Ah, the bizarre fortunes of college football.
Forty years ago, Kansas University was struggling to expand old Memorial Stadium. Jack Mitchell’s first five teams had really excited fans. The evidence was that folks would be flocking here in growing numbers as things got even better.
Today the Jayhawk program is scrounging for spectators, particularly the friendly kind. Yet even $30 million in recent improvements, for all their glitz and allure, won’t create a ticket tornado until floundering KU has left the Bottom Two and joined The Other Ten in the Big 12.
Some contend that a football team wins when the fans flood the scene and drown out the opposition’s signals. Others say there has to be a nifty playing venue to make the players and fans feel good. Coach Mark Mangino has hopes of adding even better stadium accommodations for his guys in the near future. All that’s window-dressing.
It’s not a chicken-or-egg situation, folks. Even Forrest Gump could figure it out: “Few victories, fewer tickees.” Mangino and Co. need to start knocking off at least the Baylors, UNLVs, Bowling Greens along with the Tulsas and Southwest Missouris before any sort of fever will break out.
The beauty of KU’s 1963 stadium expansion was that Mitchell’s teams had compiled a 29-18-3 record, featuring such fan favorites as John Hadl, Curtis McClinton, then Gale Sayers, and had won the 1961 Bluebonnet Bowl game. I’ve never seen fans as pumped as they were before that 1961 season. Hadl and McClinton were back, the great 1958 freshman crew would be seniors, the future looked brilliant.
I’m not sure that peak of KU grid enthusiasm will ever occur again. Hope so, but skeptical.
Despite some disappointments, KU was 7-3-1 in 1961 and 6-3-1 in 1962. The joint was still jumpin’. The presence of a kid named Sayers sure didn’t hurt the cause. Gale debuted as a sophomore in ’62. Mangino could sure use a headliner or two like that, huh?
The mover and shaker on the ’62 athletic board was Cal VanderWerf, a driven, genius-level chemistry professor who was nuts about sports. He had the enthusiasm of a Tasmanian Devil and salesmanship skills that would have allowed him to pawn off cold chili to climbers on the upper levels of Mount Everest. He later became president of Hope College in Holland, Mich.
With Crazy Cal the Gridders’ Pal in the forefront, KU decided to add 4,600 seats, a new press box and elevator to the west side of the stadium to hike the capacity to 44,900. In time for the ’63 season. Engineers estimated it would cost $600,000.
KU got approval, then the bad news. The bids came in too high; cold water in everybody’s face. But the indefatigable VanderWerf and Co. refused, to nobody’s surprise, to surrender. They did some juggling here and there; the expansion was made ready for the ’63 opener.
The Sayers fan enthusiasm continued through his senior season, 1964, so KU decided to add seats on the east side in time for 1965, boosting the capacity to 51,500. Yet lean times loomed on the horizon.
Mitchell’s 1965 team tailed off at 2-8 and his 1966 team’s 2-7-1 led to his ouster, the settlement of a so-called lifetime contract for a total of $56,000 to be paid out over four years. Did Terry Allen with about a $325,000 settlement fall into a pit of rose petals, or what? He hadn’t been paid too badly during his five years, either.
Mitchell started out in 1958 at $15,000 per and never made much more than $22,000. He remains, at 44-42-5, the LAST Kansas coach with a winning record.
Well, KU built it, added refinements and doggone near rebuilt it with spit and polish over the past few years …quot; and still they don’t come. This ain’t no Field of Dreams, folks.
For all the refinements at the old horseshoe, those consistent 45,000-and-up crowds (like Kansas State is blessed with) won’t occur until there are more wins than losses …quot; particularly losses to K-State and Missouri.
Anybody have any John Hadls, Gales Sayerses, Doyle Schicks, Curtis McClintons and the like hidden away anywhere? Some John Zooks, Fred Hagemans, Larry Browns, Mike McCormacks, Ollie Spencers, Galen Fisses and Dana Stubblefields wouldn’t exactly chase anyone away, either.
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Here I’ve been worrying that if Kansas basketball coach Roy Williams and athletic director Al Bohl should clash too often, Roy would be receptive to UCLA if it fires Steve Lavin or alma mater North Carolina if UNC happened to decide Matt Doherty is not the guy (he’s sure looking better now, I’m sure).
Now I have to add Roy’s beloved and devoted wife Wanda to my list of concerns. Gary Bedore’s recent story interviewing son Scott was an outstanding piece and quite revealing. Scott indicated that if Wanda had her druthers, Roy would retire and return to the Carolina pines. Wonder if that would happen, dammit, if Roy should get that NCAA title he wants so much to complete his glittering dossier.
With all the pressure in coaching, you can understand why Wanda feels that way. She dearly loves her high school sweetheart, wants to have him around for at least three more decades and fears the demons of coaching might bite him harmfully.
That being said, I wonder if Roy will do any more coaching when he leaves Kansas, no matter what UCLA, Carolina or some NBA zillionaire might offer. Roy and Wanda might well decide that “nothin could be finah than to be in Carolinah . . . “
