By George Edmonston Jr. for Mid-Valley Sports

Jim Ryun.

Mention his name to almost anyone of the Baby Boomer generation and bells go off. No, gongs.

In the 1960s, few athletes in any sport could match Ryun's portfolio: named Sportsman of the Year by Sports Illustrated magazine in 1966, the youngest ever to win the coveted honor; recipient that same year of the Sullivan Award as the nation's top amateur athlete; three-time Olympian, in 1964, '68 and '72; world record holder at three distances-- 880 yards, 1500 meters and the mile; anchor of a sprint medley relay team that set another world record; first high school runner in history to break the four-minute barrier for the mile and the record holder for prepsters at that distance for 36 years.

James Ryun, receiving the SI Sportsman of the Year Award. Photo courtesy the Jim Ryun Running Camp website.

For sure, James Ronald Ryun in his day was the runner to beat.

Now serving a fourth term in Congress as representative of the Second Congressional District in his home state of Kansas, the father of four and founder and president of Jim Ryun Sports, Inc., a public relations firm, ranks as one of the true icons of American sports, nearly on a par with the likes of a Babe Ruth, Wilt Chamberlain or Tiger Woods.

And yet, there's a little-known episode in the life of Jim Ryun that might be worth mentioning as Oregon State University prepares this year to reinstate track and field after a 15-year hiatus.

In April 1965, for a few tantalizing days, Ryun was a Beaver. The details surrounding his ever-so-brief brush with the Orange and Black are both fascinating and quite possibly the best-ever OSU tale of what might-have-been, could-have-been, nearly-was.

The spring of '65 remains a historic period of transition for Oregon State athletics.

After his return to campus following the Rose Bowl, head football coach Tommy Prothro announced he was leaving to take over the program at UCLA.

His resignation spread like a disease.

It was caught first by track coach Sam Bell, who said he would soon be heading for Cal Berkeley. Bell had been at OSU seven seasons and had guided his cross country team in 1961 to what is still the school's only NCAA team national championship.

Next came Ralph Coleman, OSU's longtime baseball coach, who shocked players and supporters alike by saying that after 35 seasons he would serve one more year then hang up his spikes.

Left to right: Coach Prothro, Coach Bell, Coach Coleman. All photos from the 1965 Beaver.

Putting Coleman's job aside for the moment, Athletic Director Slats Gill quickly hired Dee Andros from Idaho to replace Prothro. Next, he went to the Midwest, to the University of Kansas, for Bell's successor.

The lucky candidate was Jayhawk alumnus Bob Timmons, a 40-year old assistant under KU's legendary thinclad boss, Bill Easton. In 1964, Easton had hired Timmons from Wichita East High School, where the latter had turned in an impressive performance and where he had trained a young prep phenom named Jim Ryun

OSU was (and still is) no stranger to Timmons. He certainly knew Sam Bell, for it was Bell who had recommended to Slats that the Kansan be given serious consideration for the soon-to-be track opening.

In addition, an earlier predecessor at East had been Ralph Miller, who coached at the school from 1948-1951 and would later, as we now know, achieve his greatest fame on the hardwoods of Gill Coliseum as Oregon State's head basketball coach.

"I immediately fell in love with Corvallis and was thrilled to get the job," Timmons said in a recent telephone interview from his farm 10-miles north of Lawrence, a 96-acre spread he and wife Pat bought four years after his retirement from KU in 1988. "I loved to fish and the smell of the trees in Oregon was special. I would also be coaching Jim Ryun."

Timmons had accepted Easton's assistant coaching position prior to Ryun's senior year at East. Slats' offer would reunite the two after the young star's graduation, and Timmons dreamed of great things for the Beavers. "I was excited about the chance to compete out there," he said, "and especially looking forward to OSU's rivalry with the University of Oregon and its head coach, Bill Bowerman. It was a wonderful feeling."

By this time, Ryun was also a seasoned Olympian, having competed in the 1964 games in Tokyo as a high school junior. He failed to medal but gained world-class experience that would serve him well the rest of his running career. Throughout the 20th century, OSU had sent many of its finest to the Olympics but had never welcomed a new recruit in any sport who had already been to the world's most prestigious sporting event.

If ever there was a "package deal" for Slats, this was it: Timmons and Ryun in Corvallis, coaching and running their way to track immortality.

That Ryun was probably headed for Oregon State, there can be little doubt. Not only does Timmons remember receiving a commitment from the young man, but it was reported in the Gazette-Times all during the month of April that Ryun was "Oregon State-bound." "I know for sure he was excited about OSU because he wanted to run for me," Timmons added.

