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A Life of Perseverance, Integrity, and Family
Al Frame: A Life of Perseverance, Integrity, and Family
D. Allen “Al” Frame’s life was defined by perseverance – on the track, in the classroom, in his law practice, and most importantly, in his devotion to family and community. Born on July 9, 1934, in Letts, Iowa, to educators H. Dayle Frame, Sr. and Alice Petersen Frame, Al grew up with brothers Bill and Dutch in a family that valued education and perseverance. His early years took him through many small Iowa towns and a stint in Seattle before the family finally settled in Wichita, Kansas, where Al would plant lifelong roots.
Running Toward Greatness
At Wichita East High School, Al’s talent for running quickly set him apart. He captured state titles in cross country (1951) and the mile (1952), achievements later honored by his induction into the school’s Hall of Fame.
Awarded a prestigious Summerfield Scholarship (a full, academically based scholarship awarded to 10 Kansas high school graduates each year), Al began his college journey at the University of Kansas in 1952 and joined the legendary Coach Bill Easton’s Cross-Country and Track and Field Teams. Having spent many of his early years attending different schools, it was at KU that he truly found a home and built strong friendships, including a lifelong one with Tom Rupp. The brotherhood and friendships they forged during their collegiate careers and still share today are unimaginable.
“We enjoy every minute we’re with each other,” Frame once noted. “As the years go by, the memories get better.”
Freshmen were not allowed to compete in intercollegiate athletics during Frame’s time, but they did have practice. His freshman year, he spent studying and, as he tells it, at practice doing everything to keep up with the team leaders; he figured the best way to get better was to emulate what the best runners were doing. Anyone who knows Al will attest to his stubborn streak, which served him well as a distance runner.
As a sophomore, he was eligible to compete, and boy, did he. The 1953 Cross-Country team won the NCAA Championship Title with future Olympian Wes Santee placing first and Al placing 18th (Jayhawk teammates placing: Art Dalzell, 14th; Lloyd Koby, 40th; Dick Wilson, 42nd; Tom Rupp, 78th). The following year, Al won the NCAA Individual Cross Country Championship Title, with the team placing 4th (Jayhawk teammates placing: Jan Howell, 28th; Lowell Janzen, 39th; Tom Rupp, 40th; Grant Cookson, 69th). The Individual Championship earned him his first First Team All-American honors.
On the track, he received additional All-American honors by placing in at the NCAA Championship Track meet: 3rd place in the 2-mile run in 1955 and 4th in the 10,000-meter run in 1956. He was the Captain of the Cross-Country and Track Teams during his senior year, concluding his Kansas Jayhawk career with three First Team All-American titles, one Individual and one Team National Championships in Cross-Country, eight Big 7 Conference Individual Championships, and eight Big 7 Conference Team Championships. His accomplishments ultimately earned him induction into both the KU Athletics Hall of Fame and the Kansas Sports Hall of Fame. His running silhouette adorns KU’s Rim Rock Farm, a tribute to his enduring place in Jayhawk history.
Yet, even as he built a national reputation as a runner, Al never lost sight of academics. He graduated in 1956 with a history degree, Phi Beta Kappa honors, and the distinction of Senior Class President. “Academics are important to me,” he once said. “Being good academically is more important to me and my family than athletics.”
Love, Service, and New Paths
The summer of 1955 proved life-changing when Al, working on teammate Jan Howell’s family farm in Macksville, Kansas was set up on a blind date with Sally Wilson of nearby Kinsley. Sally was headed to KU that fall and was pretty enamored of the track star. They dated throughout the year, and married in 1957 during Al’s service in the U.S. Army, where he captained the Army Track Team.
After his military service, Al returned to KU (awarded the Woodrow Wilson graduate scholarship) a graduate assistant coach and law student. One of his fondest memories of that time coaching, was escorting his friend Billy Mills to the NCAA Championships in 1960 – Billy would go on to become the first American to win the Gold in the 10,000 meters at the Tokyo Olympics in 1964, he would also go on to also place 14th in the Marathon that same Olympics (talk about stubborn!).
During this period, Al and Sally welcomed their first daughters, Alice Josena (Sena) Garven and Ann Frame Hertzog.
By 1962, Al had earned his law degree and moved with Sally to Kinsley, where he joined his father-in-law Jerry Wilson in a law practice that became Wilson & Frame. Sons Glenn and Mark soon followed, and in 1983, the couple welcomed daughter Lisa to complete their family.
Building Community in Kinsley
Al approached law and community life with the same determination he gave athletics. He served as County Attorney, joined Rotary, sat on the school board, and even helped launch Kinsley’s youth baseball league in the early 1960s with friend Ray Gaskill. In 1973, he chaired the town’s Centennial Celebration, showcasing his deep pride in his adopted hometown.
Even in the midst of professional and civic duties, family always came first. He loved to be with his family, building backyard forts, coaching teams, and packing the car for long road trips to historical sites and national parks. His love of history transformed vacations into learning adventures, while his humor (like the infamous tent-without-poles camping trip) became family legend.
Al had a deep love for nature and enjoyed being outside and wanted to take the family backpacking. But first he completed a five-week NOLS survival course before taking the family on wilderness adventures in New Mexico and Colorado. Around campfires, he spun stories, brewed Sally’s morning coffee, and made meals of macaroni and cheese and spam, a running joke since his fishing skills never quite matched his running talent.
Life on the Farm and Beyond
In 1974, Al and Sally moved to a farm northeast of Kinsley, where he found joy in working cattle with friends Jerry Anderson and Bill Scott under the Bar3 brand (This was also a time when his kids learned some new words as he worked the cattle!). While he continued practicing law—eventually alongside his son Mark who joined the practice in 1995 — life on the farm was ideal.
As the kids got older and went off to the University of Kansas, good Jayhawks all, Al was always there, supporting and encouraging them. Having his kids receive an education and become productive, happy, and independent adults was always his highest priority.
As Al semi-retired, he and Sally enjoyed watching their kids and grandchildren thrive. They would travel far and wide to watch them compete in sporting events. And they really enjoyed visiting or traveling with their kids. Their many adventures included: visiting Ann and Lisa in Los Angeles; visiting Sena in Italy, Monterey, CA, North Carolina, and El Paso; traveling with Mark and Glenn and their families to Copper Canyon in Mexico; also visiting Glenn in Colorado and Washington, and then traveling with him to the Northeast, Portugal and Spain, and Costa Rica, as well as embarking on a bike-n-barge trip in Belgium and Amsterdam.
Enduring Legacy
Al Frame’s life was filled with accomplishments — NCAA champion, Army captain, lawyer, civic leader—but he measured success differently. For him, the true victories were the lives of his wife, children, grandchildren, and great-grandchildren, and the friendships that sustained him along the way.
His brother Dutch once said, “Al is a man who lives without regrets because he always does what is the right thing to do, never betraying his conscience and never being selfish.”
That integrity, paired with humility and humor, defined Al. Whether running a grueling race, practicing law, or telling bedtime stories in a tent, he lived a life full of perseverance, love, and purpose.
He leaves behind Sally, his wife of 68 years; his five children; ten grandchildren; eight great-grandchildren; and countless friends and teammates who will remember him as a man of uncommon strength, character, and heart.
