Friday, October 14. 1977
University Daily Kansan
5
'67 graduate found world of amusements beyond KU
By NANCY DRESSLER
Staff Writer
Vietnam was on everyone's mind, Jim Ryan set records and barbed warning at the University of Kansas, according to Dan Derrough, a member of the class of 67.
Derrough, a graduate of the School of Journalism, is now vice president and general manager of Kansas City's theme park Worlds of Fun.
He has been with the Worlds of Fun organization since 1967 when he joined the relations staff of the Kansas City Chiefs and Worlds of Fun are jointly owned.
Lee Derrough
College students in the latter '80s awaiteen the draft and possible service in Vietnam. Derrugh was ready to serve but failed his physical.
He found himself without a job until an newspaper advertisement caught his eye one day. It announced an opening in the local radio station, Chiefs. Derrick arrived and was hired
DERROUGH SERVED in various capacities with the Chiefs until 1972. He then was appointed director of public relations and promotion for Worlds of Fun.
Further promotions made him assistant to the president and later general manager. He became the youngest general manager of a major amusement park in the United States with his promotion in 1974 at the age of 29.
Earlier this year, he moved another step upward. Today as vice president and general manager, he overseees about 1,700 employees of the Midwest's newest amendment parks.
Derrough, an Edina, Minn., native, said his move into the Chiefs organization came when both the team and management were released. He was a Super Bowl victory for the Chips in 1970.
Students also could see free movies in Heeh Auditorium for weekend entries.
Derrough began his KU career in 1963 after attending a year of junior college in Kansas City. Most students at that time, Derrough said, did not take school seriously.
KU students had their good times at their favorite bars, two of which were the Jayhawk Cafe and the Wagon Wheel, both located near 14th and Ohio streets.
"EVERYONE EXPECTED to go to Vietnam so they had a good time while they
Derrough recalled one major difference in 1967 practice from those of today.
"The guys didn't have closing hours, but
Vietnam, morality . . .
From page four
United States, "Where the Girls Are," by Peter M. Sandman, said of these newly liberated KU coeds, "One would have no trouble picking up a girl at one of the numerous beer hangouts in Lawrence on Friday afternoon."
The new School of Religion, Irma I. Smith Hall, was dedicated by Kansas Gov. Robert Docking. Across the street, the Trail Room opened in the Kansas Union for food service. University officials also announced plans to connect the Union to X-zone parking lot.
AS THE JAYHAWKY Towers apartments took shape across campus, work began on Kenneth Spencer Research Library and the new Hugh Kline Chancellor W. Clarke Wescoe announced plans for a 25-story humanities building. The Kansas Board of Resents boasted that the structure would be the best building in the city, but it were capitalized and became four-level Wescoe Hall.
Meanwhile, physical change transformed Mt. Oread. The new Fraser Hall opened in February. Campus police warned students that the two flag towers atop the "seven-story super-building" were offlimits to would-be adventurers.
KU students also were concerned about other issues unique to the University. That year administrators abolished the English language requirement, and the final period was extended from six to 12 days by the University Senate, and a student-faculty committee studied the requirements.
The Free University appeared at KU. Classes such as "Revolutionary Change" and "The Morality" offered a new approach to learning.
The 1967 Festival of the Arts series—the first of its kind in the country—featured an appearance by the Count Basie Orchestra. Through the year, concerts by the Los Angeles Philharmonic, the Fifth Dimension and Louis Armstrong also entertained audiences included Sen. Robert Kennedy, Dick Gregory and Mrs. Martin Luther Kin. Jr.
OFF CAMPUS, at the Red Dog Inn,
students bugaled to the live sounds of
the Shangri-las, the Chessmen and Ike and Tina Turner. Favorite songs that year included "Go On." "Light My Fire," "Groovin', Up, Up and Away" and "Penn Lane."
Films at Lawrence theaters in 1967 included "Bonnie and Clyde," "Alice," "In the Heat of the Night," "To Sir With Love," "The Jawbreakers," "Camelot," and "The Dirty Dozen."
