Time and time again, people have come up to Clint Normore and asked him if he’s Willie Pless.
“It happens a lot…especially when I got here,” Normore confirmed. “I take it as a compliment.”
Facially, Normore bears a striking resemblance to Pless, the former Kansas linebacker who holds the Big Eight record for career tackles. Of course, it works the other way, too.
“People come up to me,” says Pless, who lives here when he isn’t playing for the CFL Toronto Argonauts, “and say, ‘Do you have a little brother?’ I always say, ‘Yeah, he (Clint) is my little brother.'”
Actually, Pless and Normore, who is rapidly gaining fame of his own for pulling a football-basketball double at Kansas, have nothing more in common – other than looking alike – than the fact both have worn a KU football uniform.
Pless is from Alabama; Normore from Wichita. And Pless was a year removed from Kansas football when Normore transferred here last spring after Wichita State dropped its grid program.
Nevertheless, the two have become friends.
“When he came up here on his recruiting trip, I spent time with him,” Pless explained, “and we just got closer and closer. We look about like identical twins.”
Ironic about Pless’ remark is this: Normore actually does have a twin brother. His name is Cliff and he’s currently attending Kansas Newman where he doesn’t participate in athletics.
Fraternal twins, Clint and Cliff Normore look less alike than Clint and Willie Pless. In addition, says Normore about his twin, “He’s thinner…he’s skinny.”
Clint Normore stands 6-0 and weights around 195 to 200 pounds; Pless is 5-10 and logs in at between 205 and 210.
By now you’re probably pretty familiar with Normore’s background. After graduating from Wichita East, he went to WSU on a basketball scholarship, played two years as a back-up guard, then quit and turned his attention to football.
“Reality,” he says when asked why he switched sports. “I felt I’d be better off, that I could go further. I still think that way, too. There are a lot less 6-0, 200-pound guards in the NBA then there are 6-0, 200-pound defensive backs in the NFL.”
Thus, vows Normore, as soon as KU’s basketball season ends, he’ll proceed directly to spring football practice. Chances are, since KU’s spring drills open on March 16, he’ll be reporting late because the Jayhawks remain in the running for some kind of post-season bid.
Perhaps more so now that Normore, who didn’t report to the KU basketball team until after Christmas, is logging more and more time on the floor. His 23-minute stint Saturday against Iowa State was a season-high.
It’s no secret Kansas coach Larry Brown has been searching for consistency in the backcourt – point guard, in particular – and perhaps that job has now fallen in to the unlikely hands of last fall’s starting free safety in football.
If Normore should happen to start on Tuesday night against Nebraska, it wouldn’t be by default – although Brown’s doghouse is rapidly approaching the size of a pound – it would be the Smith-Barney effect.
“He’s earned the right play,” Brown pointed out. “He wants to compete and he appreciates the opportunity to play.”
Come to find out, too, that Normore has been biding his time, just waiting for that opportunity.
“I knew I’d been doing well in practice,” he said, “and I knew if I got the chance, I wouldn’t blow it.”
Perhaps there’s more to the Normore-Pless thing than a facial resemblance.
For instance, they always knocked Pless for being too small and too slow, and look what he did. At the same time, no one believes a collegian can play both football and basketball anymore, but look what Normore is doing.
