You’ve come a long way, Mase.
Back in 1988, Kansas University lured Glen Mason away from Kent State by offering him $78,000 a year to coach the Jayhawks’ football team.
When Mason left Kansas after the 1996 season for Minnesota, he was earning $104,468. Now, under terms of a new seven-year contract, the Gophers will pay Mason a base and supplemental salary of $635,000 a year.
Mason’s overall record in 14 seasons as a head coach at Kent State, Kansas and Minnesota is 75-83-1.
Hall of Fame running back Gale Sayers is the newest alumni member of the Kansas University Athletics Corp. board. Sayers lives in Mt. Prospect, Ill. The other alums on the KUAC board are Dana Anderson of Los Angeles, Jack Clevenger of Kansas City, Jerry Cohlmia of Wichita and Laird Noller of Lawrence.
Kansas ranked No. 9 nationally in men’s college basketball attendance last season by averaging 16,271 fans a game in 16,300-seat Allen Fieldhouse.
No. 1 was Kentucky at 22,448, followed by Syracuse 20,807, North Carolina 20,163, Louisville 19,180, Ohio State 18,702, Arkansas 17,807, North Carolina State 16,535 and New Mexico 16,445.
In the Big 12 Conference, Kansas was far and away the attendance leader. Oklahoma was a distant second at 11,248, followed by Missouri 10,882, Texas 10,878, Texas Tech 10,546 and Iowa Sate 10,543.
Interestingly, next came Kansas State which drew an average crowd of 8,336 despite having a horrid team. Next was Nebraska at 7,342. That’s only about half of capacity at the Devaney Center one reason Danny Nee is no longer in Lincoln and KU’s Roy Williams is now dean of conference coaches.
If you have any questions about why the Big 12 Conference was formed, check these numbers:
In its final year of existence in 1995-96, the Big Eight Conference distributed $3.5 million to each of its eight members.
In its fourth year of existence, the Big 12 Conference distributed $5.5 million to each of its dozen members.
In all my years of covering Kansas University football, I can’t remember an instance similar to linebacker Andrew LeClair’s decision to transfer to a smaller school for curriculum reasons.
Sure, football players have transferred, but it’s usually been either because they aren’t playing or because they were asked to leave.
LeClair started every game last season, was the Jayhawks’ leading tackler and certainly was in no danger of being dismissed.
More typical is the case of Henrhilds, the fleet Kansas football player who left for Colorado State after two seasons on Mount Oread because, he said, he wasn’t receiving enough time at running back.
But will Childs play running back at CSU when he becomes eligible in 2001?
Rams’ coach Sonny Lubick said of Childs: “He’s a running back-receiver type young man. He’s got excellent pass catching skills and great speed. He’s just a great athlete.”
That doesn’t sound like a ringing endorsement of Childs’ ball-carrying skills to me.
By the way, Childs isn’t the first Jayhawk to leave for Colorado State. Kevin Verdugo, a Pittsburg native, bolted KU for Fort Collins in the late ’80s and became the Rams’ starting quarterback.
Yes, Lawrence, there is an indoor football team in Topeka. They’re called the Kings, they play at the Expocentre and their roster includes former KU players Jason Thoren, Michael Allen and Chris Enneking, as well as former Lawrence High standout Michael Cosey.
Chuck Woodling’s phone message number is 832-7147. His e-mail address is cwoodling@ljworld.com.