Inside Sports
THE UNIVERSITY DAILY KANSAN
Sports
Tuesday
November 2, 1999
Section:
B
Page 1
Chicago Bears legendary running back Walter Payton died yesterday of complications from a rare liver disease.
SEE PAGE 3B
Big 12 Football
The Nebraska Cornhuskers, who won two out of three games against Kansas last year, hope to make a run at the Big 12 Conference title.
SEE PAGE 6B
Millennium Athletes
The Kansan will continues its countdown of the 10 greatest Jayhawk athletes of the millennium tomorrow.
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A family tradition of stopping the run
Kansas sophomore Andrew LeClair tackles Nebraska running back Correll Buckhalter in last Saturday's game. LeClair is following in the *notests of his father*, who is a college football hall-of-famer and a former NFL player. Matt by Game J. Daugherty/KANSAN
Andrew LeClair comes from a clan of great linebackers
By Mike Miller
sports@kansan.com
Kansan sportswriter
Andrew LeClair is a pedigree linebacker.
It runs in the family. His father, his uncle and his brother played linebacker in college — and his father, Jim, also played in the NFL.
So it's only natural that Andrew, a sophomore from Mayville, N.D., and an imposing football player at 6-feet-6 and 245 pounds, would start for the Jayhawks at inside linebacker. Like his father, he has the physical gifts and the mental ability that make great linebackers. He has quick lateral movement and a nose for the ball.
"He's certainly faster and quicker than I ever was," Jim LeClair said. "And he he's very aggressive playing football. He'll be fine with those attributes."
That's high praise, coming from a man who was just inducted into the College Football Hall of Fame this August after a stellar career at the University of North Dakota. Jim LeClair played for the Cincinnati Bengals from 1972 to 1983, and he played one year for the New Jersey Generals of the United States Football League. He was an All-Pro in 1976 and started at middle linebacker for the Bengals when they lost to the San Francisco 49ers in Super Bowl XVI.
Comparing himself to his father isn't something Andrew LeClair focuses on though. There are other aspects that make him resemble his father. He's got a Scandinavian accent — like in the movie Fargo — from growing up in North Dakota and Minnesota, he is focused on obtaining a business degree to make sure he will have a job after he's finished playing football, and he's going to marry his high school sweetheart. He proposed to Lindsay Beck, a sophomore from Mayville, last December. They plan to be married this June.
His father did the same thing.
Jim LeClair and his wife, Betty, make the 10-hour trip from Mayville to Lawrence every time the Jayhawks
play. Their red Dodge Concord is racking up the miles each week, making the 600-mile trek across Nebraska and South Dakota farmland. It's a small task to watch their son play, because it's something they relish.
"We'll probably trade it in pretty soon. When you get so many miles on it, you wonder how long it will cooperate," she said. "But we gladly make the trip."
Jim LeClair never pushed football on his sons. If they wanted to play, they could, but he was uncomfortable insisting that they play football.
"I never wanted him to feel pressured into playing football. You have to want to play to do well," Jim LeClair said.
he's wife can understand why.
"Jim hardly ever talked about football," she said. "I used to get kind of mad because he would never talk about it when he played or when they played. That was him teaching them to be humble."
That's one area where Andrew LeClair has become more like his father — he's humble to a fault. It's tough to get him to talk about how he played or what
he thinks about football. He's careful with his words, short and to the point, never saving too much.
"If he had an awesome game, he'd say he played OK," Beck said.
And he's had some awesome games this year. Against Colorado he had 15 total tackles, 12 against San Diego State and 11 against Kansas State — the top three totals of the season for Kansas. He leads the team in total tackles with 77, while
See IN HIS on page 3A
Former basketball walk-on captures memories on film
Bv Doua Pacey
By Duy Pacey
sports@kansan.com
Kansan sportswriter
Scott Novosel spent one season on the Kansas basketball team and three years making a movie about it.
Novosel, who was a walk-on and a captain of the 1994-95 team, is making an independent film about his experience as a walk-on.
"The story is about a kid growing up in Kansas and sees Kansas basketball his whole life," Novosel said. "But he's not tall enough, not athletic enough and doesn't have the skills. It's an independent movie
like Rudy. very inspirational.
Novosel was one of four players who made the final cut during walk-on tryouts in the fall of 1984 and were asked to practice with the basketball team for a few days to see if they were good enough.
"It also brings to light the tradition of Kansas basketball and why it is one of the best in the country."
Novosel was the only one to make the team.
"I felt like I was the ultimate walk-on," he said. "All I wanted to do was help the team."
