Inside Sports
THE UNIVERSITY DAILY KANSAN
Sports
The Kansas baseball team faced in-state rival Kansas State last night in Wichita.
SEE PAGE 3B
Kansas Tennis
The men's tennis team hopes to follow in the golf team's footsteps and win the Big 12 Conference.
Thursday
April 29, 1999
Section:
B
Page 1
KANSAS TENNIS
SEE PAGE 3B
Kansas Athletics
Ali Brox splits her time between the hardwood and the water as a rower and women's basketball player for the Jayhawks.
SEE PAGE 4B
Contact the Kansan
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sports@kansan.com
Commentary Final column gives thanks to inspirations
The day has come.
Armageddon. The Apocalypse. The end of the world.
The final column
This is it, folks. The last time my sometimes insightful, occasionally humorous and always asinine comments will grace the Kansan sports section.
Shed a tear. Break out the bubbly.
Jump for joy.
After two years of writing weekly columns, you might think I would have saved my best for last — some magnificent culmination of my infinite sports wisdom. A grand finale. Something with meaning and soul. Words to live by.
Think again.
That's not what this column is about.
I could use these final precious words to convey some deep, transcendental philosophical meanderings about the meaning of life and sports.
Harley
Ratliff
sports @ kansas.com
Maybe something about how fast your college years fly by and that you should make the most of every second you spend on this great campus, because it's finished before you know it.
But I have bigger plans for this final work.
Or maybe something about how baseball needs a salary cap, NASCAR is really fixed, and it's a travesty that Barry Switzer isn't in the College Football Hall of Fame.
It is time to give credit where credit is due.
It is time to say thanks, so bear with me.
To my roommates Dom and Matt
While the words of every column have been my own, the ideas, inspiration, motivation and encouragement are the manifestations of many people.
To my people from Chicago, Mike G. and Ian W.
Without the input from the two most hyper-critical, angry and sarcastic sports fans I know, I would have never had anything good to write about. You can't ask for two better guys to watch sports with.
I know my constant verbal barrage on the Bulls and Bears offended more than a few Windy City natives. Some even went far enough to accost me at a house party.
But if it makes you feel better, I was only trying to annoy these two.
To the whole Ohio Street Crew — Ben, Gaddis, Fawcett, Mack, Jesse, Rusty, Jim, Greg, Jake, and the one only "Kansas City" Williams.
They should all get their due. I have spent countless hours with these guys debating everything from Buffalo's recent draft picks, to Iowa football, to why the '88 Lakers would beat the '97 Bulls. More than once their ideas have found their way into my columns.
To the best professors at the journalism school — Susanne, Malcolm and Rick.
These three helped me more than they will ever know.
To the best sports writer I ever had the pleasure to work with, Jenni Carlson.
I will always be grateful.
To the kids I have promised for years I would mention their names in a column, the time has come. Liz Luck (thanks for the Eviian), Sara Anderson, Farmer, little Jen, Cash, Mike and Luke, Jeff T. MeCoy (1985 State of Kansas Twister Grand Champion), Steve Prince, Tommy F., and Zac Hemenway.
Finally, to my family and Nicolel
thanks for everything
Take core University of Kansas
Ratiff is a Norman, Okla., senior in journalism
Take care, University of Kansas.
Thanks for the best four years of my life. And to the Kansas students who took time to read my columns, thanks for putting up with me. I will miss our weekly conversations.
Signing off from Lawrence, Kansas Harley V. Ratliff.
Spring practice is done, Wegner is down and a juco star is coming to town.Welcome to...
The offseason
By Michael Rigg mtrigg@ukans.edu Kansan sportswriter
Spring practice for the Kansas football team ended yesterday very much the same way it began — with a serious injury to quarterback Zac Weimer.
Wegner broke the thumb on his right (throwing) hand in a conditioning drill last Thursday. Wegner's arm will remain in a cast for four to six weeks and is expected to be rehabilitated by the time the Javahawks open fall practice Aug. 6.
Coach Terry Allen said he expected the injury to have no effect on Wegner's time on the practice field.
"It is a very unfortunate injury for Zac," Allen said. "The doctors indicated the casting process went very well, and we don't anticipate any problems for Zac when we start practice in the fall."
Wegner was participating in a box jump drill, and he hit his hand against the box while lunging
tion from the three concussions he suffered in 1998. Wegner had to be cleared by his doctors before he was even allowed to participate in spring practice.
The spring drills marked a major milestone for Weiner's rehabilita-
Despite the injuries, Wegner has been positive about
Wegner: Suffered another major career injury
"Notre Dame is something you tell your kids about 20 years down the road," Wegner said earlier in the spring. "The opportunity to go up there and play the first college
the upcoming season, especially the team's season opener at Notre Dame.
game of the year — how fun is that?"
The injury couldn't come at a worse time for Wegner, who will be battling junior college transfer Dylan Smith for the starting job this fall. Allen said Smith would receive playing time this season if Smith learns the offense to Allen's liking.
"It shouldn't be a problem to learn the offense," Smith said. "The offense we ran in junior college was very similar."
Smith said he could do it.
Allen, meanwhile, has very high praise for Smith's ability.
