Ottawa High won’t have standout lineman Caleb Blakesley tonight when the Cyclones play host to Louisburg.
Blakesley tore cartilage in his right knee Friday during Ottawa’s victory over Kansas City Turner, and the Kansas University recruit’s senior season ended Wednesday when the damage proved to be worse than originally thought.
“From the MRI reading they thought it was a tear in the cartilage and they could go in and clean it out, and I’d be back in two or three weeks,” Blakesley said. “It originally was supposed to be a scope. … When they went in there was cartilage torn under my knee, too. There was a lot more stuff than we thought was originally wrong.”
KU assistant coach Clint Bowen assured Blakesley the Jayhawks still wanted him.
“He said this doesn’t affect anything,” Blakesley said. “I committed to them, and they are still committed to me. He said I shouldn’t worry about a thing and just focus on getting better.”
Blakesley will wear a leg brace for a month before beginning rehabilitation.
“I feel bad,” he said. “If I didn’t have a chance to play in college it would be killing me. The team I’m on now is special to me because these are guys I grew up with and played with my whole life. It’s disappointing because I feel like I’m letting them down, but it’s part of the game. It happens. It probably hurt more emotionally than it did physically.”
Blakesley’s rehab should take four months. The Class 5A state shot put champion plans to return in time for track season.
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Home game in K.C.: Kansas officials met with Kansas City Chiefs president Carl Peterson on Wednesday to discuss playing one of the Jayhawks’ home games at Arrowhead Stadium in 2005.
“We’ve been looking at it for a while,” associate athletic director Larry Keating said. “Yesterday was just a meeting to discuss the possibility for next year. I think it could happen. It’s something we’re pursuing.”
KU’s October 15 home game against Big 12 Conference South power Oklahoma was one game discussed, but Keating said nothing had been finalized.
“The issue is doing it in the first place,” he said. “We haven’t decided on a particular game.”
The OU game coincides with fall break, and many KU students won’t be on campus. The Sooners also would be one opponent that could help fill Kansas City’s 79,409-seat stadium. KU’s Memorial Stadium seats 50,071, and Kansas sold about 26,500 season tickets this year.
“If we put a game there, we want a game that is attractive to more than just our regular ticket base,” Keating said. “If we do it, we want to be successful ticket-wise.”
Kansas coach Mark Mangino said KU didn’t want to play a Big 12 North team at Arrowhead unless the opponent also would give up a home game and play Kansas in Kansas City, Mo., two years in a row. The coach said none of the schools KU had talked to had been willing to do that.
Mangino said playing at Arrowhead would be a good recruiting tool.
“Telling a young man they have a chance to play in an NFL venue, especially a classy stadium like Arrowhead, is certainly going to be a attractive,” Mangino said during his weekly radio show. “It’s a short drive for our fans, and it’s still a home game.”
Keating said it had not yet been determined how much it would cost KU to rent Arrowhead.
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More on 2005: KU does not yet have any nonconference opponents under contract for 2005. Kansas has sent Florida Atlantic a contract for the Sept. 3 season opener, but KU might ask Florida Atlantic to move that game to a later date to accommodate another prospective opponent, which Keating declined to name.
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Jayhawks in Chicago: More than 7,000 KU alumni live in the Chicago area, and a large contingent of Kansas fans are expected for the Jayhawks’ 1 p.m. game Saturday at Northwestern.
The Chicago chapter of the KU Alumni Association bought more than 300 tickets for the game at Ryan Field in Evanston, Ill.
“That doesn’t include the fans that got tickets directly through Northwestern,” said Kelly Cerny, the alumni association’s director of chapter and constituent programs. “We’re expecting quite the turnout.”
KU’s Alumni Association will play host to a rally at 11:30 a.m. Saturday at Peter Jans Golf Course, two blocks from Ryan Field.
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Big 12 tickets: Tickets for the Big 12 Championship game, to be played at 7 p.m. Dec. 4 at Arrowhead Stadium in Kansas City, Mo., will go on sale at 10 a.m. Monday. Tickets can be purchased through Ticketmaster outlets, by phone at 800-676-5488 or 816-931-3330, or at the Arrowhead box office. Prices are $80, $75, $68 and $58 based on location.
