KUsports.com unleashes new look, features

By Staff Feb 17, 2005

Who would believe that this website is ten years old?!

Way back in 1995, the Lawrence Journal-World launched a web site dedicated to our beloved Jayhawk athletic teams. It was called jhawks.com.

Since that time, the site has changed names, been re-designed numerous times and even been named the best sports site in the world by a couple of different organizations and magazines.

So, to celebrate our 10th birthday, we decided to give the site a fresh coat of paint, as well as add several cool new features. In making these changes, we’ve really tried to take the feedback you’ve given us to heart.

Some of the design tweaks include icons next to headlines so that you can more easily tell which sport the story is about, and more prominent links to the message boards, multimedia, schedules and statistics.

And to be really nerdy, the new site is completely coded in CSS, making it not only more standards-friendly, but making it more accessible to folks with handicaps who visit the Internet using special reader-devices.

The new design also has much more crimson and blue. OK, so it’s not exactly the school’s “official” blue. It’s more of Mangino’s ass-kicking blue, but we think you know why we picked that … to scare the other sites.

We haven’t removed anything. All of your old favorite KUsports.com features are still here, but check out what we’ve added:

Great new screen savers for both the 2004-05 basketball team and the 2004 football team.
Stats, stats and more stats. They’re sortable, along with quicker updates with box scores after games, and even detailed stats comparisons for every single player in Division I.
We’ve updated our Hawks in the NBA section to include more game stats that are updated quicker.
Our new “Future Hawks” section not only has detailed info on the Jayhawks’ latest recruits, it has game-by-game and season cumulative stats for each player.
In the Rafters is our new section dedicated to Jayhawks whose number are hanging from the ceiling at Allen Fieldhouse.
Our live game updates now include a replica of the Allen Fieldhouse scoreboard to make sure you know you’re following Jayhawk basketball.
Plus, there’s more photos, audio clips, video and anything else we can think to make our KU coverage more in-depth.

There’s more new stuff to come over the next few weeks …

Better search, including customized search alerts.
¢ RSS feeds.
¢ More cell-phone options, including being able to get the score on demand sent to your phone.
¢ A new cell-phone and PDA edition.
¢ Virtual player cards for the Jayhawk basketball players.
¢ Updated animated playbooks
¢ A huge new Allen Fieldhouse history section.

And just wait until you see all of the over-the-top stuff we have planned for our NCAA Tournament coverage.

But the paint isn’t dry on the revamp. We’d love your feedback and suggestions.

Rob Curley, Director of New Media/Convergence, Lawrence Journal-World
Levi Chronister, Online Sports Editor, Lawrence Journal-World