Frank or Foolish?

Ever since that honest Indian, Jim Thorpe, Olympic track-and-field star and all-round athlete, discovered that he had sold out his amateur standing for the pottage ($25 a week) of two summers of bush league baseball, amateur athletes have worked at padding their expense accounts as assiduously as they have worked at their chosen sports. But the subterfuge never appealed to Kansas Runner Wes Santee. Fastest miler in U.S. history (4:00.5), Wes was out to make his way from his speed on the track--and he cared not who knew what he was doing. Rarely did his expense accounts contain the creative writing and fantastic arithmetic of the standard swindle sheet. When Wes bulldozed track meet promoters into paying him far more than amateur rules permit, he usually listed the extra payments openly in his accounting for the Amateur Athletic Union. Said he: "These expense rules are for Joe Blows. I'm no Joe Blow . . . I had no other work when I was running, and I deserved compensation."

It is no secret that other track stars have long taken money under the table. But they do their best not to get caught. Once in a while, as in the case of Finland's great Miler Paavo Nurmi, their financial shenanigans have come to light, and resulted in suspensions from amateur competition. In the U.S. the hardheaded high brass of the A.A.U. have cracked down on the few flagrant cases they could hardly overlook. Little has been done, however, to liberalize the main cause of the cheating--the outdated ceiling of $15 a day on athletes' expense accounts.

Because Santee's disregard for the amateur rules was so open, it was bound to backfire, and last fall it did: the Missouri Valley A.A.U. suspended him for accepting excess expenses. It took the enthusiastic support of Kansas Senator Frank Carlson to get him reinstated. Then, at its national convention, the A.A.U. ordered a special committee to reinvestigate Santee. The committee dug up new evidence, decided that Wes Santee had illegally pocketed $1,500 for participating in eight track meets. Last week the A.A.U. set Santee down for life.

Marine Lieut. Santee threatened a court fight to regain his amateur standing. Controversy raged on the sports pages. Why pick on Santee, the best the U.S. has for the Olympics? track fans asked. But the argument seemed academic. Even if the A.A.U. reinstates Santee, said the International Olympic Committee's highhanded president, Avery Brundage, Santee will never run in the Olympics. "There is enough evidence on him right now without any further investigation."

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