Note: No court storming
Everyone stayed until Bill finished his interview
Class.

@approxinfinity

I recently completed a 56-page reflection on my Adventures and Misadventures as a Jayhawk. Plenty of stories to tell starting with my first football game in 1952 vs Santa Clara. Hope the guys get a chuckle out of this excerpt.

The basketball season offered the highlight (or low light) of my one-year career as a Kansas Jayhawk Yell Leader. It was Monday night, March 6, 1967. The Jayhawks were 21-3 playing against Colorado at Allen Field House. KU had beaten CU in the Pre-Season Holiday Tournament in Kansas City, but lost earlier in the season to Colorado in Boulder 59-62. This team featured sophomore Jo Jo White, later to be a two-time second team All-American, seven-time NBA All-Pro, and Olympic gold medalist. The Boston Celtics retired his #10. This K.U. team also included Roger Bohnenstiehl, Ron Franz (who played in the ABA and the NBA) and big man, Vernon Vanoy who also played tight end for the football team. The Field House was packed and going nuts!
Colorado was led by 6’ 4” shooting guard Pat Frink. He was the kind of “hot shot” player that opposition crowds loved to hate. I was sitting with other yell leaders on the edge of the court just outside the baseline under one of the baskets. (In those days, the court was raised three feet above the dirt floor.) Late in the second half Jo Jo White came streaking toward me, headed for a breakaway layup. Just as he got to the free throw line, Frink caught him and wrapped his arms around him. The Field House went crazy! I blanked out. Somehow, a few seconds of my life, and even my memory at the time, disappeared. The next thing I knew, I was standing in the free throw lane looking up at Frink. Jo Jo calmly said to me, “It’s okay, man.” I turned around and sat back down on the edge of the court with my megaphone clutched close to my side.
Amazingly, neither of the referees said anything to me. The game went on. Nothing was written in the local papers about the incident, but Sports Illustrated carried a little sidebar article describing the incident . . . but not giving my name!
Oh, what a different time it was. Had it happened in the era of ESPN, video of the “incident” and my name would have been splattered all over national TV!

I'm ack home after what turned out to be a 10-day hospital stay for my wife's heart surgery. Wasn't expected to be open heart, but that's what it turned out to be. The good news is that the vitral valve was repaired. Going to be a month-long recovery with rest and exercise, but she'll live longer with more vigor.
Thanks to approxinfinitty revising the site. I'm now onboard so I can comment. Approxinfinity encouraged me to post excerpts from my journal of Adventures and Misadventures as a Jayhawk. Here's another. Enjoy!

My Dad took me to my first KU football game when I was seven-years-old. (Yes. I'm 80, but still in good health!) The Jayhawks beat the Santa Clara Broncos 21–9 on September 27, 1952, having beat TCU at home the previous Saturday. In those days, and for many years, the Jayhawks always opened their season playing Texas Christian University, either at home or on the road. It was a beautiful, jacket-less fall day. (Much like the ISU game when I was a yell leader! Ha.)

My first KU “football heroes” probably came out of that game – the running backs Charlie Hoag #21 and Bob Brandenberry #44. (Charlie Hoag also played on the 1952 National Championship basketball team.) Later that fall or the next, I remember my mother driving me to Downtown Kansas City to a sporting goods store and buying me a leather helmet, a pair of heavy canvas football pants and a long-sleeved off-white football jersey. I picked the number 21 for them to iron on the back of the shirt.

J. V. Sikes was the head football coach in ‘52, and the Jayhawks went 7-3 but 3-3 in what was then the Big 7 Conference. The next year they went 2–8. Sikes was fired and replaced by a highly touted, successful coach at powerhouse Massilon, Ohio, high school. Chuck Mather went 0-10 in his first season. His record improved slightly each year, when in 1957, he finally had a winning season at 5 - 4 – 1 and was fired. What I remember about those years was that KU football players wore white pants, bright blue jerseys and yellow helmets (Yellow Helmets!). I also recall the first face guards – a single composite grey bar or a plexiglass strip. (Invented by Paul Brown of the Cleveland Browns. Did ya know?) Mather was replaced by Jack Mitchell.

During these years Dad took me to a number of KU football games. He never had season tickets, but we always seemed to have good seats. Our routine was to drive to Lawrence via K-10 highway to the ATO fraternity house for lunch. As we approached Lawrence and Haskell Indian Institute (as it was known in those days), we had a curious habit of trying to predict whether an Indian (or more) would be standing on the corner of the intersection by Haskell’s stadium! (There was a convenience store there, which made it likely.) It was just a fun thing to do. We didn't have to worry about being accused of racism in those days.

