To some Kansas sports fans, it was the team that could have been. To some it was the team that it was too late to save. And to others, it was the team that no one knew even existed.
The team was the 2000-2001 Kansas men’s tennis team.
On March 4, 2001, then-Kansas Athletics Director Bob Frederick announced that the University of Kansas would be cutting both its men’s tennis program and men’s swimming and diving program.
The cut was made to save the University $600,000 in the 2001-2002 athletic season and $3.6 million over the five-year span after dropping the programs. In the month following the programs’ eliminations, the buzz among students, faculty and fellow student-athletes was negative toward Frederick’s decision. The University Daily Kansan Free For All was a major forum for most opinions, but the simple fact was that when the teams existed, there was rarely anyone there to support them.
In hindsight, it was a decision that Frederick had to make, but he was still good to his word on the athletes who wished to stay at Kansas. For those who remained, he promised to fund their scholarships, but for those who wished to leave, he promised to help them find similar opportunities in other programs.
The athletes who left have moved on to programs where their efforts are more appreciated than they were here. Two examples are Pete Stroer and Eleazar Magallan — both former Kansas tennis players who have moved on to top-10 programs.
After the program was cut, Magallan headed south for the warmth of Gainesville, Fla. Magallan, now a senior, is ranked 178th in the nation in singles and, along with his partner, senior Olivier Lavant, is ranked 37th in doubles. Already this season, Magallan has moved into a tie for fifth place all-time in the Florida record books with 80 career doubles victories. As Florida, currently ranked sixth in the nation, is pushing for a national championship, Magallan’s senior leadership has shown up just at the right time in the early spring. So far in the spring schedule, Magallan is third on the team with six victories in singles competition. For Magallan, originally from Saltillo, Mexico, his amateur career has taken a U-turn after heading north for two years in Lawrence. His southward journey has brought sunny results.
For Stroer, when Kansas cut men’s tennis, it did not mean another step in a journey away from home, but a first step.
Stroer, originally from Salina, played his first two years of collegiate tennis at Kansas just like Magallan. Also like Magallan, Stroer left Kansas for a top-10 program by choosing Texas. The Longhorns, currently ranked ninth, also lean on their Kansas transfer for senior leadership. Stroer leads Texas this spring in victories in singles play with 14. He is following in the footsteps of another Kansas transfer, Rodrigo Echagary, who was a leader for the Longhorns last year and left Kansas at the same time as Stroer.
When men’s tennis and men’s swimming and diving were eliminated at Kansas two years ago, many members of both teams decided to stay in Lawrence and finish what they started. For others, Lawrence and the University simply did not offer enough to silence their inner athletic desire.
In an era when money drives athletics, both at the professional and college level, Magallan and Stroer were just two of the many Kansas athletes who did not let the politics of sports silence the will to win.