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University Daily Kansan
Thursday. Nov. 29. 1962
Old Quarterback Still Rabid KU Fan
By Rose Ellen Osborne
The dean of University of Kansas football captains, Dr. Bert Kennedy, has not scored a touchdown during the 20th century.
But he is still an ardent KU booster, one of the most enthusiastic armchair quarterbacks in the state.
Each Saturday afternoon during football season, the snowy-haired, 86-year-old Lawrence dentist can be found sitting on the Kansas sidelines outyelling the cheerleaders, or hunched over a radio in his office and concentrating on every play.
STILL A QUARTERBACK at heart, Kennedy likes to mull over KU plays while he shapes the mold for a set of false teeth.
Varsity player, captain, coach and pro football organizer—the Irishman has viewed football from every side of the bench.
"Maybe it's time we changed the rules," he says. "The game is out of balance. The rules favor the offense against the defense."
Squaring his broad shoulders and leaning back in his chair, Kennedy recalled that when he began playing football the players wore knitted caps instead of helmets.
"The only protection those first fellows had was to let their hair grow long. Uniforms were scarce. My mother either had to make me a football suit or to sew up my ripped clothes every night."
AS A YOUTH Kennedy used to watch the games played on the Lawrence baseball field at 13th and Massachusetts.
"The fancy would come all decked out in their glad rags riding on the top of tallyhos and hacks drawn by fine horses.
"I remember the day a group of students were teasing Ephriam Miller, Dean of the College, because he wasn't wearing the crimson colors.
"I carry the KU colors every day," Miller retorted stroking his red beard.
"ONE OF THE big problems of those very earliest teams was finding officials to administer the game," he said, chuckling, as he recalled Professor William Herbert Carruth's decision in an early Baker game to give the touchdown and the game to Baker because it was "the only fair thing to do. They were the visitors."
Kennedy began playing for KU in 1895 and was captain of the Jayhawkers in 1897.
"Those were the days when it was a sin not to beat Missouri, and Kansas boys were good Bible-carrying Christians.
"We old timers hated to tie," he remembered, adjusting his spectacles. "In the Nebraska game in 1906 the boys played until dark and the officials deliberated even longer. We didn't know KU won until 10 o'clock."
That was the year Kennedy was
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THE SCOTCH-IRISHMAN, who claims he is no relation to "that other Kennedy in the White House," later transferred to the University of Pennsylvania in Philadelphia and played in the Harvard-Princeton league.
Reporting sports and college news for six morning newspapers in Philadelphia, he organized the city's first professional football team and introduced the Kennedy tackle.
the coach of an undefeated KU grid squad.
The football philosopher maintains that the game just came naturally for him.
"My mother had eight children—all born in a log cabin. Just before I was born we moved into a stone house so I was denied the privilege of becoming President," he ioked.
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IN 1903, he was graduated from dentistry school and returned to Kansas.
His eyes twinkled good naturelly beneath his spectacles as he recalled how Washburn insisted that the athletic director become a faculty member.
His degree was in dentistry, but his heart was in football, so he took a job as athletic director and coach at Washburn University in Topeka
"I felt that the faculty was for those Phi Beta Kappa persons. But Mother always wanted me to be a teacher.
"As long as men like to measure their strength with each other, there will be football."
"But when I showed her the Washburn catalog with my picture in the faculty section all she said was 'Do you call that teaching school?'
DISDAINFUL OF football's recent tendencies toward monetary profit, Kennedy said he advocates a physical fitness program for the entire college.
As he spoke, he forgot the starchy white dental jacket and the false teeth mounting. He was young again. It was 1897, and the crowds were yelling for a quarterback named Bert Kennedy.
Nolen Ellison would figure as a key man on any collegiate basketball team in the country, but his role in the Kansas Jayhawks' basketball plans this season will be quantitatively less than last year.
By Terry Murphy
It is important to note the modifier, "quantitatively," because if the Javhawkers are to climb from the Big Eight cellar spot they held last season, the Kansas City, Kan., senior figures to be the hub of any resurgence.
Last year, the 6-1 former all-state performer from Kansas City's Wyan-lotte High School averaged 18.1 points a game during the 25-game Hawker schedule.
The presence of seven sophomores on the Jayhawker roster will add needed depth at every position.
WHERE ELLISON will be "cut down" from his performance of last year is in playing time. He logged every minute in last year's games except for two minutes and some seconds.
But whenever the game is in doubt, Ellison will be in the thick of the battle. He does much more than score points — he directs the offense and coaches Dick Harp and Ted Owens rate him as one of the top defensive players on the Hawker quintet.
Load Lightened on KU Backcourt Ace
His last year's performance earned
KSU Recommends New Weaver Pact
Reappointment of Kansas State football coach Doug Weaver for a three-year term will be recommended to the state board of regents in December, James A. McKain, K-State president, announced yesterday.
The three-year contract would begin Jan. 1, 1963. Reappointment of the assistant football coaches at Kansas State will also be recommended.
Weaver's Wildcats have won three and lost 27 since he took over as head coach at Kansas State in 1960. K-State lost its last eight games last year and all 10 this fall for an 18-game streak.
The Wildcats have lost all 21 of their conference games since Wenver took over. This season they dropped a close 6-0 decision to Colorado at Boulder.
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him All-Big Eight guard honors, and if the Jayhawkers are to figure in the conference title race this season, he might rate All-American honors.
"WEVE GOT better height and bench strength," Ellison said in regard to the team's chances for a successful season. "The squad has better spirit and everyone is looking forward to the conference race. We'll definitely be improved."
While at Wyandotte High, Ellison got into the habit of winning — he played on three state championship teams.
And the presence of 6-7 center George Unseld will take much of the offensive pressures of the guards that they felt last season when Wayne Hightower's departure left the Hawker offense without a consistent front-line punch.
Following his graduation this June, Nolen plans to teach social studies and hopes to coach basketball for a year or two before he fulfills his military obligation.
And the return of forwards Al Correll (who is not eligible until second semester begins) and Jim
Dumas along with Ellison has given KU mentor Harp a remote boost to the KU title hopes this season.
"We'll be improved this season." coach Harp said during early-season practice sessions. "Just how much improved depends a lot on their sophomores."
Kansas opens its basketball season Friday at Allen Field House when the Jayhawkers tangle with the Montana State Grizzlies.
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