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University Daily Kansan___
Colorado Has Title Chance
Coach Sonny Grandelius appears to be quite optimistic about the chances of his Colorado Buffaloes as he prepares a more experienced team than fielded a year ago for the opener next Saturday with Oklahoma State.
Colorado, led by Joe Romig, an All America selection at guard, end Jerry Hillebrand and quarterback Gale Weidner will meet the Kansas Jayhawkers in the first of the Big Eight "showdowns" at Boulder Oct. 7.
Weidner, last season's total yardage leader in the conference, along with 190 pound Olympian Ted Woods at halfback provide Colorado with a good passing-running combination.
The Buffs boast a front line which averages 210 pounds and has been proven to be tough both offensively and defensively.
Although Colorado has only three starters returning from last year's second place finishers, 10 players return from the second unit.
Grandelius is planning to platoon his first two units. The former Michigan State star had similar plans a year ago but failed to have the necessary manpower. Since he definitely plans to utilize his first two units as much as possible, he apparently feels he has the men and the strength lacking last season.
Colorado should have a more versatile ground attack this fall with the great improvement of Woods who had a fine spring practice.
The remainder of the backfield should be composed of lettermen Loren Schweninger at fullback and Ed Coleman at right halfback.
Picked as high as tenth in the nation in one of the selections by a
To improve fishing in the State of Hawaii, the Fish and Game Department is constructing artificial reefs out of old cars. The under-water junk pile will be stocked with snappers and groupers.
national magazine in its pre-season choices, the Buffs could be the main threat to the predicted dominance of Coach Jack Mitchell's crew although, as Grandelius has said, the conference looks a great deal stronger and any team in the league could show improvement but not match their record of last season.
Sophs,Speed At O-State
"More speed, less experience," says Coach Cliff Speeleg of his Oklahoma State Cowboys. Speeleg's hopes lie in the probability that upcoming sophomore backs, with their greater speed, will move into the picture.
MAKING THE BACKFIELD picture even brighter is the fact that all backs who figured strongly in yardage last year return, except one.
In the line OSU lost five solid anchormen but two of the Big Eight conference's most imposing linemen, Gary Cutsinger and Frank Parker, return to bolster the forward wall. Otherwise the line looks fairly thin
Speegle says: "Offensively we can't help but be somewhat better with more width to our attack and improved throwing. We have depth problems at center and end. We had 11 sophomores and non-lettermen on our first two teams at the close of spring practice. That is normally too much inexperience. However, I think we can make our presence felt in the 1961 race. I guess Kansas will be the best manned but Missouri, Oklahoma, and Colorado should be very close."
THE COWBOYS open their season against a tough Iowa State crew at Ames.
The Kansas Jayhawkers play host this year to the Cowboys on October 28.
Gridsters Take
this year? "A Big Eight championship." said McFarland.
(Continued from page 1)
"Most of the people believe we will do real well." added Flachsbarth. "Many hadn't heard of our pre-season rankings and were really happy about them."
WHAT WAS THE question most frequently asked of the football ambassadors? "Bert Coan's leg!" replied the pair simultaneously.
"Many people asked me if Curtis McClinton was coming back," Flachbarth injected.
"Many times the people would put me on the spot by asking questions difficult to answer. One question that was frequently asked was 'Why did John Suder miss the field goal in the Oklahoma game?' I didn't know what to tell them."
"There were a lot of stadium quarterbacks that asked hot questions," chimed in McFarland. "It was hard to be tactful with them. We had to try to explain to them in a nice way that they were wrong. One of our main objectives was not to hurt anyone's feelings."
"ONE OF THE MAIN accomplishments of the tour was the promotion of full page advertising in the football programs," commented McFarland. "We got several full page ads on the tour this summer and it looks like this year's football program will be one of the best in many years.
"Our trip was mostly cut and dried. The interest was in meeting the people around the state of Kansas. I would say that on our trips 65% of the time was spent in driving."
THIS WAS THE second year for the good-will tour. Last year John Hadl and Fred Hageman were KU's ambassadors.
McFarland paused and then summed up the summer's experience very well. "One thing I decided for sure was that I don't want to be a traveling salesman."
However brilliant an action, it should not be esteemed great unless the result of a great and good motive—La Rochefoucauld
Kansas Favored
nant on the semifinal Saturday of the season.
(Continued from page 1)
Final factor was an unusually wide scattering of votes for all but two teams. Iowa State, Nebraska, and Oklahoma State were tabbed for seven of the eight positions; Oklahoma, Missouri, and Colorado for six.
Only conclusion is that the voters feel Kansas will make it home all right, but barely, and only after a season-long struggle of sweat and toil running a gamut of at least four severe challenges.
FURTHERING THIS TRAIN of thought was the prediction from a couple of quarters that the champion would lose as many as two games. Too, there was general belief that only three teams, and in some cases only one, will not figure in the title chase.
Championing the first cause was Bill Bryan of KTOK, Oklahoma City, who typed, "The champ can lose two games and still win it. Field goals will decide tight games."
A companion opinion was that because of general league tightening, the conference would draw more national acclaim.
Predicting more national spotlight was Jack Miller, KAKE-TV, Wichita, who forecast that at least two Big Eight clubs would be numbered among the nation's top ten at season's end; the champion no worse than 1-2-3, plus being favored over whatever opponent it faces in the Orange Bowl.
OPINION WAS SHARPLY divided on Kansas' major concern, whether it could go all the way without injured halftack Bert Coan or miss because of his absence for half or more of the campaign.
The Jayhawkers also drew varying raves from overboard to overrated. Typifying the top of this scale was veteran Jack Charvat of the Tulsa Tribune, who said, "Kansas can't miss with the best backfield in the area and a hard-hitting line."
Jim Larimore of the Liberal Southwest Times cried for caution in this note, "KU will have something of a psychological problem this fall. In the past, the Jayhawks have been
scrambling underdogs. Now they are the top deg. Even Mitchell's power of mesmerization will be sorely tested."
OPINION LIKEWISE WAS divided on how far Oklahoma could come back in one season. Blazed the Denver Post's Ralph Moore, "it took the Big Eight a long time to get even with Oklahoma, but it'll only take the Sooners a year to wipe off fat grins."
The dissenting corps was led by John Garner, Stillwater News-Press, who penned, "Now that Oklahoma's bubble has been busted it's a good bet the Sooners have more than one lean year ahead of them."
Reno Hahn of the St. Louis Globe-
Democrat struck the keynote for
Missouri backers . . . the Tigers
drew 81½ title votes . . . with this,
"Dan Devine's Tigers suffered some
serious losses by graduation, but
they have a top-flight nucleus plus
adequate replacements and one of
the smartest coaches in the nation, so
they should repeat."
Chuck Hostetler of the Manhattan Mercury championed a Colorado title bloc, even pinpointing a Buff win over Kansas in its October 7 meeting at Boulder.
Oklahoma Tries For Opening Win
Oklahoma will try for its first opening game football victory in three years when it faces Notre Dame Sept. 30 in the nationallytelevised opener for both teams.
The Sooners were laced 45-13 and 19-3 by Northwestern in 1959 and 1960.
Coach Bud Wilkinson's record in openers is 9-4-1. Only other opening defeats were to Santa Clara 17-20 in 1948 and to Notre Dame in 1953. The 1552 inaugural against Coach Dal Ward's Colorado Buffaloes ended 21-21 a tie.
Oklahoma's total record in opening games the past 66 seasons is 48-14-4.
Dipiomacy is to do and say the nastiest thing in the nicest way. Isaac Goldberg
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