                                        

Steven Hoag Wow, I have never seen this before. 4 of our greatest distance runners in a race in Hawaii. The track isn't the greatest, but interesting race nonetheless. Shorter was probably just beginning his high mileage in FL and would become the Shorter that we all remember. Great kick by 

o                                                        

David Bailey How dare you beat the late, great Steve Prefontaine!

o                                                        

Gerry Lindgren I really enjoyed watching this race unfold. (I had forgotten). It shows that it is NOT the fastest (Marty Liquori) or the strongest (Pre) that wins the race. It is the runner who will dare to do what the others will not. I used a two-lap sprint to break Pre's extremely good finishing sprint. I altered the pace of the race several times too and that is always a good way to keep everyone on their toes.

·                                  

·                               

Dave Elger This is classic!

·                                 

Gerry Lindgren WOW! I didn't even REMEMBER this race. I have been telling a different story about it. I thought it was 3-miles. I didn't recall it correctly at all. Color me dumb!

Dave Elger Hard to believe Shorter went from a 9 min 2 miler here to Oly Champ 3 years later.

·                                 

Gerry Lindgren On the backstretch there was a 40 yard section of 'bad sand' that was very hard to run through. As the race developed, I picked up my pace just before the sand area. Pre, trying to stay ahead, would have to push harder through the sand.

·              George

I just watched that race today. I honestly remembered nothing about it and was hoping I was going to win. 

I did remember running a mile on that track .

We were there to train for the us vs Russia meet the next week in Los Angeles.

I was definitely not trained for two miles as I would have run the mile every week for the past two months.
From the looks of it it seems it was a practice session that somehow was called a race . I realize it was a dirt track but Shorter and I would not likely run that slow in a race.

A few weeks after that I would tear my plantar fascia.

Hope that helps.

Marty                   

Vol. 2 No. 99 Van Cortlandt Park, 100 years of Cross Country History

I have never run at Van Cortlandt Park, and it may well be that I never will nor will I ever see the course or a meet there.  However it is a legend in American cross country history.   I've been to Belmont Park in Philadelphia where that course has been used by Philadelphia schools and universities for many years.  It is unchanging and in many places it is a well worn rut.  In the East , change is an anathema amongst track people.  They want to compare performances of 50 years ago with today's performances.  Thus at all costs the courses remain unchanged.  In reading about Van Cortlandt it is noted that for several years while the City Park management was refurbishing the park, the course had to be changed, and there is a lot of agony felt in the references to that fact.

The New York Times published an article (October 12, 2012)  by Mark Bloom  commemorating the 100th anniversary of cross country running in Van Cortlandt Park in the Bronx.  Mr. Bloom's article follows on the first link.

http://www.nytimes.com/2012/10/13/sports/for-new-york-cross-country-runners-a-century-of-testing-runners-speed-and-spirit.html?pagewanted=3



The next link comes from Oregon remembering the 1969 NCAA cross country championships held at Van Cortlandt and won that year by Gerry Lindgren.  Steve Prefontaine was third in that race behind Lindgren and Mike Ryan of the Air Force Academy.



http://www.flickr.com/photos/thehappyrower/5615929325/


The third article is about the old water courses that ran through the park in colonial days.  The water is still there, however it runs through underground conduits.  Interesting article for history nuts and conservationists.
http://watercourses.typepad.com/watercourses/bronx/

Below are some pictures I've culled from various sources.

NCAA's 1969

Pre and Lindgren on left, Donal Walsh of Villanova and Ron Bednarski UTEP on the right

underground stream under the park

The Van Cortlandt subway stop

Pre  1969

1945

Meet probably 1920's

Couse layout (corrected July 5, 2022)  thanks to anonymous reader

Vol. 2 No. 33 A Brief Conversation About Attitude and Forebearance

Conversation George Brose and Pete Brown
________________________________________
Did you ever wonder whether guys like you and me ran without the self confidence that a lot of the great runners had? Ernie's going out fast , and Filbert Bayi as well to me were indicative that they had the attitude that they could do it, and if anybody wanted to try staying with them, let it them try. Some could, and responded to the challenge, but I'm sure a lot of them who might have, didn't, because they lacked that inner confidence and willingness to sacrifice their bodies to that extent for just a few minutes or seconds. When I was at Oklahoma , we had a shot putter ,Mike Lindsay, who was 4th at Rome for Great Britain . He told me about meeting Halberg the night before the 5000 final and asking him if he thought he could win. Murray 's reply was something like, "Well I don't know if I will win, but I do plan to break the world record." We know now that he didn't break the WR, but he broke the field with three laps to go in the 90 degree heat. He had to have incredible confidence to try doing such a move. George Brose

Well said, George, and Steve Prefontaine is the best example ever among US athletes for supreme and undeniable self-confidence.
Pete Brown
Bowerman sent three of his best distance men down to Coos Bay to recruit Prefonatine when he was still in HS and they went for a ten mile run on the beach. He announced beforehand, in all seriousness, that he would take it easy on them if they needed him to. He had some big brass balls for sure.
Pete Brown

I think there was a scene about that in one of the two movies made about him. George

The Bowerman book by Kenny Moore, which I thought was terrific, alludes to it as well.
Pete Brown
Ernie Cunliffe was cranking in that 1000 to go by in 1:51.3 (faster than my PR of 1:52.1) and come back with 26.2. Pete Brown

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