There was always a good gathering of alums at the ATO house in those days. And, pre-television, the games ALWAYS kicked-off at 1:30 p.m. After lunch, we’d walk over the hill to the stadium, buy a program and take our seats. Sometimes we’d rent canvas seat-backs for $1 each. On homecoming weekends, my Mother would always join us. Students would have five-gallon buckets filled with long-stemmed mums outside the stadium. Dad would buy her a big white or yellow mum with a blue and red “KU” affixed atop it using dyed pipe cleaners to wear on her dress or jacket.
That's enough history for this morning. If I get a little encouragement, I'll post more memories. All the best to each of you. I enjoy our civil conversations.

"WE'RE PUTTING THE BAND BACK TOGETHER." Jake Elwood

I'll be back with more. Right now @ Anchutz in Denver as my wife recovers from open heart surgery!
Phillip Anchutz is a good lad from Russell. Too bad he doesn't follow KU football like David Booth!

Here's another entry . . . from way back. Fun to share. Hope you enjoy.

From all my KU experiences, my one regret is that I didn’t get to see a game in Hoch Auditorium. In 1927 the basketball games moved from Robinson Gymnasium to the newly constructed Hoch Auditorium next door to Robinson which seated 3,800 for basketball. Being a theater, it had an unusual configuration for basketball. The floor was in front of the stage with additional bleacher seating on the stage! The floor was hard, Coach Phog Allen complained. Two corners of the floor met at walls by the stage. And, both teams had to use locker rooms in still-standing Robinson Gym. That meant that both teams ran between buildings before, at half-time and after games . . . sometimes in snow storms!

When K-State opened Ahern Field House in 1951, Coach Allen pressed his long-standing hope for a new basketball venue. He obtained funding from the state legislature, but construction was held up by the federal restriction on steel during the Korean War. To get past the restrictions, they re-labeled the plans as an armory with two rooms designated for ammunition storage. The guise worked. The initial steel came from surplus steel designated for the Korean War. Architects on the project later reported that they considered the project as just a “big barn” with a dirt floor. (Which it was, originally!)

Coach Allen wanted the building named in honor of Coach Naismith, the inventor of the game and the University of Kansas’ first basketball coach. However, by a vote of the student body, the facility was named Allen Field House.

As the 1955 school year approached, the “Big News” (pun intended) was that the first nationally recruited basketball player, Wilton Norman Chamberlain from Philadelphia, was coming to KU. “Alerted” by a reporter that the 7’ 1” Chamberlain had enrolled at KU, Coach Allen responded, “I just hope he comes out for basketball.”

Wilt was, in my opinion, the best college basketball player . . . ever, and most likely the best to play in the pros. (If you had the first pick in the “All-Time Pro” draft, would you pick Wilt or Michael Jordan?) We could have a debate here.

Opening night of Allen Field House was March 1, 1955, and I was there, with my Dad and 17,286 other fans, an attendance record that stands to this day. Kansas won the game 77 – 67 over Kansas State. I had the program for many years, but it was later ruined in a basement flood. I really don’t have any specific memories of that game except that the iconic Jayhawk on the small, overhanging center court scoreboard had a red light bulb for an eye that lit up each time KU scored – two flashes for a field goal and one flash for a free throw. Interestingly, that first Jayhawk on the scoreboard was the 1929 version. Maybe that was a request by Phog Allen who had coached during those years.

Prior to the ‘55-’56 season, (when freshman were still not eligible to compete at the varsity level), Wilt dominated in the traditional Frosh vs Varsity game before 14,000 at Allen Field House, scoring 42 points with 28 rebounds. Always the wit, Allen commented, “Wilt could team-up with two Phi Beta Kappas and two co-eds and give us a battle.”

But then it was discovered that Allen would be unable to coach his prized recruit. Most unfortunately, Kansas state regulations required state employees to retire at age 70. Chamberlain really wanted to be coached by Allen. Coach Allen and the administration tried everything, but could not get an exception made.

It may have been a contributing factor as to why, after KU’s crushing three-overtime defeat in the 1958 NCAA Championship Game, Wilt chose not to return for his senior season. But the biggest reason seemed to be Wilt’s frustration with the college game at that time. Opposing teams would triple team him; and in one game, the Hank Iba coached Oklahoma State Cowboys passed the ball 160 times before shooting.

That 1958 championship game was played at Municipal Auditorium in Kansas City. I truly believe that had Coach Allen still been coaching, KU would have won that three-overtime game. I watched it on black and white TV at home. Why we didn’t go to that game, I’ll never know!

By the way, in the days of the Big Seven Conference, the Pre-Season Basketball Tournament at Municipal Auditorium was always a big attraction. My Dad often took me to a game (or two) as each “session” (afternoon or evening) was two games). Every team played three games, so the tournament participants finished 1 through 8. To make it an eight-team tournament, they always invited a school from outside the conference . . . and it was never a school that had any chance of winning the tournament. The neatest thing about it, from a young boy’s perspective, was that all the teams stayed at nearby downtown hotels, so they would just walk to and from the Auditorium. If you arrived very early, you could stand outside and watch the players in their warm-ups walk into the arena.