"He could come in and compete for that job right now," Allen said.
However, Smith's academic difficulties will keep the quarterback at his home in Santa Monica until later in the summer. While Wegner is rehabilitating his thumb injury, Smith will be attending summer classes to achieve the criteria necessary for junior college transfers.
— Edited by Keith Burne
Allen calls off spring drills early
"We've reached the point of diminished returns. This far out from our last practice, I felt we would have too many relapses
on assignments and increase the risk of injuries."
Kansas football coach
In the wake of bad weather and the bad news the Kansas football team received about quarterback Zac Wegner's broken thumb, coach Terry Allen announced that spring practice is officially finished. The Jayhawks were scheduled to practice Tuesday, but a rainstorm forced Allen to cancel the practice. The cancellation means Kansas practiced 14 times this fall, one short of the 15 allotted by the NCAA.
Allen said the risks of an additional practice outweighed the benefits.
"We've reached the point of diminished returns," Allen said. "This far out from our last practice, I felt we would have too many relapses on assignments and increase the risk of injuries."
The Jayhawks final practice of the spring was April 21.
The team returns to campus on Aug. 6 for the start of two practices per day. Kansas opens its season Aug. 28 at Notre Dame.
Michael Rigg
Team elects co-captains
The Kansas football team announced the team co-captains for 1999.
Quarterback Zac Wegner, wide receiver Michael Chandler, outside linebacker Tim Bowers and nose tackle John
Williams were chosen as the co-captains, football coach Terry Allen said yesterday.
This will be Wegner's second-straight year in the leadership position. It will be the first season as co-captain for the remainder of the players. The captains were selected by a team vote.
—Kansan staff report
Coach finds permanent home in Lawrence
Laid-back pole-vault teacher one of the best in the country
By Mike Miller
sports@kansan.com
Kansan sportswriter
Rick Attig began coaching long before he ever received a coaching job.
When the Kansas assistant track coach was a football player, and track and field athlete at Southeast Missouri State, Attig found he needed more help than the coaches there could give him.
"It was just a small school, and they had a head coach and a graduate assistant. I needed more help when I started throwing the javelin, so I started teaching myself and others in the process," he said.
Attig's teaching methods worked, and he began to branch out into other sports. This led him to become what coach Gary Schwartz calls, "One of the best pole- vault coaches in the country."
During his 24 years as a coach, Attig has coached 25 All-Americans, 26 Big Eight/12 Conference Champions and two NCAA record breakers. He has coached seven male pole-vaulters who have jumped more than 18 feet — more than any other school.
Conjecture? Hardly.
And his athletes love him.
"We come here because we want to learn from Coach Attie, so sophomore Ashley Felinger said.
His rapport with athletes might be what makes him different. Sophomore All-American pole-vaulter Andrea Branson said that practices are never boring and always fun, thanks to Coach Attig.
"We'll be there for about five minutes, and then you look over at Coach Attig and he'll do something that'll crack you up," she said.
His routines are just his way to keep practices fun because of the workload. But he said he didn't know where his sense of humor came from.
Rich Attig, assistant track coach, is helping develop young talent on the Kansas track team into top-caliber pole-vaulters. Attig coached several Olympic athletes before coming to Kansas. Photo by Graham K. Johnson/KANSAN
"I'm not a real emotional person. I guess it's the German in me." Attig said.
A stoic Attig cracking jokes may make for laughs at practice, but sometimes his disposition creates the laughs.
"You can't ask him two questions at once. He gets flustered and won't let you talk to him unless he's figured out an answer. It's how I mess with Coach," said All-American senior Candy Mason.
It's all a part of his laid-back method.
"When I first started coaching, it just got to the point where I'd get so nervous that I wouldn't do the athletes any good. So I just said to myself, "This is stupid, I've got to relax." Attig said.
His laid-back nature got him into a little trouble three weeks ago when he went out to eat with some of his athletes on a Friday after a meet.
"I ate a steak, a big ol' salad and some other stuff," he said. The next day, Attig woke with stomach pains, but figured it was from the meal he had eaten the night before. The pain persisted on Sunday, until Monday night he said he felt so bad that he couldn't even eat dinner.
She called the doctor and described Attig's symptoms.
The doctor also asked some of my symptoms.
"They brought me in, took care of it, and the next day I was fine. A little hungry though." Attis said.
This amazed his athletes who were without their coach for only one practice.
for only one practice.
"If I 'go home, A different breed of man." Branson said.
he a horse. A different breed of man," Branson said.
His methods and work ethic have ensured him a job for as long as he wants to coach. Attig said that people along the way have dropped hints about head coaching jobs elsewhere, but he insisted that he was happy in Lawrence.
It's a great place to raise a family. He said.
Both his children grew up here and have followed in their father's footsteps. His son, Garrett, is a junior and polevaults for the Jayhaws. His daughter, Marci, will graduate from high school this year. Though knee surgeries have kept her from competing in track since her sophomore year, her father said he thought that she would excel in diving.
This kind of instinct translates into what could be Attig's coaching philosophy.
"I don't coach for money. I don't know anyone who does," he said.
Edited by Kelly Clasen