Contacted at his office in Washington on Thursday, Ryun only had a couple of minutes to spare from a very busy schedule but did share this small anecdote about OSU:

"My intention after high school was to follow Coach Timmons," he said. "At one point it looked like it might be Oregon State and then it was the University of Kansas. I eventually did move to Oregon and lived in Eugene for about nine months in 1971. This was when I was training and it was going well. Once the rain stopped and the pollen became so heavy in the Willamette Valley I couldn't breathe, I went to Southern California to get away from all that.

"If coach had moved to Oregon State I was considering it, but most of all I wanted to follow him because I had enjoyed such great success with him and knew his program from when I was in high school."

Sometimes history can turn on a dime, in the form of a small, unanticipated glitch that changes things forever. What if that nasty iceberg had been another six inches out and away from the hull of the Titanic? What if the military's top brass at Pearl Harbor the morning of Dec. 7, 1941, had paid a little closer attention to reports that an American destroyer had just shelled a Japanese submarine?

In this case, the "glitch" turned out to be, of all things, a pole vault box, the device vaulters use to plant their poles for the leverage they need to lift themselves (hopefully) over the crossbar.

To ensure everything was top-notch for the upcoming Kansas Relays, Easton had ordered a new box for the meet, never gave it a second thought, and carried on with his usual business of preparing his team for the meet. When KU's Athletic Director, Wade Stinson, a recent hire, found out about the purchase, a rub quickly developed.

As the story goes, the box had not been pre-approved by Stinson. As the feud escalated, it was easy to see how many Easton supporters might imagine that maybe the new Jayhawk AD was just as interested in micro-managing his coaches as he was in fielding competitive teams.

During his initial meeting with Slats, Timmons had struck a deal that he would not report to OSU until the conclusion of the Kansas Relays in mid-April. This done, and after saying goodbye to his family (they would follow when the school year was over), he headed for Corvallis, driving alone in a packed car.

Arriving just across the state line in Ontario, he decided to give his wife a phone call to tell her he had finally made it to Oregon and that things were OK.

He quickly found out from her that things at home were anything but OK.

The "rub," for some reason, had exploded. Stinson had just fired Easton, she told him, and had called the house wanting to know where he, Timmons, could be reached.

The two made a decision that he would continue on to Corvallis, as planned. But there was no escaping the flap going on back in Lawrence.

When he reported to OSU, phone messages were waiting for him. Stinson had called. The KU chancellor wanted to talk to him. For the next five days, April 19-23, his first and only week as OSU's new track coach, Timmons split his time between talking on the phone and meeting with the team he had inherited.

"I didn't want to leave OSU," he remembers, "and I begged Wade to reinstate Bill. I told him I hoped things could be resolved so that Coach Easton could continue in his job until retirement."

The offer to return was too good to ignore and eventually became too good to pass up. Timmons returned to Kansas and proved to be a great hire for his alma mater.

Known as "Timmie" to colleagues, friends and former athletes, his teams during his 22-year tenure captured 13 Big Eight indoor titles and 14 of the outdoor variety.

He also led the Jayhawks to three NCAA indoor national championships, in 1966, '69 and '70, and his 1970 squad tied for the outdoor championship with Oregon, BYU and Drake to give him four titles in five years.

No fewer than six world record holders trained under him, and world marks were set by four of his relay teams.

Adding the 96 acres of his "Rim Rock Farm" to an adjoining 25 acres owned by a neighbor, "Timmie" and wife Pat spent several years converting the property into a top-flight cross country course, which today is the home course for KU's cross country team.

In 1997, Rim Rock Farm hosted the Division I and II national championships in the sport.

Near the end of our chat about his time in Corvallis, what can only be described as a big "telephone" smile suddenly gave way to a bit of a laugh, as he said, "I like to tell people I'm still the only 'undefeated' track coach in OSU history."

Turning slightly more serious he added: "I've thought about this story hundreds of times over the years and was very disappointed when track was shutdown at Oregon State."

With Timmons gone, Slats took less than two weeks to find a replacement, in the person of Berny Wagner, who, with a high jumper named Dick Fosbury, would start to carve his own special niche in the annals of collegiate track and field.

George P. Edmonston Jr. is editor of the Oregon Stater, OSU's alumni magazine, and is a frequent contributor of sports features to the Gazette-Times. His is also co-author of Tales from Oregon State Sports, published in 2003 by Sportspublishingllc of Champaign, Ill.