RIP Tom Von Ruden

[lonewolf]

Thanks for the SI bio link, answered a lot of questions I did not know I had.
I was off living life when Von Ruden was at OkSt and could only follow his career sporadically. I did not even know he was from Idaho but I did know Ralph Tate, who was Stillwater HS coach when I was at OAMC and succeeded Higgins as OSU coach, subsequently coached in Idaho, which explains how Von Ruden found his way to Oklahoma.

[midwestfan]

One last tribute to Tom Von Ruden: Preston Davis, U of Texas great 880/miler wrote in an obituary that von Ruden held the Army boot camp mile record (full faigues and boots) running under 4:20 at Ft Ord. Preston had run a 4:20 six weeks earlier which he was told was the all time Army record but von Ruden came to boot camp a month later and broke his record.

Why doesn't someone inaugurate a return to an army-like boot camp mile challenge instead of the "beer mile" challenge which is much healthier and more patriotic? Can call it the "Von Ruden Challenge Mile Race"

[Conor Dary]

Chuck LaBenz ran a mile like that in 4:23 or so.... Didn't realize Von Ruden had run even faster... The draft in the 1960s led to all sorts of odd things.

[KDFINE]

Since a perfect score for the mile was 100 points for running 6:00, I wonder if there may have been any prominent runners who were content to hold back and not go all out - or did their competitive juices get the best of them?

[Django]

That was shocking news! I had first been impressed by him while I was attending medical school in Albuquerque, and saw him competing in the indoor invitational.
Much later, he lived in Reno, and worked at a major hotel here. Sometimes, during my lunch break, I'd walk over and chat with him for a few minutes about T&F. His co-workers were oblivious that he had been a sub-4 minute miler and Olympic finalist. He moved away to Arizona a few years back ( I've forgotten when, but I think more than 5 years ago)

[Halfmiler2]

I had also heard from someone on his message board that he worked in Reno.

He was an excellent runner and probably the closest thing Jim Ryun had as a competitor before Marty Liquori. He really was a victim of his times. No means of making a living in the sport and no World Championships between Olympics.

He was a favorite of mine. I did not know about the triple jumping. May he Rest In Peace.