Monday Night, March 6, 1967, AFH
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@JoJoAndMe ha just read through this one now. Would love a physical picture of the missouri student sign ripping German shephard takedown!
Thats great that Missouri disputes the rest of the world on its only undefeated season
Thanks for sharing this one! -
@JoJoAndMe haha as a person who has spent time craning my neck on the couch 90 degrees to see the tv i recognize this as a jokeā¦ i think
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@approxinfinity No joke. I promise. Would swear by it in a court of law.
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@JoJoAndMe Oh I mean... did they actually watch it out the side of the bus or was the coach just joking?
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@approxinfinity No. They didn't actually take the buses to the drive-in. However, just the suggestion shows how different and basic college football was 60 years ago. It was truly an amateur sport. Remember, it had been only since 1952 that Kansas hired a high school coach to revise (unsuccessfully) its football program.
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Here's another adventure to remember. Please note how "times have changed" in so many ways.
The āFamousā POPP Buttons
My mis-adventures as a Jayhawk student continued the following fall during football season, and it had to do with the Kansas State Wildcats. Vince Gibson had been hired as their coach the previous season (1967) following a 21-game losing streak. Boasting and bloviating, Vince Gibsonās battle cry was Purple Pride and āWe gonna win.ā He painted everything he could purple. It was annoying, to say the least.
Flashback: When I was a sophomore in high school, the week before the KU vs MU football game, my algebra teacher came to class wearing a yellow button with black letters that read AHAB. I innocently asked him what the button meant. Without a pause, he said simply āAll Hawks Are Bastards.ā (Even at my age then, I was surprised that the school let him wear that button in class.)
I remembered that button when, in the fall of 1968, I created the POPP button. Red letters on blue, it stood for Piss On Purple Pride. Feeling my own Jayhawk pride, my interest in making some extra money, and my entrepreneurial spirit, I ordered 2,000 buttons. Having worked on the University Daily Kansan as a journalism student, it was easy for me to design and place advertisements in the UDK. I had posters made up and placed the buttons, on consignment, in every bar on campus. They were sold for $1 each, with the bar keeping 50% of the proceeds. Sales were apparently picking up as game day approached. On Thursday before the game, Chancellor Wescoe tracked me down and called me to his office in Strong Hall. He asked if I was selling these buttons (which, of course, he knew I was). Then he asked me what it meant. I said that it meant Pounce On Purple Pride. He said he didnāt believe it. I stood by what I said it meant. (āThatās my story and Iām stickinā to it.ā) He disagreed and suggested that I needed to stop selling the buttons if I wanted to graduate. (Would / Could that happen today?) Accepting the threat, I did so. I had sold enough buttons that I just about broke even. Even so, imagine what a chancellor would do today. Nothing, for fear of being sued, I suppose. My how times do change! -
@JoJoAndMe It's surprising that the Chancellor would even occupy two brain cells on the topic of a button, let alone track down the student and have a 1 on 1 conversation. That's amazing.
Also love to hear from a fellow UDK alum! (I was there 86-88).
Did Willie work there way back in the day (I think his name was Bill Thomas?). He was an employee-- an older fellow who was very friendly to the students. He was a liaison with the KU printing services and set the ads on the old cold type system among other things. Not sure if that system was in use pre-70?
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@bskeet Don't recall a Willie. Sorry, but spent plenty of time in Flint Hall in the advertising sequence after I discovered I wasn't going to be an architect!
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Let's keep it goin'. Who remembers Nolan Cromwell?
The 1970s werenāt a lot of fun for KU Football, but there was at least one highlight, in my opinion. That was the move of Nolan Cromwell from defensive back to quarterback, and it proved how important coaching still is.
Cromwell was an incredible athlete from tiny Ransom, Kansas. (pop. 260 at the 2020 census) Cromwell earned recognition as the Wichita Eagleās Kansas Player of the decade for the 1970ās. Cromwell was all-state in football and basketball. In his freshman and sophomore years, he played free safety for Coach Don Fambrough. In 1974, the team finished 4-7, and Fambrough was fired . . . again! The next year, new Head Coach Bud Moore moved Cromwell to quarterback and ran the wishbone. KU beat Oklahoma 23-3 in Norman when the Sooners were ranked #1 in the AP poll. Cromwell rushed for a TD in that game. The Jayhawks finished 7-4 and then lost to Pitt in the Sun Bowl.
During the 1976 season, the Jayhawks were 5-1 and ranked #10 in the country when Cromwell suffered a season-ending knee injury. The āHawks finished 6-5. In spite of his shortened season, Cromwell earned Big 8 Conference Offensive Player of the Year honors.
Cromwell went on to play 11 years as a defensive back for the Los Angeles Rams, was a four-time Pro Bowler and a participant in Super Bowl XIV.By the way, do you know what a Sooner is? By definition the Sooners were the cheaters in the first Oklahoma Land Rush. Do you know what a Boomer is? They were the cheaters in the second Oklahoma Land Rush.
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@JoJoAndMe glad Cromwell didnt have to sacrifice his soul for 7 years of prosperity (like Oliver Cromwell)
Cool stories!
