“She seemed to be doing all the work,” he quipped, “so I thought she could pick the name.”

Kristie picked Baylor.

Nice name for a baby boy. Not a bad name for a college, either.

“People are asking me if I call him ‘Bear,'” Clint said of his son sharing a name with KU’s Big 12 Conference rival, the Baylor Bears. “I’ve taken a few shots for that one.”

Journal-World File Photo

Other than a few good-natured barbs, it has been a special — yet hectic — spring for the Bowens.

Spring football started March 15, a week after Baylor Alan Bowen was born. In addition to his duties as safeties and special-teams coach, Clint — a former Lawrence High and KU player — organized a reunion of former Jayhawks that coincided with the Jayhawks’ spring scrimmage.

Despite Clint’s busy schedule, the new parents were thrilled with the timing of their baby’s arrival.

“That was probably about the best time,” Clint said. “We did plan on it that way, and we got lucky it worked out that way.”

That’s because there’s no offseason for college football coaches. After the season, which ran from Aug. 30 to Dec. 23, coaches were swamped with recruiting until the Feb. 4 national signing day.

Then came spring football from March 15 to April 18.

Baylor already has been introduced to the sport, attending four or five practices with his mother.

But father and son don’t spend as much time together as Clint would like because KU’s coaches are in the middle of a four-week evaluation period. Clint, who recruits Kansas and the Dallas-Fort Worth area, will be on the road through Friday, checking out prospective players.

“During the week, you’re gone,” Clint said. “Mom’s had to take care of him by herself for a couple of weeks. That has been trying. While I was gone, he smiled for the first time, and Kristie called and told me about it. I’ve heard all the stories from the veteran coaches. You miss Little League games and things like that. It comes with the territory.

“It all evens out. There are things he’ll get to do that other kids wouldn’t, like coming to practice, traveling and being in an environment most kids wouldn’t get to see.”

Kristie’s not complaining.

“The good thing about it is that as long as I’ve known Clint, this is what he’s done,” said Kristie, a former Miss Kansas who met her husband when she was a KU student and he was a graduate assistant. “I’ve adjusted to it, so it’s not as hard as people think.”

The new parents have had plenty of help from Clint’s family as well as the wives of other KU coaches.

“They’ve all been great,” said Kristie, who quit her job as an assistant manager at a Kansas City clothing store to be a stay-at-home mom. “They’ve been offering to babysit and help out. The wives are real close.”

Things will slow down next month when the coaching staff’s main responsibility will be summer camps.

“June and July will be a good time to spend time with the little man,” Clint said.

“Little” being a relative term for the 14 1/2-pound boy.

“He’s a monster,” Clint said with a laugh. “We’re going to have to stop feeding him. He’s only supposed to weigh about 12 pounds. We have to get him down to his playing weight.”