My goal this week was to try to work former Kansas athletic director Bob Frederick into the Jayhawk Flashback.
After going deep into the archives (and getting lots of help from the Channel 6 staff), we were able to dig up one of Frederick’s greatest moments as KU athletic director: the introductory press conference of KU coach Roy Williams from July 8, 1988.
The 6Sports package of the event, plus a couple extra interviews afterwards, is below:
Some thoughts:
• Is that really Roy with dark hair? It’s hard to remember Roy before numerous Jayhawk players turned his hair gray.
• I don’t personally know the 6Sports guy who was talking in the video package, but it doesn’t seem like he was too happy with Larry Brown, does it? Check out the 25-second mark again where he says, “And unlike his counterpart, Larry Brown …” The drawn-out “Larry Brown” part seems to convey a bit of disgruntledness, doesn’t it?
• Sure doesn’t look like Frederick hurt his reputation as a great dresser at this press conference.
• OK, before everyone takes off and rips Roy for not following his promise and staying 30 years at KU, let me say this. Thirty years is a long time. A long time.
Take a look at this blog written in January about the tenure of college basketball coaches. The Big 12’s average tenure was 2.66 years*. The median was two years. Only one coach had been at his school for more than 10 (Rick Barnes).
* — What would this number look like if you took out Barnes and KU coach Bill Self?
Out of the big six conferences (Big 12, SEC, Big Ten, Big East, ACC, Pac 10), only 11 coaches had been with their schools for 10 years or longer.
The only current Division-I coach I could find that has been with their current school 30 years or longer is Syracuse’s Jim Boeheim*.
* — Let me know if there’s another, but I don’t think there is.
The point is this: College coaches don’t stay at the same school for extended periods of time. It just doesn’t happen.
http://worldonline.media.clients.ellingtoncms.com/img/blogs/entry_img/2009/Jun/19/adonis.jpg
Roy was at KU 15 years. That’s a long time. It took some loyalty, too, as he turned down NBA offers and other college coaching offers to stay at KU for that long.
And, looking back, can anyone really say that Roy made the wrong decision to go to North Carolina?
It’s hard to argue with three Final Fours and two national championships in six years.
• It’s Where’s Waldo time. Can you spot (much younger versions of) Gene Budig, Chuck Woodling and Max Falkenstien in the video?
