Pvt. Hoyt Baker, Battery A,
14th Bn., 2nd Platoon,
Fort Eustis, Virginia.

 

I got a letter from Dr. Jessen telling me that there is another
boy out there that is almost as good as Hoyt Baker. His name is Charles
Moffett. If you write that boy, tell him that K.U. is a good place to com.

To you former “K" men of Kansas football, basketball, track, base-
ball, tennis, golf, wrestling teams - may I tell you that I was honest when
I said at the beginning of the season that this would be our worst season
since 1929. Our morale was none too good at the beginning of thesseason.
Some of our boys had heard that they were going to give the land back to
the Indians, but the Indians didn't want it. There were some picauunish
differences between the boys and it seemed as if we could not get together.

But when we took a trip back East the boys rode chair cars first
to Chicago, and stayed at the Hotel Morrison; the next night we wat on to
Detroit and stayed atthe DetroiteLeland. We stayed there two day
bangueting with our alumni. The next jump was to Buffalo, where we went
by chair car travel. Dr. Crowdle, the athletié director at St. Bonaventure 's
said, "You will beat the St. Bonaventure Team". I said, “No, wewill not
because the boys are not pulling together. They have the ability, but not
the will to subjugate themselves for the good of the whole".

: But here is the real reason why our Kansas basketball team made me
the "Gil Dobie" of basketball. The chair cars were packed and jammed with
Army and Navy personnel. Service men were standing in every foot of the
aisle and even in the lavatories and wash rooms. Some told me they had
been on the train three days and had not had a seat. But contrary to the
ordinary civilian's gripe, there was not a bellyache among them. It was
"“Cheerio", "All right, partner", here and there. Everything was "Sir"
and “yes, sir", even to civilians. The serbice men were dead tire] but
not one gripe did they utter. Our boys, riding with these soldiers and
sailors, forget their petty little differences and when they ran against
St. Bonaventure that night they literally annihilated them.

The American soldier andthe American sailor had transformed the
Kansas squad from a group of self-conscious students to a bunch of first
class fighting men. Isn't that a real contribution, after all, to our
civilian public and to our athletes that the service men of our nation
are rendering - perhaps the most positive proof of real service? We
who do not have to give to the utmost are more conscious of our selfish
wants and desires. Therefore, I give 90% of the credit for Kansas ever-
victorious season in the Big Six Conference to the fighting men of our
land and sea and air.

Read what Fred Ellsworth has to say in "Jayhawker Sports" in the
January edition of The Graduate Magazine.

Final Big Six Standings

=. & Pete WL Pet,
Kansas 10 QO 1.000 Nebraska 5 5 800
Oklahoma 7  3- .700 Iowa State 2 8 «200
Missouri S .f e3D Kansas State 1 9 .100

Skipper Phog Horn Allen brought the good ship Kansas into port at
the end of the 1942-43 basketball voyage a winner by several lengths,