EER

Ze
ionship race, with possibilities of a triple tie for honors,

Kansas was scheduled to meet. Oklahoma at Lawrence, Kane, and on the
same night Missouri was to “ineot Kansas State at: Manhattan, Kan. Should Oklahoma
defeat Kansas and should Missouri.win from Kansas State, the Big Six would be
deadlecked with the three ~~ universitios in oa dogfalle

Kansas had lest oe ‘pirst one conference gamos of the season, but after .
the loss ef those games had remained undefeated. Oklahoma was cruising along at
a terrific rate, and Missouri was looked upon as a most dangorous sonbenders The .

caneee Sone soemed 0 pick 7 a — with each victory.

3 Uppnt pill: ‘oho, a ‘eeniar. and an: n -clongated and versatile rapier of the

_Wnskettbada: court,» Kansas pinned her chiefest hcpes. For two years, Bill had

shown ‘tho: way: to ‘all Big Six centers. » He had.no peors” in his position. And since
Kansas had held the Big Six Conference Championship for tho ‘two ‘procoding years,
She race — on & + Seneos me

oe! shes season mdeeigiads dae Kansas Jayhawkers wore moving in high goar-=

‘i senna om ‘all opposition.with relentless and ruthiess regularitye This hectic
ostruggle for the championship had gcipped the imagination tf the entire region

of tho great plains states. Colum after column of. newspaper space was | devoted
to this aes ngogd and AERO MCAS, on NEE over the outcomes —

“tet as is so ; oom tho case ol man's bost laid schomes, semo thing »
happened. On Wednesday afternoon, tho Kansans had thoir last gruciling workout.

We had. planned: to. polish; off during the romaining three days, Our scrimmago was
most satisfying... In-fact,. too satisfying. Everything olicked. ‘The machine
glided with -no.lost motion,.. Johnson and the rost of his toammates were suporb,

shoeting, passing, . ‘and hitting with uncanny skill... Surely if they could function
like this on thoir gamo night, just three days AWOYy no Oklahoma team could: “stop
them.

But, cven thot; - ea . A apaaade that overything was too perfect.
After practice, press corrdspondents,quoriod mo.as to. the probable outcome of tho
game. A strange foreboding gripped me. I seemed to fool that something would
happen to my ace, Bill.Johnson. The: “bughear, of injuries haunted me. I told
them, "If Bill Jolmtscn, doesn't break a 16s, Oklahoma will be in for a busy Satur-
day night." EERE :

On teatemiadioteindens night, while: : was.at dinner, the telephone rang
and a friend informed me that Bill Johnson's father had died suddenly in his home
at Oklahoma City, ini nihee anion ws :

Bill loft. on he ndash’, Net enh nak ‘ee so it scemed, went Kansas'
chances siyed its efiring: epnaadithl ve Big a Championship.

jak the home of the bast gcot tes of Oklahoma, is just 18 miles from
Oklahema City, ‘the home, of. the. Johnsons. , Tho athlotic authoritics at the Univ-
ersity of Oklahoma ‘were besieged. by the press throughovt this conference area to
postpone the game until the following week, so that the two teams could meet at
full eo But the neces wanted to play the game on schedulés °°

The funoral hour ‘of. Bill ‘ae s phoneer father, originally set for
Friday, was changed. to Sptunday ey 2:30 pems, in order to nggommods te relatives
from a distance. ... 2 oo

411 Kansas home games were scheduled at 7:30 pems Apparently there was

no way for Bill Johnson to travel 400 miles after his. father's funeral and play

the game. Certain defeat faced Kansas, Ckiehoma had been ‘she runner-up to Kansas