8A
NEWS
THE UNIVERSITY DAILY KANSAN
WEDNESDAY, JANUARY 23. 2008
CAMPUS
Basketball gets new voice
Announcer feels the pressure to get things just right
RUSTIN DODD
dodd@kansan.com
Minutes before Kansas'
Big Monday, matchup against
Oklahoma, Eric Danielson sat 10
feet from the Kansas bench.
With a headset wrapped around his ear and pen and paper in hand,
Danielson might have been the most nervous man in Allen Fieldhouse. Sure, Brandon Rush and the rest of the Jayhawks were to take the
Danielson
floor in front of 16,300 people and an ESPN television audience. But Danielson had his own problems. He had to deliver the words that have become as synonymous with Kansas basketball pregame traditions as the Rock Chalk Chant. Finally the moment came.
"At guard from NEW YORK," Danielson yelled.
"NEW YORK," the crowd answered in unison.
"Russell Robinson," Danielson said.
Most Kansas fans have heard Danielson's voice, but they may not know the man behind the vocal chords. The Lawrence native is working his first男篮 basketball season as the public address announcer at Allen Fieldhouse. Danielson, who did the public address announcements at women's basketball games last season, began working men's games in November when the former public address announcer, Hank Booth, left for health reasons. Booth had been doing the announcements since the 2003-04 season, when he replaced long-time announcer Howard Hill.
Danielson's promotion to men's game was also an increase in pressure.
"I was absolutely nervous," Danielson said, partly because he grew up an avid Kansas basketball fan. But mostly, Danielson said he knew he had to nail Russell Robinson's introduction.
"Somebody recorded it and they put it up on YouTube," Danielson said. "And it was just the recording of the player intros on the video board. You could hear me in the background, and I listened to it, and I must have been so incredibly nervous because it sounded so rushed."
Danielson spent his childhood in Lawrence and is becoming more and more acquainted with
the University. Danielson went to school at the University of San Diego on a vocal performance scholarship and graduated in 2000.
"I sang my way through school basically, in a real small select 12-person
Darnell Jackson dunk, or Brandon Rush jump shot. Danielson also said being the announcer during a Kansas basketball game is a little tougher than most people imagine.
singing group," Danielson said. "Id always done something with my voice, but I knew I didn't want to continue the singing path."
"It's an entirely different way to watch a game, because you're not really watching the flow of the game, but you're just watching the details."
"It an entirely different experience, because you have to follow the ball, because if that person puts up a shot, you need to know who shot it right away," Danielson said. "It's an entirely different way to watch a game, because you're not really watching the flow of the game, as much you're just watching the details."
After graduating, Danielson went to work in Lawrence at Harris Construction. He received his first break in the vocal work from Hank Booth, the man he replaced at the microphone. Booth was a family friend, so Danielson went to talk to him.
"I said I'd love to get involved in doing radio commercials or something, and he actually said, if I ever wanted to do P.A. work, there is an opening at the women's team," Danielson said.
ERIC DANIELSON Basketball announcer
Now it's Danielson who informs the Allen Fieldhouse crowd of every Mario Chalmers three-pointer,
Jim Marchiony, associate athletics director, said the Athletics Department has received positive feedback about Danielson.
"He's done a terrific job, and he deserved the number one quarterback job, so to speak," Marchiony said.
For now, Danielson is working at both men's and women's
games.
"I'm pulling double-duty. Thankfully, I've got a really great wife at home, she helps take care of our son, and she knows this is something I've always wanted to do, so she's cool with it," Danielson said. "She likes having the tickets to the games, too."
But tickets are actually the only compensation Danielson receives for his public address work. The job is unpaid. That's not a problem for Danielson, who works during the day for Treanor Architects.
"The way the team's been playing, I don't know who's not having a fun time in the Fieldhouse," Danielson said.
—Edited by Matt Hirschfeld
RESEARCH
The representatives traveled to five tour stops at the Institute. At one of the stops, several legislators were challenged to answer simple questions while tracking a dot on a computer screen with a cursor.
Mabel Rice, distinguished professor, gives a presentation of the Electronencephalography machine which measures brain activity. Twenty five state lesionists are in attendance for the presentation.
A group of Kansas representatives were given the opportunity to test their ability to do two things at once yesterday evening during a research tour of the KU Life Span Institute.
The test, called dual task performance, was developed by Susan Kemper, senior scientist at the Gerontology Center at the Institute. She said the test was used to examine how aging affected people's ability to complete more than one task at a time.
Shaylan Oberle, research assistant and 2007 KU graduate, said the test measured what percent of the time the user was on target and recorded his or her speech so it could be analyzed. She said the test, given to KU students and members of the Lawrence community, compared results from people ages 18 to 30 to people 60 and older.
Kansas legislators participate in research at Life Span Institute
BY FRANCESCA CHAMBERS
fchambers@kansan.com
The 16 legislators visited the Institute, housed in the Dole Center, to create awareness of and to better understand the research KU professors and students complete there.
Oberle said the purpose of the
test was to set norms for people as they age. Oberle said the research had been conducted at the Institute for two and a half years and that more than 300
people had been tested, but the research was not complete.
Oberle also said the dual task performance test was a safe way to test people's abilities to do more than one thing at a time, such as driving
depth tour. She said the state of Kansas and the nation needed to evaluate more research like that of the Institute's because people's life spans are so much longer than they
and talking on a cell phone or talking to someone while writing.
"There is a host of things that will affect all of us that this research could help prevent."
KAY WOLF Kansas Representative
The legislators took a shorter version of the test than what actual participants would take.
Kemper told the legislators that more tests like hers were needed so that diseases such as Alzheimer's could be detected earlier in the rapidly growing senior citizen population. Kemper used the Nintendo Wii system, which she said was very popular in assisted-living homes, as a comical, but real life example of when people practice cognitive, physical and social stimulation all at once.
Rep. Kay Wolf, R-Prairie Village, said the tour was her first visit to the Life Span Institute, which opened in 1960. She said she would like to return in the future for a more in
were in the past.
could help to prevent.'
"I am very proud to have a facility like this in Kansas," Wolf said. "There is a host of things that will affect all of us that research
Wolf specifically said that she hoped researchers could find a way to prevent Alzheimer's disease so that those who would potentially be affected by the disease could live a longer and more productive life.
Other stops on the tour included a booth on the correlation between Alzheimer's and weight-loss and a demonstration of the Institute's Electroencephalography system, or EEG. The EEG system, which consists of 128 electrodes that are attached to the user's head, is used at the Institute to determine how a child with a language impairment is different from a child without an impairment.
— Edited by Madeline Hyden