Ned Ryun

Yeah, same to you.

Merry Christmas, Vince, and great to be with you.

Still out of Kansas.

Came from Kansas.

My dad was in the house from 1996 to 2006.

Obviously, the older generations will recognize the name Jim Ryan, three-time Olympian, world record holder in the mile.

I'll tell you a quick story.

He was running the Olympic torch through his hometown of Wichita.

1996.

And at that point, Bob Dole was running for president.

Sam Brownback was vacating the second congressional district in Kansas to run for that Senate seat.

And all of a sudden, about three weeks before deadline, Republicans were kind of scrambling as to who would be a strong candidate for the second congressional district.

So Congressman Todd T. Hart and his chief of staff, Matt Schlapp, came over to my dad after the torch carrying event and said, hey, Jim Ryan,

How you doing?

Great.

Have you ever thought about running for Congress?

And my dad had said, I made two pledges in life.

I'd never be a track and field coach, and I'd never run for public office.

But on the way home, he and my mom were talking about it, prayed about it, talked with us.

Three weeks later, he files to run for office.