Sometimes you have to wonder about Bill's in game coaching. Larry Brown was the best.

Here's what I was taught by my father: "We're all Kansans, so we root for K-State except when we play them." (I know. Some may take exception.) "As for Missouri, we hope they lose every damn game!" It's the only time I ever heard my father swear. This was the attitude circa 1940 to 1960. I lived it, and I was there in Memorial Stadium in 1960 for the KU v MU game when the field was surrounded by highway patrolmen with German Shepherds. TRUE! Later, when I was a junior in high school, Dad said, " Son, I want you to know that you may attend any college or university in the country. However, I need to make it clear that, as your father, I will NEVER write a check to the University of Missouri." Rock Chalk

Here's one more post from the "Way Back Machine." If I don't get any comments (Approxinfinity?), then I'll quit.
My Dad and I had a tradition for the end of each football game in Lawrence when I was young. Depending on which team was leading with two minutes left in the game, we'd go down onto the track (You could do that in those days!) and walk toward that team's locker room to watch “the big boys” jog off the field. On this particular day, October 1, 1960, KU was playing Syracuse, the 1959 National Champions featuring All-American-to-be Ernie Davis. With two minutes remaining, the Orange were up 14-7 (the eventual final score), so we headed out of the west stands and down onto the track. Laying beside one of the wooden benches was a pile of about ten white Syracuse jerseys. The Orange were wearing “tear-away” jerseys, and some of them had been replaced during the game. Dad said, “Why don't you ask someone if you could have one of those jerseys?” Instead, I just grabbed one. I stuffed it under my gray hooded sweatshirt and walked on. Much to my amazement, Dad didn't say a thing! When we got outside Memorial Stadium, I pulled the jersey out, and it was #44, Ernie Davis'. Ernie was a great football player and a great person. He would be diagnosed with leukemia at the College All-Star Game and die within the year. The jersey was pinned to the wall of my bedroom for many years. As an adult, it was in the bottom of a drawer.

I liked Bill's coaching at the end.

I'm faithful to a fault. I'm there 'til the end.

@JAYHAWKFAN214 Is he worth the drama?

In retrospect, we might have been better off with Jason as our starting QB. (A debatable topic)

@stoptheflop One of those interceptions was not his fault.

@mayjay Tyus Edney vs Misery in the tournament proved you can dribble the length of the court and make a layup with 4.8 seconds left!

BTW Know why the golf courses in Columbia are only 14 holes??
Because they've never played the final four!!

@kjayhawks2.0 as Approxinfinity said, In today's college game(s), it's all about the efficient allocation of resources!

@AsadZ Agree. So many other freshmen made so much more significant impact on their teams.

Yesterday showed the lack of team chemistry development. (Admittedly, DP's health inconsistency had a lot to do with it.) Even after a full season, however, when we needed to score, Melvin and Tre DEFERRED to DP, and DP did nothing to make them more effective participants in the offense. Could be lack of coaching OR, maybe, we were just really unlucky that we had a highly touted freshman that suffered full body cramps.

@benshawks08 said in Money next year:

"His production (DP) was nothing compared to about 5-10 of the other top freshmen. And they didn't command the $3 million that DP did. That's a big concern.

Change is difficult, but sometimes necessary. KU Basketball hasn't advanced past the first weekend since 2018, excepting the National Championship. And, that, of course, must not be overlooked. In fact, Bill Self's tenure at Kansas should, of course, be celebrated. He's the winningest coach in KU history. At the same time, he should be admired for trying to adapt to the changing landscape when other tenured coaches retired.

However, Approxinfinity is right! Bill's production since our national championship has seriously waned. His pay far exceeds his production. And, of course, the college game has changed. It's apparent that Bill has been unable to adapt successfully to NIL and the transfer portal.

Based on his record since the implementation of NIL, Bill is overpaid at $10 million per year. (Player evaluation, player development, etc are specific issues for another time.) When the only person you could pay was the coach and his staff, it didn't matter how much coaches made. Now, his unusually high salary takes from the monies KU can pay players.

Bill has made plenty over his coaching career. Let me suggest that if he really wants another chance at another national championship (which I believe is why he is still coaching), have him reduce his own pay to $1 million next year (He could live on that.) and donate the rest to buying two additional good players. That's what $4.5 million each would get us.

Otherwise, let's salute him for being the winningest coach in KU basketball history and move on. An up and coming coach at much less than $10 million a year gives us much more payroll for that coach's roster. In the age of modern college basketball, I think KU needs to invest more wisely. (Approxinfinity's words).