I’m not sure you can find a soap box today — or even if a detergent container would hold me — but I’m going to climb on one.
Now is the time to liberalize the criteria for the inclusion of football players into KU’s Sports Hall of Honor. When the shrine that will change the east facade of Allen Fieldhouse is completed sometime next year, it ought to contain more football players than it does now.
If Al Bohl, who was KU’s athletic director for less than two years, can be in the Hall of Honor, then it’s darn sure time to jack up the population of football players.
Oh, you didn’t know Bohl was in the Hall of Honor? Well, he is. He met the criteria. He was AD when the men’s basketball team went to the NCAA Final Four. Current AD Lew Perkins also is a member because the Jayhawks went to a bowl during his tenure.
In fact, just about every KU athletic director has qualified for enshrinement. If you’re the Jayhawks’ AD, it’s easy. If you’re a football player, though, it’s hard. Real hard.
You must be a first-team All-American. It doesn’t matter which of the national services names you an All-American. You just have to be a first-teamer on one of them.
Can you name the last KU football player who earned a spot in the Hall of Honor? The answer is Willie Pless, who was a tackling machine as a linebacker for the Jayhawks in the early 1980s. Pless earned second-team All-America honors in 1984 but 16 years later, following an illustrious career in the Canadian Football League, KU officials fudged a little and accorded Pless a berth in the Hall of Honor.
Good idea. No unqualified KU football player was more qualified for enshrinement than Pless who not only was an exceptional football player but a model citizen.
No KU football player has been named a first-team All-American since place-kicker Bruce Kallmeyer in 1983. In other words, Kallmeyer is the last KU football player who qualified automatically for the Hall of Honor.
And putting it another way, the decision to enshrine Pless in 2000 means he is the only Jayhawk football player in the last 21 years consigned to KU immortality.
By my reckoning — and I’ve seen them all play — three and perhaps four former KU football players are deserving. None were first-team All-Americans, but they all put up impressive numbers.
Five former quarterbacks — Gil Reich, John Hadl, Bobby Douglass, David Jaynes and Nolan Cromwell — are enshrinees, and there should be a sixth.
Frank Seurer, who QBed the Jayhawks in 1980-83, still is the Jayhawks’ all-time passing and total offense leader. His numbers have withstood the test of time. Seurer belongs in the KU Hall of Honor.
Also in the KU shrine are four running backs — Ray Evans, Gale Sayers, Curtis McClinton and John Riggins. It’s time to add two more, and possibly three.
Say what you want about those four RBs. They were great, no doubt about it. But June Henley, who played from 1993 to ’96, is KU’s all-time rushing leader with 3,841 yards. He also rushed for 41 touchdowns — 23 more than both Riggins and Sayers.
Then there’s Tony Sands (1988-91), who ranks second on the career rushing list, just 53 yards behind Henley. Heck, Sands should be enshrined for one performance alone — the Missouri game of 1991 in which he carried 58 times for 396 yards, both NCAA records at the time.
You could also make a case for Laverne Smith (1973-76), who ranks third on the career rushing list with 3,074 yards even though he had a staggering 351 fewer carries than Henley and 306 fewer than Sands. For pure speed, Smith is unsurpassed. Yes, the Wichita native was faster than even Sayers.
Curiously, only two of the 16 football players in the Hall of Honor were strictly defensive players — Pless and John Zook, an All-American end on the 1968 Orange Bowl team.
If any other defenders are worthy, it’s a short list headed by early ’90s tackles Dana Stubblefield and Gilbert Brown, and LeRoy Irvin, a defensive back from the late ’70s.
No punter is enshrined, but Bucky Scribner is worth considering. A Lawrence High product, Scribner averaged 44.6 yards per punt over three seasons. He averaged 45.8 yards in 1982.
KU has expanded the criteria for honoring basketball players. Now it’s time to do the same thing for football.