He scored four points in his career and started one game, the last game of the regular season against
"I felt like the ultimate walk-on. All I wanted to do was help the team."
"My claim to fame is that I guarded Randy Rutherford for the first two and half minutes, and he did not score a point," Novosel said. "He scored 45 points after I came
Scott Novosel
See WALK-ON on page 2B
Oklahoma State.
Former Kansas walk-on
Independent film producer Scott Novosel shots prep shots for his film "Field House" at basketball walk-on tryouts last month. Novosel is a former Jawkay walk-on. Photo by Lucas W. Krump/KANSAN
Sports writers are journalists when they ask hard questions
One of my favorite journalism professors won't hesitate to say that most sportos (that's journalese for sports
reporters) aren't true journalists.
Is chomping down hot dogs in the press box and then pitching post-game questions during the press conference really journalism?
If done well, it can be Is Ahmad Rashad interviewing golfer Phil Michelson sitting courtside at an NBA game really journalism?
Derek
Prater
sports columnist
email@kansan.com
Probably not.
but Jim Gray's interview with Pete Rose during the World Series was undoubtedly journalism. The outrage of fans and players to Gray's questions demonstrates the strange, tenuous relationship between sports and journalism.
Sport is an unlimited source of story material. The inherent conflicts and traditional story lines make it endlessly interesting to legions of fans.
So what makes good sports journalism?
That depends on who you ask.
Obviously, not all sports writing can be great literature. The majority has to be concerned with the day-to-day happenings journalists document.
Some people just want statistics. Just give me all the numbers and let me crunch 'em.
Some people want analysis. Break down the plays, the strategy and give me the nuts and bolts.
Others want the news — behind-the-scenes dealings and conflicts.
If the best hitter in baseball history can't get into the Hall of Fame because there is evidence that he bet on his own games, you ask him about it — even if he is being honored at the time.
Jim Gray's question seemed inappropriate because it's not what we expect from a sideline interview.
We expect banal questions about the immediate action and platitudes for responses.
coach, what does your team need to do to get back in this game in the second half?"
"We just need to continue to grind it out and hope that the ball bounces our way next half."
We've seen so many of these dull, worthless exchanges that Jim Gray's question was like fingernails scraping against a chalkboard.
The sound was particularly grating for manv baseball fans.
Those who write about and read about sports are fans. Sometimes fans don't want all the news. Sometimes they don't want to have their heroes challenged.
Can't we just recognize them as athletes and imore their personal lives?
Not if it's news, and not if you're a journalist.
Prater is a Lawrence graduate student in Journalism.
Kansas golfers finish ninth in tournament, despite hole-in-one
By Doug Pacey
Kansan sportswriter
Conrad Roberts was not enjoying his weekend in California.
The junior golfer was not playing particularly well, but on the last hole of the final round of the tournament, he hit a hole in one.
"It was a great way to finish," he said. "I wasn't playing particularly well, and it brightened up my day."
par3 hole. It was his fourth ever hole-in-one, but his first in the United States. Roberts is origi-
nally from the United States.
Roberts used a 5-iron on the 184-vard
Roberts' ace may have been Kansas' only good memory at The Nellson Invitational in Stanford, Calif.
The Jayhawk, ranked 15th in the
Golfweek/Sagarin Top 25. dis-
placed
appointing ninth, shooting 865.
No. 10 Stanford won the tournament after shooting 847 on its home course.
The Jayhawks shot a 9-over-par in the first round, but came back to shoot a 1-under-par in the second round.
"We just made the most of our opportunities in the second round," said senior All-American Ryan Vermeer. "We played a little better, and we didn't panic."
Kansas shot a 4-over-par 299, in the final round.
"I think a lot of us missed some putts that we should've had," Vermeer said. "I know that I probably played a little too aggressive at times."
Vermeer said Kansas suffered when it came to putting.
The aggression, Roberts said, could have come from the play of other teams in the tournament. Seven teams in the Golfweek/Sagarin Top 25, including Kansas, played at The Nelson: No. 1 Northwestern, No. 5 Arizona State, No. 10 Stanford, No. 13 Washington, No. 20
Fresno State and No. 22 Arizona.
added some pressure to us," Roberts said.
Vermeer led the Jayhawks with a score of 212, which tied him for 12th place.
"To an extent, I played well," he said.
"But I definitely left a lot of shots that I could have made."
This was the last tournament for Kansas until the spring golf season begins in late February.
Edited by Chris Hopkins
Roberts
4