Bill Mayer

Mayer: Drama takes away from game

Anyone else dream of those times when athletic teams got ready to compete, coaches and players discussed what was shaping up, played games and then talked about what happened, win or lose?

Mayer: New facility electric

Bill Self is, along with everything else, a super promoter, so when he calls the current Allen Fieldhouse package the best basketball venue in the world, some might be dubious.

Mayer: Reesing deserves courtesy

Speculation continues about how many of its four remaining games the Kansas University football team will win. The immediate emphasis should be on bagging that first ONE. End the current slump, now three losses deep, then there might be a reason to discuss a 7-5 or better record and a decent bowl game.

Mayer: Texas Tech isn’t a pushover

Prior to the 1965 football season, Kansas traded TCU for Texas Tech on its schedule. Many local fans exuded a huge sigh of relief, thinking KU had found a softer touch to take the place of a dominator. Not even close.

Mayer: Aikman stunned by KU

Kansas University football fans are hopeful that Oklahoma’s quarterback situation leads to a repeat of some history in 1984. That’s when OU came here with its top quarterback injured and a promising but untested freshman from Henryetta, Okla., as the only alternative. That sacrificial lamb? Troy Aikman.

Mayer: KU win vs. Colorado far from shoo-in

Kansas University football fans, particularly since 2005, understandably have become optimists.

Mayer: KU officials deserve pat on the back

Whether or not you like Lew Perkins, Bill Self and Mark Mangino as administrators, coaches and whatever, you gotta pat them on the back for how they have faced up to the recent lousy behavior by basketball and football players. They have given no hint of sweeping anything under the rug and have declared their eagerness to wipe off the soot that has tainted Kansas University’s image.

Mayer: Violent hits take their toll

So far, Kansas’s Todd Reesing, Texas’s Colt McCoy and other Big 12 quarterback compatriots don’t appear to have much cause for concern. Florida’s Tim Tebow does, along with countless former professional football players, in particular high-profile QBs such as Troy Aikman, Trent Green and Steve Young.

Mayer: Kansas’ image ugly after ridiculous turf war

Some things never change. The late Dick Harp during his days as a Kansas basketball assistant and head coach often uttered a patented evaluation of his job: “Coaches are responsible for a lot of irresponsible kids.” Sound timely?

Mayer: ’38 Duke team stole my heart

When I was 10 years old in KCK, my parents ordered me to be a Kansas University fan. Neither had gone to college, but Dad drove Greyhound buses in Kansas and Missouri and, a la Don Fambrough, he liked the Kansans a lot better. The vaccination took; I wound up carrying a Jayhawk good-luck charm into war.

Mayer: Hird brothers recalled

Wednesday’s Dugan Arnett article on the Springer twins meeting via rival football teams Saturday at UTEP reminded Lawrence attorney Rick Hird of another adversarial clash of brothers, both Lawrencians.

Mayer: Hadl, Sayers have come a long way

They can wheel and deal in the best of social circles with style and grace and solid articulation. That doesn’t hurt a bit in their efforts to raise money for the Kansas athletic program.

Mayer: List needs history lesson

To kick off the college football season, USA Today has compiled a list of what it considers “golden years” for all 120 programs in the NCAA’s Bowl Subdivision. Kansas, of course, is nowhere near the Valhalla level of Oklahoma, Texas and Nebraska but it gets short-changed by the USA-T choice of the KU high point.

Mayer: Stories to follow in 2009

Odds and ends while daydreaming about the Kansas football team meeting Oklahoma here after a 6-0 start, including Big 12 victories over Iowa State and Colorado:

Mayer: Jayhawk pioneers deserving

Next time the sports masterminds at Kansas University turn out a football media guide, they should correct an error on page 184 of the current brochure. It does an injustice to two Jayhawks who deserve big-time credit for their roles in integrating the modern KU program.

Mayer: KU could dominate in area

Talk about being blessed with a genie in a jug and the stopper in your hand: That’s the enviable status of the Kansas University athletic program as 2009-10 approaches.

Mayer: Jayhawks quietly confident

The 2009 Kansas University football contingent exudes a quiet confidence but so far hasn’t shown any tendencies for hot-doggery. Hope it stays that way.

Mayer: Winning North realistic for KU football

Kansas University football fans, players and coaches have hoped, wished and dreamed their Jayhawks could win a Big 12 North title since the league was formed in 1996. But up to their 7-1 conference title tie in the Orange Bowl season of 2007, they never had better than a fourth-place finish to “celebrate.”

Mayer: Collins better get in shape

While Sherron Collins keeps one eye on the fast food-fatness chart to get his weight where it has to be, he might train the other ocular orbit on a Kansas basketball teammate with the wherewithal to take over Collins’ job if Sherron gets too fat and sassy.

Mayer: Mitchell, Frederick, Harp will be dearly missed

The grisly Rule of Three recently pervaded the Kansas University athletic family and claimed a trio of stalwarts — Bob Frederick, Martha Sue Harp and Jack Mitchell. If you’re in the dark, legend has it that The Reaper grabs notables in threes.

Mayer: Hoops troubles not new

USA Today this week devoted a cover story to the premise that college basketball is in troublesome shape with its payoffs, academic finagling, coaching crookery and financial excesses.

Mayer: Memorial provides perspective

Bill Mayer column on the Bob Frederick memorial service.

Mayer: Global game growing

It’s still called the National Basketball Association, but International Basketball Association would be a more fitting name considering the league long ago went global. Young basketeers trying to make the jump to the pros after one year in college must beat out not only collegians such as Blake Griffin, Tyreke Evans and Stephen Curry, but international stars such as Spain’s Ricky Rubio.

