Kansas inducted the 24th and 25th members of its Ring of Honor at halftime Saturday, acknowledging running back Tony Sands (1988-91) and linebacker Nick Reid (2002-05) for their contributions to the Jayhawks’ football program.
Sands, who rather serendipitously wore No. 24 at KU, set school records for rushing attempts, rushing yards and rushing touchdowns during his tenure with the Jayhawks, posting his defining performance when he carried the ball 58 times for 396 yards in a 1991 victory over Missouri.
“Every time that I came out for a game or just in practice I always looked up there and wondered, ‘Would my name ever be written at the top of this arena?'” Sands said on the Jayhawker Podcast this week. “And that’s what you call being at the top of your game at the university that you attended.”
Reid was the first KU player to garner Big 12 Conference defensive player of the honors, which he earned as a senior in 2005. He was also a third-team All-American that year.
“I look at the names up there and honestly I don’t feel like I should be up there with those guys,” Reid said on the podcast. “They’re some of the best to not only have played at KU, but to play in the NFL and had just unbelievable careers.
“To have my name even be in the same sentence, be in the same ring, be in the same stratosphere as those guys is just an incredible feeling, a sense of pride for sure.”
KU had first announced the honorees back in April.
“Both helped leave Kansas better than they found it and have provided an example for our current players, who are working hard to do the same,” head coach Lance Leipold said in a news release at the time. “Nick and Tony both had the characteristics as players that we want our current team to have.”
Former coaches Glen Mason and Mark Mangino trekked out to Lawrence to see their former players honored. In promotional videos, Mason called it a “very special” occasion, while Mangino said of Reid, “He is the epitome of what a Kansas Jayhawk football player should be: smart, hardworking, unselfish and a leader of his peers. His toughness around the Big 12 Conference is legendary.”
Both coaches addressed the current KU team the day before the game. And besides his moment in the sun on Saturday, Sands also got a chance to go on stage and pump up the crowd for fellow Florida native Flo Rida at Late Night in the Phog Friday night.
Former Kansas player Tony Sands waves to the crowd after receiving his Ring of Honor jacket during halftime Saturday, Oct. 7, 2023, at David Booth Kansas Memorial Stadium.
Former Kansas player, Tony Sands, receives his Ring of Honor jacket during halftime Saturday, Oct. 7, 2023, at David Booth Kansas Memorial Stadium.
Former Kansas player Nick Reid receives his Ring of Honor jacket during halftime Saturday, Oct. 7, 2023, at David Booth Kansas Memorial Stadium.
Former Kansas player Nick Reid waves to the crowd after receiving his Ring of Honor jacket during halftime Saturday, Oct. 7, 2023, at David Booth Kansas Memorial Stadium.
One connection
Head coaches Lance Leipold of Kansas and Gus Malzahn of UCF demonstrated admiration for each other in the week leading up to their matchup, with Leipold praising Malzahn’s play-calling and offensive scheme and Malzahn expressing respect for Leipold’s rebuild of the KU program. But Malzahn acknowledged that the two had largely admired each other from afar; they had no additional connections — except, of course, for Jonathan Wallace.
The Jayhawks’ running backs coach, Wallace arrived at Auburn as a freshman quarterback in 2012. Malzahn had just left Auburn after three years as assistant head coach and offensive coordinator to become the head coach at Arkansas State. Auburn coach Gene Chizik was fired after Wallace’s freshman year, in which he started four games late in the season. Malzahn returned to become the new head coach, and Wallace played for him for three more years, two as a quarterback and one as a wide receiver. As a senior, he was a team captain.
He got into coaching as a graduate assistant at Auburn, then spent time at NAIA Bethel College working with eventual KU coordinator Brent Dearmon (who had also been an analyst at Auburn), then at Air Force, and finally joined KU as a Les Miles hire at running backs coach. Leipold retained him upon taking over as head coach in 2021.
This and that
While Wallace provides the most direct connection, the two staffs also featured several coaches who had once been on the opposite sideline. KU defensive tackles coach Jim Panagos led the defensive line at UCF from 2007 to 2011, while UCF assistants David Gibbs and Charles Moore and strength coach Chris Dawson served various stints in Lawrence.
UCF athletic director Terry Mohajir, an Overland Park native, also previously served as an assistant football coach and later senior associate AD at KU.
Kansas and UCF had never met prior to Saturday, which made the Knights the only one of the four new Big 12 teams that the Jayhawks had never faced.
Mike Gunnoe/Special to the Journal-World
Mike Gunnoe/Special to the Journal-World
Mike Gunnoe/Special to the Journal-World
Mike Gunnoe/Special to the Journal-World
Mike Gunnoe/Special to the Journal-World