Southern Illinoise University Athletics
Hall of Fame Journey Comes Full Circle for Chester's Kyle Landon
10/14/2026 | 5:34:00 | General
CARBONDALE, Ill. — Kyle Landon always believed he would leave Southern Illinois having accomplished something worth remembering.
He just didn't expect recognition to come this soon.
When Landon learned he had been selected for the Saluki Hall of Fame, his first reaction was disbelief. He had studied the history of SIU Track and Field, compared his accomplishments to those who came before him and wondered whether his name might someday belong among them.
Someday, maybe.
Not yet.
"I was shocked it was so soon," Landon said. "I had hoped that one day … I felt like maybe I'd be worthy of being in it."
The timing makes the honor even more special. Landon will be inducted on Oct. 16, his birthday.
"If you would have told me 32 years ago that I'd be inducted into the SIU Hall of Fame, I would not have believed it," he said.
For Landon, the honor represents more than statistics, medals and championships. It represents the legacy he hoped to build when he arrived in Carbondale.
"Knowing the kind of athlete I was and the kind of competitor I was, I knew coming into college I was going to leave having done something worth remembering," Landon said. "To what level that was, I wasn't sure then, and I'm still kind of shocked by the level I reached."
By the time his career ended, there was little doubt he had done exactly that.
The Chester, Illinois, native became a five-time First-Team All-American in the high jump, won nine Missouri Valley Conference titles and finished as the NCAA indoor national runner-up in 2017. He was also a three-time Academic All-American, earning first-team honors in 2017.
One performance stands above the rest.
At the 2016 U.S. Olympic Trials in Eugene, Oregon, Landon cleared a personal-best 7 feet, 5 inches to finish second in the men's high jump. The mark made him just the fourth Saluki to clear that height and gave SIU its best finish in the event at the Trials in more than two decades.
The performance remains one of Landon's proudest achievements and one of his toughest memories.
"I think the thing I remember the most is just that feeling after jumping that PR bar, knowing and turning around like, 'OK, here's a second PR that you have to clear to make the team,'" he said. "That's what I remember most, is just that feeling of not accomplishing that."
Because he had not met the Olympic qualifying standard, Landon did not advance to the Rio Games.
Still, he takes pride in delivering the best jump of his life on the sport's biggest stage.
"I did set a PR to a jump that I had probably attempted in at least six-plus meets that year," Landon said. "It's something I had been aiming for, and I did that at the right time on the biggest stage. I couldn't be more proud of that."
Like most successful athletes, Landon faced setbacks along the way.
An injury late in his sophomore season left him questioning whether he would ever clear seven feet again. The high jump itself often became a mental battle as he chased increasingly difficult heights.
"There were times where you just felt maxed out or not even able to achieve another peak," he said.
When that happened, Landon found relief in other events, including the long jump and triple jump.
"I'd just get mad and go over and do something else that was fun," he said. "I didn't have the pressure that I was putting on myself with the high jump."
One of the people who helped him navigate those challenges was teammate Austin Weigel.
Weigel entered the program as a walk-on and developed into a successful jumper himself, but what Landon remembers most is their shared passion for the event.
"He was such a student of the sport," Landon said. "He had the same passion for the high jump that I did, kind of at an insane, obsessive level, to the point where we're talking about it nonstop and studying."
The friendship extended far beyond competition.
"He was someone that I was able to lean on," Landon said. "We could talk through anything and get past anything."
Looking back, Landon wishes he had become a student of the sport sooner.
Asked what advice he would give his freshman self, his answer came quickly.
"I would tell him to not be so stubborn," Landon said. "I would tell him to really be more of a student of the sport much earlier on, not rely on just grit and competitiveness to get through things."
His second piece of advice would be even simpler.
Enjoy it.
"Savor those college years," Landon said. "Even post-college, the competition and the competing isn't the same. It's a small chapter of your life that goes by in the blink of an eye."
Landon's connection to Southern Illinois didn't end after graduation.
After earning his degree in 2017, he returned to the program and eventually worked with Saluki athletes while continuing to train himself. In 2019, he joined the staff as a volunteer assistant working primarily with the high jumpers.
The experience allowed him to view the sport from a different perspective.
"I'm taking all the knowledge that I've learned and what's been told to me and sharing it with people and other student-athletes and helping them get better," Landon said. "But also, as I'm doing that, I'm kind of reteaching myself everything that people have taught me."
Returning to coach became another chapter in Landon's relationship with SIU, one he isn't sure has reached its final page.
"I still never know if my time involved with SIU is fully done," he said.
His relationship with competition has changed as well.
Work, marriage and raising three boys now fill his days. Any training has to fit around responsibilities that look much different than they did during his college career.
Still, the competitive drive remains.
Landon jumped again last year and has considered competing once more. For someone who devoted so much of his life to track and field, walking away completely has never felt easy.
"If it's truly something that's a part of you, once you're past that, you're still going to have those feelings come back," he said. "I don't think it's a feeling that you can ever truly just walk away from and be like, 'Yeah, I'm done for good.'"
Yet when Landon is asked how he hopes people remember him, his answer has little to do with high jump marks or championships.
Not the All-America honors.
Not the conference titles.
Not even the silver medal from the Olympic Trials.
"Honestly, if there's anything else, I think when they say my name, I hope it's associated with the best dad they know," Landon said. "Track and field was a passion of mine, but now I have a purpose, which is my kids."
That perspective helps explain why the Hall of Fame honor means so much.
Landon hopes his sons will someday walk through SIU, see his name on the wall and understand what their father accomplished.
"To be able to make the Hall of Fame and be on that wall forever, and for my boys to always be able to go through there and see me on the wall as an example or something to aspire to be better than, it's just a surreal feeling," he said.
The connection between family and track and field runs even deeper.
Landon described a difficult childhood and said the sport entered his life when he needed it most.
"I didn't have the easiest childhood growing up," Landon said. "One thing I always wanted to be so different for me was to have a family and to raise my kids so differently than how I was."
Track and field helped make that possible.
"It's something that came into my life at a time that I needed the sport and made me realize something that I was good at," he said. "As long as I put in the time and the work, I could succeed in it, and it could pave the way of life for me that would lead for my kids to be so different."
The sport brought Landon success, lifelong relationships and, in many ways, the life he has today.
"It's led me to my wife, and I've got the beautiful family that I have out of it," he said. "So, yeah, grateful for my family and grateful for the sport to be such a big part of my life."
On Oct. 16, Landon's name will officially take its place among the athletes honored in the Saluki Hall of Fame.
For an athlete who arrived in Carbondale hoping to leave behind something worth remembering, the honor serves as confirmation that he did exactly that.