Mayer: K-State in dickens of a mess

The Kansas State Ron Prince-Bob Krause football agreement makes the Wildcats look bad.

Mayer: Schaake paved the way

The late Elmer Schaake shouldn’t be overlooked when former Lawrence High and Kansas University sports stars are recalled.

Mayer: Financial figures startling

Maybe it didn’t surprise you, but a March 23 article in Sports Illustrated by Pablo S. Torre astounded me.

Mayer: Packer deserves credit

Billy Packer, the semi-retired college basketball analyst, has encountered floods of critics in his long career. A goodly number of them are Kansas-oriented. But local folks shouldn’t be quite so harsh with the former Wake Forest guard since he was a key man in bringing Larry Brown here to inaugurate an unparalleled run of Jayhawk success.

Mayer: KU web extends all over

They’re 1-2-3 on the college basketball victory list: Kentucky at 1,988; North Carolina at 1,984; Kansas at 1,970. But the best story is who propelled them to such lofty heights. Think Kansas University.

Mayer: KU roster could be best ever

UCLA has not been kind to Kansas basketball, so it’s exciting that KU will go to Los Angeles come Dec. 6 with a loaded arsenal that can hibernate the deadly Bruins in their home den. Working further in KU’s favor is that the legendary Ukes are losing three of four of their top players to the pros and may be down a notch or two.

Mayer: No stunts needed by ‘Dippy’

Barbdip13. How could there be a more appropriate e-mail handle for the devoted sister of the late Wilt Chamberlain?

Mayer: Recruits won’t work miracles

Chamber of commerce-type promoters are always on the prowl for new businesses and industries to broaden a tax base, bring in socially productive executives and provide lots of high-paying jobs. Yet the good ones also know it’s even more vital to keep nurturing proven, established entities, those that got them to the picnic — “dance with the ones who brung ya.”

Mayer: KU, UNC deserve credit, too

Anniversary years in sports have a way of distorting the overall picture and awarding near-sainthood to events and people which may not deserve quite that level of reverence.

Mayer: NBA offers tempting

In all the discussion about whether Kansas University basketball stars Cole Aldrich and Sherron Collins will bypass pro status and return for KU’s 2009-10 season, a human side of the equation too often is swept under the rug.

Mayer: Born first to triple double

B.H. Born unofficially recorded Kansas University’s first triple-double, long before Cole Aldrich made it offical.

Mayer: KU needs Collins at his best

It’s D-Day-, Battle of the Bulge- and Iwo Jima-time for Gen. Sherron Collins. As he goes, so, probably, will the Kansas basketball team go in the NCAA Tournament.

Mayer: KU history filled with dynamic duos

This season’s Kansas basketball team has easily one of the best 1-2 punches in the Jayhawks’ illustrious court history. Ultimately it might even lay claim to being the best. Guard Sherron Collins and center Cole Aldrich can measure up to about any KU Dynamic Duos you can name. Fortunately, they’ll have even more chances to cement their potent-pair reputation as the 2009 Jayhawks try to defend their 2008 NCAA championship.

Mayer: Ex-players can help recruiting

College sports coaches often cite the need for glitzy facilities to help them procure the best athletes.

Mayer: It’s all about money

The legendary Deep Throat told the Woodward-Bernstein Watergate bloodhounds to “follow the money” and they brought down the Dick Nixon presidency. Incredible, isn’t it, how tracing the treasure can explain so many things?

Mayer: Draft gossip quiet

One of the most delightful aspects of this Kansas University basketball season is the absence of incessant blattering about which Jayhawk underclassman will be turning professional after NCAA time. No seniors have even a faint prayer.

Mayer: Unofficial statistics count

We hear plenty about triple-doubling in college basketball and the likelihood that UConn junior Hasheem Thabeet may manage that feat several more times before reaching the NBA

Mayer: Jayhawks need to think

Bill Self demands a lot from his Kansas basketball players, with special emphasis on playing hard, tough and, perhaps most important, smart.

Mayer: Athletic departments struggling

It’s said that the main difference between the rich and the poor is that the rich have more money. Makes good sense, especially during our current economic maelstrom. Yet this financial firestorm has even the rich among us, including the wealthiest athletic programs, looking grimly over their shoulders.

Mayer: Mid-range shot used too little

In college basketball, is the mid-range shot under-taught, under-used or under-demanded by coaches?

Mayer: KU has many weapons

The Kansas basketball team is taking on the characteristics of a deluxe Swiss army knife. That’s good, because it can drive opposing coaches batty as they try to prepare defenses for the Jayhawks as the Big 12 season gets serious.

Mayer: Religion column causes stir

The recent discussion of sports and religiosity drew predictable rain. A lot of it was in agreement and laced with humor. My point was that too often jocks overdo the business of selfish prayer to icons and deities as they seek special, personalized father-son help from up above, or wherever those guys live.

Mayer: Who does Jesus cheer for?

In those days when Notre Dame and Southern Methodist both were prominent on the college football scene, they often drew attention because of team prayers before games. This caused columnist Dan Jenkins to ask: “OK, which gang does God favor, the Catholics or Protestants?”

Mayer: Mangino reminds of LHS great

Kansas University football coach Mark Mangino and former Lawrence High coach Al Woolard share many characteristics.

Mayer: Another standout up north

George McGowan, a standout wide receiver, was another Kansas University product who found success in Canadian football.

Mayer: Changes at top coming

It’s usually the other way around for schools such as Kansas and Kansas State. The status of the football and basketball coaches might look iffy while the chancellor-president and athletic directors are firmly entrenched.

Mayer: Don’t forget Brown

In these parts, Larry Browns have given us a three-star cluster of achievement.

Staff

Stories by Bill