However, changes on the national scene also affected musical tastes. Students who earlier tuned in the Mamas and the Papas and Paul Revere and the Raiders started electronic sounds of the Rolling Stones, the Jefferson Airplane and the Grateful Dead.
A successful year in Jayhawk sports also brightened student activities. KU's Jim Ryun was the sensation of the track season. United Press International rewarded his record-breaking performances by voting him the 1967 Sportsman of the year.
THE JAYHAWKS WON the Big Eight Conference basketball title for the second time in team history, and the new fight song, "Fighting Jayhawk," filled Memorial Stadium, and Pepper Rodgers, the new head football coach, led his team to a second place tie with Colorado in the Big Eight.
The Arab-Iraeli war and race riots made worldwide headlines, but such conflicts were too distant from campus to dawnpen Javahawk spirits.
Students still enjoyed traditional good times. "Boobs in Toyland" won top honors in the 1967 Rock Chalk Revue for Alpha Kanoa Lambda and Alpha Chi Omega.
The third annual "Phi Psi 500" was sponsored by the Phi Kappa Pi fraternity.
Ki Pappa Alpha won a contest to dine with Diane Chandler. Playboy magazine's Miss September of 1966, by spending more money on any other fraternity at a local clothing store.
Women's living groups were invited to enter teams to compete in the tricycle obstacle
Hugh Hefner, Playboy publisher, was a sample of what KU women were like that year. Hefner selected the 1967 Jayhawker program to show him how he sent to him of 10 finalists on campus.
Looking back ...10 years
the girls did. That made dates more exciting to try to get the girls home on time. Once you were locked out, you were out until someone entered and explained to explain why you were out past closing."
"We had fire drills every now and then," Derrough said. "We also had strict study hours as pledges and we could be grounded for violating them."
AS A MEMBER of Phi Kappa Psi fraternity, Derrough was the victim of a few fraternity pranks, all of which were harmless, he said.
As a sophomore pledge, Derruc said that he sometimes resented the restrictions but that he was not rough on other pledges as an active.
"I am glad now that we had study hours.
What are what got some of the guys
through?"
"People pulled their own cards. There were all kinds of ways to beat the system,
Lawrence still was growing and had yet to develop west of Iowa Street. The student population also was smaller. Students in the '60s enrolled in the Kansas University lobby and ballroom. The process was similar to that used now in Allen Field House.
IMPORTANT ISSUES faced America in the 70s, and they had an affect on students at KU. Vietnam was viewed with resignation.
but people usually got caught if they tried to cards for someone else," Derrough said.
"Since most guys expected to be drafted, they took at least a SOTC training to decide."
The issues of the day were handed conservatively by the Kansan of the 1960s, for which Derrough worked selling advertising. He also worked with Lawrence businessman
"This was a good working experience that has helped me in my career. Even though I used to advertise, I used what I learned into things such as press releases in my work."
KU athletic teams in the mid '60s, which were average on the whole, had outstanding individual performers such as Gale Sayers and Jo Mo White. There was strong student performance and there was much like recent student sentiment for former KU quarterback Nolan Cromwell.
"EVERYONE COULD sense that he plays on a good team. He was a quality player on an average team."
Derrough recalled a particular football game during the 1965 season.
"It was the Nebraska game toward the
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end of the season, I saw the crowd give Sayers a standing ovation for dropping a known pass. He had kicked it out of his own window. He stepped on the stepper runner. Everyone realized that he had given them four years of excitement before the last times they would get to see him play.
The coming of spring brought outdoor track and the Kamas Relays, one of the sport's great events.
INTRAMURAL SPORTS were popular, and Derrough was intramural chairman for his fraternity. Women's intramurals were just getting started, however.
And spring also brought the Rock Chalk Revue.
"Rock Chalk was really a pretty professional production. My house was in it one year. It was always a big weekend on campus."
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