Jim Wyant wants students and teachers to remember Bill Sudeck every time they step into the new field house. He still is amazed at how Sudeck "Treated me like a great athlete, and I was far from that."
View full sizeThis is an artist rendering of the new Wyant Field House that will be constructed on the campus of Case Western Reserve University. Optical science pioneer and Case Western Reserve trustee James Wyant has made a $4 million commitment to name the new field house.
It happened nearly 50 years ago, but Jim Wyant will never forget his first meeting with Bill Sudeck.
Wyant was a skinny freshman at Case (now Case Western Reserve) University, sitting in a booth at the Howard Johnson's restaurant. He was having a milkshake and talking to a few friends.
"What's your name?" asked a man, who identified himself as Sudeck, the school's track coach.
The 5-8, 140-pound Wyant stared at the man for a moment, confused. Then the freshman physics major introduced himself.
"You're thin and look like a runner," said Sudeck. "Cross country practice is tomorrow at 3, I expect to see you there."
Then Sudeck left.
Wyant remembers it as if Sudeck "came out of nowhere." Then he was gone. He thought the entire conversation was strange.
View full sizeThe bust of Bill Sudeck is on display in the John T. Vaughan Athletic Hall of Fame in the Veale Convocation Center on CWRU's campus. He was not a runner, and had absolutely no intention of wasting time on cross country.
The academics at Case seemed demanding enough for a freshman from Lyons, a small town of about 500 in western Ohio. Wyant's father died in 1948 when he was 5, and he was raised by his mother.
Given all that, why run at least six miles at practice after school?
But the next day, he was summoned to a phone at his dorm.
"Where were you?" asked Sudeck. "You missed practice. I'll see you tomorrow."
To this day, Wyant isn't sure exactly why Sudeck recruited him so hard -- he was not much of an athlete. Nor did Wyant know why he went to practice, but he did. Four years later, he was captain of the cross country team. He also ran track for Sudeck in the spring, the mile and half-mile.
"I was never that great of a runner," he said. "But he was there for me all four years. He knew nothing about me when we first met, but he seemed to believe in me."
That's why Wyant is making a $4 million donation to CWRU to build a field house that can be used by both athletes and students. There will be weights, equipment, a health/wellness center. Wyant had already donated $250,000 in 2008 for a track, which is named after Sudeck.
Wyant is now the dean of optical science at the University of Arizona. Under his leadership, Arizona has been one of the nation's leaders in the optics industry. The 1965 CWRU graduate has won tons of awards and honors, but he has zero interest in discussing them or what he has accomplished.
While the new field house will be named after him, Wyant wants students and teachers to remember Sudeck every time they step into the new field house. He still is amazed at how Sudeck "Treated me like a great athlete, and I was far from that."
Sudeck coached at CWRU for 46 years until his death from cancer in 2000. He coached cross country, track and basketball. He was ideal for non-scholarship Division III because he wanted to win, but was truly committed to his athletes -- because he treated them as students first.
"Coach Sudeck saw sports as a good way to blow off steam from all the tests and papers and pressure that students feel at Case," said Wyant. "He understood that we had labs and other things for class, and he adjusted his practices. He was just there for you."
Wyant said one of the things that Sudeck said is, "Never kick a sick dog." He meant to never pile on someone when they were down.
"If he had a temper, I never saw it," recalled Wyant. "He was such a patient person."
While Wyant gained the virtues of listening, of mentoring and instilling confidence in his students from Sudeck -- he picked up something else.
"Finish what you start," he said. "As a [distance] runner you learn that. You can't run 80 or 90 percent of the race, you need to finish it. You find you can finish it if you work hard enough, and that applies to life."
Wyant was in town Friday night for a CWRU board meeting, where he also will be installed as a new trustee.
"I remember running in the snow on the old cinder track," said Wyant. "I hoped that one day I'd make enough money to come back and help the athletic department."
That day was Friday, and it's a day that truly does honor the memory of a very special coach.
To reach Terry Pluto: terrypluto2003@yahoo.com, 216-999-4674