For all his spoofery, Ramsey, along with sports information immortals like Kansas’s Don Pierce, presided over a period when the Kansas-Texas-Drake Relays triumvirate in April was the showcase for stars and events that commanded public attention in a big way. They were true poets in the press boxes.

Yet even in the glory days from the late 1940s through the 1980s, people still tended to read more about track and field than they bought tickets. It was a matter of identity and empathy.

Most of us at one time or other played at baseball, football, basketball, tennis and golf and readily can identify with people who star in such activities. How many ever ran a hurdles race, high or low, tried to soar with the aid of a pole, cleared a bar at 5-foot-6 and up or attempted to fling a hunk of iron or a spear for distance? People enjoy hearing about specialists who do. But except for Olympic years and Wes Santee-Jim Ryun-Billy Mills flat-race heroics, we don’t pay much money to show up in person.

You take a dominator in track and field like four-time Olympic gold medalist Al Oerter, the discus hero. Very few ever witnessed his record throws, even in the Summer Games.

Scott McClurg/Journal-World Photo

With the explosion of television, the widening demands on people’s time and the burgeoning impatience of sports fans, it has become even tougher to return track and field to the attention level it once had. Kansas legions guided by Bill Easton and Bob Timmons once gave the Kansas Relays glitter and glamor deluxe. Again there’s that villain television. A track meet is too prolonged and fragmented and has too much down-time to get condensed into the kind of wham-bam event people demand anymore. There is only one track, only so many runways and throwing venues; you can’t telescope them.

But a lot of that’s bad news. The good news is that the Kansas Relays which once produced so many world-class occurrences is working on a major comeback. New KU athletic director Lew Perkins is an old shot-putter with an appreciation for track and field. Hustlers like Tim Weaver are doing lots of things to make the April carnival the delight it once was.

In his 18 years (1948-65) as Kansas coach and Relays director, the late Bill Easton not only ran a great event but coached superstars who demanded that people take notice. Then along came 23 glossy years (1966-88) under Bob Timmons. They made the most with what KU provided for them and are every bit the superstars in track and field that folks like Glenn Cunningham, Jim Ryun, Wes Santee, Billy Mills and Al Oerter became. The five latter icons along with Bill and Bob were inducted into the Relays Hall of Fame this weekend. The door could be opening on a return to glory.

Two special ladies also got to share the spotlight with their spouses Saturday. Ada Easton, the lively, resourceful and vibrant widow of Bill, is due back from her current residence in Georgia and soon may return here for good. Then there is the adorable Pat Timmons, who has labored long, hard and with great love to factor greatly in the achievements of her supremely talented husband. I’ve remarked in the past how great wives figure in the eminence of their coaching husbands. You won’t find two better examples of power behind a given throne.

Easton and Timmons invariably trained and featured athletes whom people could get ga-ga about. I’m sorry for younger folks who never saw these dandies make it an absolute necessity to follow the Kansas Relays. I’m not talking about just the 57 spikers listed in the KU Athletics Hall of Fame. There may be 10 times that many guys who have given us just as many thrills. The only concern about the Relays Hall of Fame is that they’re going to have to build a gigantic wall to include all the deserving honorees’ plaques.

Scott McClurg/Journal-World Photo

Al Oerter is one of those focused, self-contained, articulate guys who seems to be in command of almost any situation. We can only hope his heart condition leaves him with us many more years. Santee was admired by teammates because in his first years he unselfishly ran with relay teams to help them win the coveted wrist watches awarded, particularly at KU.

Then came 1954, Santee’s senior year. Easton demanded he tackle the open mile in quest of 4:00 or better. Wes won in 4:03.1, a brilliant time considering KU had a crappy cinder track that was sloppy because of a traditional rain. Two months later, Britain’s Roger Bannister in a paced race ran 3:59.4, and I almost kicked over the AP wire that sent that out. There was no way Wes could have missed being first except for bad weather and a sloshy track.

Now-U.S. Rep. Jim Ryun drew even bigger crowds and broke even more records; people went nuts over this shy, reclusive head-bobber and his fabulous feats. If you know anything about the obstacles Native American Billy Mills had to overcome to become a 1964 Olympic 10,000-meter champ, you admire him even more. He’s now a dead-ringer for vocalist Englebert Humperdinck, only better looking.

Glenn Cunningham with his 1930s mile records and 1932 and 1936 Olympic appearances (a silver medal) was perhaps the bell-cow of Kansas track of a big-time nature, and the growing excitement over the Relays.

Further, the Kansas Relays offers a chance for high school youths from all over to showcase their talents and compete with the best. Thousands of kids will admit they first fell in love with KU and eventually enrolled here because of the thrills they experienced as Relays attendees and performers.

Richard Gwin/Journal-World Photo

Hey, after a frustrating period of fits and starts and sputters, the Kansas Relays could be making a comeback in its annual bid for our affection and patronage. Let’s hope so. There was a time when some of the events up there, like a Santee or Ryun feature event, stirred the same kind of excitement that modern Jayhawk basketball outings do.

Truth is, track and field merit volumes of praise when they’re done right, the way KU has handled them in past years. May we soon get back to those brilliant shows we once savored so much.