👟 Jim Ryun to be Inducted in USTFCCCA Inaugural Hall of Fame Class Monday

LAWRENCE, Kan. — Legendary Kansas track and field alum Jim Ryun will be inducted in the Inaugural United States Track and Field and Cross Country Coaches Association (USTFCCCA) Collegiate Athlete Hall of Fame in a ceremony that will take place at the Hult Center for Performing Arts in Eugene, Oregon on Monday, June 6 beginning at 9:30 p.m. CT.

Ryun is one of 30 inductees that represent 205 national collegiate individual titles, 99 world records and 19 Olympic gold medals. A full list of inductees can be found here.

Ryun, one of track & field’s most prolific figures in history, attended KU from 1965-69, where he owned world records in the 880 yards, 1,500 meters, mile and two-mile runs and was a five-time (four indoor, one outdoor) NCAA Champion as a Jayhawk. Throughout his running career, Ryun was a six-time world record holder.

At the age of 17, Ryun became the first high schooler to run a sub-four-minute mile, which his record mark of 3:55.3 stood for nearly 36 years. As a high school senior, he was voted the fourth-best miler in the world and High School Athlete of the Year by Track & Field News and was later one of 30 athletes in the inaugural class inducted into the National High School Track & Field Hall of Fame in 2018.

Ryun, who was named Sports Illustrated’s Sportsman of the Year in 1966, was a three-time Olympian (1964, 1968, 1972). During the same year, the Wichita, Kansas native, was named the winner of the AAU Sullivan Award for the top amateur athlete in America. Ryun won the silver medal in the 1968 Olympic Games in the 1,500 meters and was a winner of three U.S. titles in the mile.  Ryun was inducted into the Kansas Sports Hall of Fame in 1977 and the National Track and Field Hall of Fame in 1980.

The induction ceremony will stream live in its entirety on Youtube, which can be found here.