Those of you who pored over last May’s endless list of Kansas University graduates – surely there aren’t too many of you – may have noticed the name Willie Carr Pless.
Willie Carr Pless? Is that a son of the former KU football player of the same name who went on to earn a berth in the Canadian Football Hall of Fame?
Nope, it was Pless himself. More than two decades after leaving Mount Oread, the 43-year-old former linebacker finally earned a degree in sport science.
“It’s something I promised my mother I would do,” Pless told me from his home in Edmonton, Alberta. “It was just a matter of picking up a few classes here and there.”
Sport science, it should be pointed out, is a five-year curriculum.
“I thought I would get it in 1990,” he said, “but one thing led to another : the main thing for me is I got it done.”
Less than four months after finally acquiring a sheepskin, Pless will return to Lawrence for the season opener Sept. 1 to see his name displayed for the first time in the Ring of Honor in the north bowl at Memorial Stadium.
Arguably the best defensive player in KU football history – a linebacker who literally could fall out of bed and make a tackle – Pless’ anointing is overdue. For seven years, he has been a member of the KU Athletic Hall of Fame, yet conspicuously absent from the Ring of Honor.
If Pless were disappointed by his omission, he isn’t about to admit it. No one ever accused the soft-spoken native Alabaman of rocking the boat.
“Let’s just say I’m very happy I have it now,” he told me.
Once upon a time, the Ring of Honor was reserved for KU football players who earned first-team All-America recognition from at least one wire service or media outlet.
Pless didn’t qualify under that criterion. He did achieve second-team A-A status, which was pretty impressive when you consider he never played on a plus-.500 team in four KU seasons (1982-85). However, the requirements were liberalized two years ago when Nolan Cromwell was added to the wall.
Cromwell was an electrifying quarterback, but he played in a wishbone offense, and wishbone QBs make first-team A-A listings about as often as offensive tackles score touchdowns. So you really couldn’t second-guess KU officials for bending the rules.
In a similar sense, but for a different reason, Pless belongs on the wall, too. Linebackers on losing teams simply don’t make first-team All-America lists. Like it or not, it’s an unwritten exclusion that may not be fair, but that’s the way it works. Pless was good, but he wasn’t Godzilla.
I’m all for KU fudging to elevate Cromwell and Pless to elite status. To tell the truth, though, I would have tapped Pless before Cromwell. Then again, Cromwell earned a degree long ago, and Pless didn’t collect his until May.
With the ascension of Pless, the list of former football players in the KU Athletic Hall of Fame who have yet to have their names appear on the Ring of Honor has dwindled to two – Mike McCormack and John Riggins.
Do McCormack and Riggins belong on the Ring of Honor? Of course they do. Heck, both are members of the Pro Football Hall of Fame. They have something else in common, too. Neither has earned a KU diploma.
