Kansas University leaders continue to try to devise ways to put more paying customers into the football stadium. They seem to be on the right path for at least three reasons:
Past head coaches such as Jack Mitchell, Pepper Rodgers and Don Fambrough were noted for their warmth and fuzziness. They not only coached but also did fabulous jobs of public relations. They talked to quarterback clubs and were willing to go darn near anywhere to stir the pot and get, or keep, people excited.
Head coach Mark Mangino makes obligatory public appearances, but he’s made it clear the No. 1 priority is a winning program. When and if that goal is reached, he has said, he’ll become a fuzzier navel and jelly more with the civilians. But first, it’s just win, baby!
Meanwhile, Mangino and Co. are letting their footballers do the shilling. Players generally are better at this anyway. Fan favorites such as Bill Whittemore, Gabe Toomey, Clark Green, Brandon Rideau, Mark Simmons and a growing number of others, are stimulating followers. Now you hear people talking about “Whittemore did this” and “that Toomey is a tremendous player.”
KU is beginning to find a Kansas State mentality where fans dwell on the performers and get sizzed-up.
How long has it been since KU football has been showcasing as many guys, as now, whose names are known and discussed with positive delight? Oh, there was the Mario Kinsey-Reggie Duncan fiasco and some of the other messes of the recent past. Yeah, jocks were discussed, along with the bad mishandling of the case where a woman charged two gridders with assault after she’d “just said no.” You’d rather not depend on “names” in that context.
Those were damaging focal points such as the Ricky Clemons basketball debacle at Missouri. Why did coach Terry Allen and the regime put up with such boorishness; why did MU’s Quin Snyder and his guys allow that boil of theirs to fester and burst? The public gets fed up with that baloney.
Now a lot of Jayhawk gridders are doing positive and promising things, people are appreciative and want to watch them. And cheer them on, the way folks do for KU basketball. If KU ever can inject into Memorial Stadium the delicious madness that prevails in Allen Fieldhouse, they’ll begin talking about being “a football AND basketball” school again, as in the early 1950s, for example.
Nifty newcomers are bursting onto the scene, like freshman running back John Randle. Some think he’ll wind up the No. 1 RB this season.
The hub of it all is the veteran Whittemore as a do-everything quarterback. Don’t even think about his getting hurt. He’s as vital to this club as Ell Roberson at Kansas State and Brad Smith at Missouri. With Whittemore healthy, KU still can look to winning five or so games. Such an upsurge could peddle a lot of new tickets for later this year and all of next.
KU basketball shows a $4 million annual profit thanks to the foundation laid by Larry Brown and Roy Williams. Barring an unforeseen collapse, that will continue. But football has to reach the point where it also can turn AT LEAST a $4 million profit.
Even the harshest critics admit they were amazed at how much improvement KU made between the loss to Northwestern and the romp past UNLV. It was only a start, no be-all, end-all, but it showed what can happen against reasonably good competition; it got people thinking that there is hope after so long a struggle in the Futility Stakes.
Mangino realizes the value of reaching out. He had his guys go up into the rain-soaked stands despite the Northwestern loss and thank the loyalists who stuck it out. After the UNLV romp, the Jayhawks were mingling with people, mainly students. They have been creating new fans. That could lead to ticket sales, more wins and more wondrous revenue.
But just as the football program seems to be capturing imagination and the basketball operation seems likely to maintain the thrills of the past, there’s not nearly as much public adoration of what’s happening overall under the new regime in the fieldhouse. Lots of fingers are crossed as Lew Perkins’ people move in, wheel and deal and seem to threaten the loyalties of so many devoted, wonderful people — all for the almighty buck.
Countless stories prevail about what’s happening to this devoted group in a ravenous quest for cash — and few are flattering. Just as Mangino and coach Bill Self have their kids operating as good will ambassadors, so must the suits in the front office get more plugged in to what makes the Jayhawk Nation tick and how to embrace it with more understanding, appreciation and compassion.
Lots of heads have rolled — Janelle Martin, Rich Konzem, Doug Vance. How many more? Are Bob and Max even safe?
A for instance. Suppose when AD Bob Frederick left, KU had moved the qualified Konzem into the job at something less than $200,000. Al Bohl got $255,000, then Lew Perkins $400,000. Tom Hayes probably would be football coach if Konzem hadn’t hired Mangino, Roy Williams probably still would be here and the atmosphere wouldn’t have seemed nearly as cold-blooded and threatening.
One fan read that recent J-W piece about Perkins’ ideas for making money and remarked: “I never dreamed the day would come when Al Bohl didn’t look quite so bad.”
But whatta I know? If the new order boosts KU to a winning level in both football and basketball, improves the facilities, puts the books in the black and starts alumni contributions shooting skyward, a lot of us old-timers will be legitimately branded as meaningless dinosaurs who just don’t get it.
