STL All Sports

When Jim Ryun was a student at the University of Kansas, and the world's champion mile runner, he came to New York for a gala hotel luncheon. A frenzied crowd gathered to see and honor history's fastest miler. Following the luncheon meal and ceremonies, young Ryun was besieged by a wild mob of autograph hunters who proferred menus, postcards, napkins, and pieces of paper for him to sign. Always the modest hero, Ryun scribbled signatures as rapidly as he could without even once raising his head to see the beneficiaries of his autographs.

His mother, who was there, impishly thought she would fool her famous son, and get an autograph of her own. She joined the long line of autograph hunters, and some minutes later, she shoved a slip of paper in front of Jim Ryun, who did not seem to notice her as he signed it. He scrawled something and returned the paper to Mrs. Ryun without looking at her. Chuckling, she moved off, and deposited the piece of paper in her purse for safekeeping. She did not see what her son had written until she had returned to the family home in Wichita, Kansas. When she finally read what he had written for her autograph, it caused her to laugh. For Jim Ryun had scribbled on her piece of paper:

"Gosh, mom, send more cookies when I get back to school."