Some first loves you treasure more with each passing year. That’s how I regard the 1950 Kansas football team, the first one I covered full-time with the Journal-World. These guys were emblematic of the best things you can imagine about Jayhawk football.
One extra-special facet was the sophomore crop, one of them the inimitable Galen Fiss, whom we lost the past week. That rookie roster included Galen, Bob Mayer, Jack Rodgers, Marvin Rengel, twins Arch and Duane Unruh, Matt Clabaugh, George Mrkonic, Ollie Spencer, Ken Hammel, George Kennard, Merlin Gish, Bud Roberts, Chet Strehlow, Charlie Hoag, Pat Murphy, Rex Smith, Bob Brandeberry, Hal Cleavinger, Bud Laughlin, Fox Cashell … lordy, I hope nobody’s left out!
Many of those sophs’ feats are legendary. Fiss, All-American Mrkonic, Spencer and Kennard had pro careers of distinction, Fiss’s perhaps the most notable. Fate and bad luck dealt that club a 6-4 record that easily could have been 8-2, even 9-1. Those sophomores helped create a 21-9 record before they left.
Fiss came from tiny Johnson, Kan., Spencer from Ulysses, and the bright lights of Lawrence nearly chased them home before they enrolled.
“They first drove up here on a Sunday night and topped the Pleasant Grove hill out south, and when they saw the lights of Lawrence in the valley, it scared the hell out of them, even as early as ’49,” says Don Fambrough, who recruited both. “They’d never been around any place this big. They almost turned tail and ran. Thank God they had the courage to try it!”
After KU, Spencer played nine years as a pro tackle, was the Oakland Raiders’ offensive line coach from 1962-79, left for the insurance field and died of a heart attack in 1991 at age 60. Fiss made it to 75 before that satanic Alzheimer’s took its toll. He played 11 years as a star Cleveland Browns linebacker after a brief stint as a pro baseball catcher. As a 1950-52 collegian he was a terrific fullback and linebacker on par with Oklahoma’s brilliant duo of Tom Catlin and Bert Clark.
KU has never had a more devoted and supportive alumnus than Fiss, who also did well in insurance. My only disappointment was that he never was used on offense at KU as much as a lot of us wanted. Known to his teammates as Thunder-Thighs and The Earthshaker, he was so valuable as a linebacker the coaches didn’t want him watered down.
“Every spring I carried the ball a lot in practice, and it would look like I’d play some offense,” Galen once told me. “Come fall, I’d be backing the line. They had a fine group of fullbacks like John Amberg my sophomore year and then Bud Laughlin and Frank Sabatini later and they didn’t need me.”
Some of us recall a brutal 19-yard scoring run by Fiss in the 33-14 victory over Kansas State in ’51. Galen flat-out splattered five unfortunate Wildcats and had KU fans shrieking deliriously, and howling for more Galen Grinders.
“That was the only touchdown for me in college, and they included it in some kind of highlight series,” Fiss said. “My kids (Bob and Scott, also ex-Jayhawks) got it for me one Christmas and we’ve had great fun with it.”
Glance back over that ’50 soph roster. You’ll see why it was easy for a young scribe to get captivated. And at least 15 were from little old Kansas.
