Todd Kappelmann has this college thing down.
Since coming to Kansas University from Butler County CC last fall, Kappelmann has done two of the hardest things at the university make the men’s basketball team as a walk-on and pass the business school’s tax accounting class.
“Both are hard, but they’re different kinds of hard,” Kappelmann said. “You have to work hard and keep in shape for basketball. In class you’ve got to concentrate so hard to understand what’s going on. You’ve got to be sound in body and mind.”
Some KU business students might think Kappelmann’s mind is a little less than sound. The tax class is regarded as one of the hardest courses in the business school.
“It was tough,” Kappelmann said. “I was told that legend has it that the best time to take the class is in the summer. Just get your month of hell out of the way. I did it. I suffered through it, and now I’m done.”
He said he finished the class with a passing grade in July while still finding time to play basketball at least four times a week.
“We had a lot of the returning guys, a lot of the alumni showed up” the 6-foot-9 reserve forward said. “It’s really competitive. You’re out there, it’s a summer night and you’re just playing pick-up. It’s unbelievable how competitive it is. You can really tell why the (Danny) Mannings, the (Rex) Walters and those kind of guys were so good back in the day because they’re still smoking it up.”
Watching those players from the sidelines and on the court is something Kappelmann said he never imagined would happen.
“It’s amazing, I used to watch those guys on the television religiously,” he said. “I’d watch every day and every minute of the game. I watch everyone, even the walk-ons. Now that I’m a part of it, it’s unreal.”
Kappelmann knows his place on the team. He is content being a practice player and sitting on he end of the bench during games and getting playing time at the end of blowouts.
Kappelmann played 26 minutes in 16 games last season and scored five points and totaled seven rebounds. Not outstanding numbers by any measurements, but that doesn’t matter to Kappel-mann.
“I don’t have any new expectations of what I can give to the team this year,” he said. “I know my limitations and that I’m surrounded by some amazingly gifted athletes.”
Chris Zerbe, a fellow walk-on and former junior college competitor, said that just the opportunity to play to wear a Kansas uniform was good enough for walk-ons like Kappelmann and himself.
“We know our role,” Zerbe said. “Coach isn’t going to put us in the game in the first half, but if we’ve got four guys in foul trouble and we need to get them out for a few minutes. Todd and I think we could at least hold our own in there for that much time.
“We don’t expect to play, but anytime we get in is icing on the cake.”
When one of the walk-ons do get into a game, he is usually greeted with thousands of people chanting his name, as fans have done with C.B. McGrath and Terry Nooner in the past.
Kappelmann said he didn’t know if he warrants that type of treatment from fans, but whoever the fans latch onto this season didn’t matter much to him.
“I don’t know if they’ll ever do that for me,” he said as he shook his head and laughed.
“Usually, there are one or two walk-ons, but there are four of us right now for them to choose from. It doesn’t really matter to me if they do it to me or not. I’m happy either way.”
