Too much talk, not enough action

By Bill Mayer     Nov 18, 2000

Maybe gregarious Eric Chenowith should wait until he’s averaging points and rebounds in double figures and blocking two or three shots a game before he gets any more talkative. He still has a lot of ground to make up after a disappointing junior season. Much is left to be proven despite his ballyhooed offseason quest for improvement.

Not long ago, the erratic 7-foot- 1 Kansas basketeer was quoted in a USA Today article as saying that if college freshmen had not been eligible, he would have opted for the NBA right out of high school like Kobe Bryant and Kevin Garnett.

Pretentious? Lordy, he needs to prove as a college senior that he’s pro-worthy. He’d have been eaten alive fresh out of high school.

Then during the recent trip to New York, he dropped by some broadcasters and said he wished the officials would stop calling so many ticky-tack fouls under the stricter new policy.

Chenowith got some questionable calls in the games against UCLA and St. John’s. But Cheno isn’t yet prominent enough to demand any special favors not with 12 points, nine boards, three turnovers and one block against UCLA, and only eight points, three boards, no blocks and six turnovers against a younger, shorter Red Storm team he should have intimidated.

The kid means well, but maybe he’d do well to pull in his verbal horns until he offers more proof he’s the NBA lottery pick he’d like to be.

Others, like Kenny Gregory and Drew Gooden, deserved to brag after the New York success but chose not to. Chenowith, Gregory, the ailing Luke Axtell (think January) and junior Jeff Boschee still hold the key to how good this team will be. Mario Kinsey, barring injury, is a great prospect for the No. 3 guard. The Three Musketeers remain amazing.

But until Chenowith loses his deer-in-the-headlights demeanor at various occasions, he might do well to perform rather than promote.

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In my Nov. 11 column, I called attention to the 1957 Kansas football sophomores who helped inaugurate a 3-0 string against Nebraska, and the ’59 sophs who were the last rookie class to wind up 3-0 against the Cornhuskers. I slighted another key group in the Jayhawk family the sophs of 1958.

If KU went 5-0 against NU from 1957 through 1961, then some of the ’58 sophs also departed with 3-0 glitterati. Let’s also give them some well-deserved praise.

These guys were recruits or walk-ons from the Chuck Mather coaching era. Jack Mitchell began here in ’58 and his first frosh class couldn’t play at the varsity level.

There were 39 sophs on KU’s official 1958 squad and some of them made huge contributions before they wound up in ’60.

The ’58 soph ends: Bill Allen, North Kansas City, Mo.; Harry Jolly, Topeka; Sam Simpson, Worland, Wyo.; Joe Sprekelmeyer, Fort Worth, Texas; Bill Tourtillott, Newton; Bob Westerhouse, Eudora; and Bill Zagar, Arma.

Tackles: Wayne Coulter, Wichita; Harry Craig, erstwhile eventual board of regents member from Lawrence; standout Stan Kirshman, Jefferson City, Mo.; Rudy Mauser, Fort Worth; and Jim Schwartz, Ellinwood.

Guards: Gary Clothier, Stafford; Ed Janes, St. Louis.; Phil Kruse, Lawrence; Larry Martin, Wakefield; James Spry, Centralia, Mo.; and Joltin’ Joe Spurney, Belleville, where the famed Dean and Ole Nesmith originated.

One center: Jerry Brown, Hutchinson. Then seven quarterbacks (honest): Roger Boeger, Elmhurst, Ill.; Dick Carlson, Ellinwood; Bob Casteel, Pontiac, Mich.; Bill Crank, Hamilton, Ohio; Steve Newcomer, Omaha; James Sanders, Kansas City; and the late Donnie Wrench of Lawrence who had a great career with Al Woolard’s unbeatable Lions. These guys never had much of a chance. Veteran Duane Morris was the senior linchpin in ’59 and All-America John Hadl orchestrated in ’60 and ’61.

Rookie halfbacks in ’58: The late Roger Hill of Augusta, eventual Lawrence Hallmark manager and also a fine place-kicker whose foot helped bury unbeaten Missouri 23-7 in ’60; Ron Michaels, Hiawatha; Allan Radke, Hoisington; Jim Baker, Raytown, Mo.; Gene Dittenber, Lincoln, Neb.; Charlie Lukinac, Muncie; Jeff Schwerin, Kansas City, Mo.; John Suder, Cincinnati; and Jack Uhlir, Chicago.

Oddly, all four listed fullbacks in 1958 were sophs: Fred Bukaty, Kansas City; Phil Comstock, Unionville, Mo.; Norm Mailen, Clay Center; and the incomparable Doyle Schick of Lawrence, who could run, block, play defense, catch the ball KU has never had a better all-around gridder than Doyle. All four of those fullbacks were heard from as the Jayhawks were posting that 5-0 dominance of Nebraska. KU’s 1958-60 record was 16-12-2.

For some reason (I can’t remember and nobody else can, either), Simpson, Janes, Rohlf, Casteel, Crank, Dittenber, Lukinac, Suder and Comstock were listed as sophs in both 1957 and 1958. Red-shirts, maybe?

Mitchell’s coaching staff his first season included George Bernhardt, Bobby Goad, Bill Pace, Don Fambrough, Wayne Replogle, Tom Triplett, Rex Grossart and trainer Dean Nesmith.

Will we ever again see a 5-0 KU run over Nebraska, or even 3-0? Many promises to keep and miles to go before we sleep in a bed that marvelous.

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