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University Daily Kansan
Friday Nov. 9, 1962
KU Coach Nearly Passed Up Football
By Don Pierce
KU Sports Publicity Director
Jack Mitchell, an All America quarterback at Oklahoma just 15 years ago, once thought his athletic future lay in tennis instead of the gridiron. For a while during his high school sophomore days he thought there would no career at all as he lay in bed six months with rheumatie fever.
As a tailback he was one of the greatest players in Kansas high school history at Arkansas City. Yet he never played a down at that position beyond his freshman year as a collegian.
He hesitated to transfer from Texas to Oklahoma after World War II because he was skeptical of the T-formation. Yet he rode that very offense to fame as the first in a long line of super Sooner quarterbacks who have become a modern Big Eight legend.
THAT IS THE framework in the playing career of Kansas' 28th head football coach, who is in his fifth season here this year.
Mitchell, who holds a lifetime contract for a $17,500 salary as the Jayhawker coach, ranks as one of the top 10 coaches for number of games won in the nation. Mitchell's career victory total is 57. In all, the KU coach has a 54-32-5 record.
This record includes two years at Wichita and three at Arkansas.
Bud Wilkinson, of course, the most winningest coach in the country and Mitchell's coach at OU, left his imprint on this intense young athlete who was born and raised just four miles north of the Kansas-Oklahoma border.
SO DID JIM TATUM, the husky driver who recruited him for the Sooners in 1946. Neither, however, influenced him any more than did a far less famous prep coach named PeeWee Grout, a 6-5, 230-pounder, who played at Washburn during the Ernie Bearg-Elmer Holm days.
Had it not been for Grout, Mitchell might never have played football beyond the junior high level.
"I had my mind made up to play fall tennis, Mitchell laughs in relating the incident that sent him down football avenue for keeps." "It was late in the summer just before I entered Ark City High (1939)."
"I weighed 135 and figured I was getting up with the big boys now and wouldn't be good enough nor big enough. One day late in August I started out the door wearing shorts with my raquet.
"JUST AS I HIT the steps here! Amos Curry, our athletic director and the biggest guy I ever saw, getting out of a car in front of our house. Mr. Curry introduced me to Coach Grout.
"Coach took a look at me and wasn't impressed. 'Amos,' he said, 'is this the boy you tell me is supposed to be a good backfield prospect.' Amos said it was.
"What's that in your hand,' he asked me, nodding at my racquet. 'Football opens in three days. You'll be there won't you?' And he sort of glared at me. I was afraid to say no."
Midway through Mitchell's sophomore season he was elevated to starting tailback when senior Martin Turner got water on the knee. With the finale against Wellington coming up, Mitchell discovered that a coach must be undisputed in his own domain.
"COACH CAME to me and asked me if I didn't think Turner should start against Wellington since it was his last game," Jack relates. "I told him I thought the best player ought to start."
‘'All right,' coach said, 'I tried to be nice. Martin's the best player and he's going to start.' I said 'yes sir'.
"Martin did start and played a fine game. I got in some defense and we were able to snap Wellington's undefeated streak. Coach was a good psychologist and master of the situation."
The next two years were to belong to Mitchell, but there was a disheartening detour.
HE HAD EARNED starting forward on a basketball team that included Tom Hamilton, later a great at Texas, and played the first semester satisfactorily. Then came two days of 105 degree temperature, three blood transfusions and the six months siege of lying still in bed with rheumatic fever.
"I studied that second semester at home the best I could," he relates. Some of the teachers were kind enough to come out and help me. I couldn't have made it at all without them.
"When the doctor finally let me out of bed he said. Iwas to do nothing but a little walking. My mother tried to tell me I was through with football and all other sports as gently as she could. 'Athletics aren't everything,' she told me about every day.' I got the idea, of course."
school house, all in secret. When he reported to the Halstead clinic for a checkup in mid-August he was told his heart was nearly normal.
Mitchell walked all right. When he dared, he jogged a little and banged a tennis ball against the
ON AUGUST 15, his doctor okaved him for football with the stipulation he had to come out after any long run. Grout's favorite play, 64-special, with Mitchell running off tackle from wingback, went so well Mitchell was on the bench considerable.
In basketball he was okayed for six minutes of action in every quarter. He was a three-year regular in this as well as football and as a senior, teamed with the late Gerold Nold, to win the state prep doubles championship at Emporia.
He was named first team all state in football, but only three schools were interested. Oklahoma, Texas and Wichita. Kansas and Kansas State offered basketball scholarships.
He finally decided on Texas because a former Arkansas Citian, Harry Newman, had gone to UT and was living in Austin at the time.
MITCHELL OPENED his freshman season by scoring four touchdowns against Randolph Field. This was in 1942 Playing a class ahead of him as a varsity blocking back was Don Fambrough, later to be a foe at Kansas and now one of his assistant coaches here.
Service duty called after one semester at Austin and Mitchell found himself playing halfback for the Third Infantry Regiment in Germany.
He faced several problems when he returned home a first lieutenant. Tatum met him at Ponca City and invited him to spring practice. Mitchell was not enamoured at the prospect of playing the Sliding-T, which Big Jim was to install for the 1946 season.
"I wanted to be a little closer to home, too." Mitchell reveals. "Actually, I liked Texas and would like to have gone back. But I would have liked it better had the school been at Norman.
"Then, too, they had a tailback named Bobby Layne and I figured my first-string chances were pretty slim. Still I liked that single wing and had never seen the T in any form."
MITCHELL THOUGHT he'd made a mistake for sure when he reported to Norman. Tatum was asking all former single-wing tailbacks to try their hand at quarterback.
He found he was the sixth-best passer among six candidates. The pass and the handoff filled the first
Bill Jennings, backfield coach — Jennings, the newest member of the Jayhawks staff, was head coach at Nebraska last year. Jennings joins one of his former pupils, Jack Mitchell, whom he tutored at Oklahoma.
He tried to return to halfback, but one evening Wilkinson, whom Tatum had brought from Iowa PreFlight as one of his assistants struck the chord that pointed him toward All America and, at the same time, ushered in OU's reign of football terror with quarterbacks as the principal villains.
Bernie Taylor, backfield coach — Taylor came to KU last year from the head coaching post at Riverside, Calif., high school. He was previously backfield tutor for three years at Wichita, being associated a year there with Fambrough.
"He walked in with me one night after practice." Mitchell recalls and pointed out that the Split-T quarterback actually was much like a single-wing tailback. He was the important man in the backfield.
He was an All Conference selection in 1946 and 1947 and co-captained KU's first bowl club, the 1948 edition which played in the Orange Bowl.
few days of drills and Mitchell wasn't happy.
BERNHARDT WAS line coach at Wichita two seasons before Mitchell moved up from an assistantship at Texas Tech. The latter retained him there and the pair moved on to Arkansas for a three-year stint before assuming the reins at Kansas.
Wayne Replogle, in-state recruiting and promotion assistant — Replogle concentrates on instate recruiting, filling an autumn-long travel schedule. He also films game movies for football and basketball and narrates KU's quarterback club circuit.
He began his coaching career as line assistant under Dick Godlove at Washburn in 1949 and 1950, coming out of a three-year association with the Chicago Rockets and Brooklyn Dodgers in the professional ranks.
Don Fambrough, line coach — Formerly a freshman coach here for three seasons, Fambrough moved up as offensive line aide last year. He is regarded as one of the finest linemen in KU history, graduating in 1948.
MITCHELL ENDED spring practice as the number two hand behind Dave Wallace, who he calls, "physically the best Split-T quarterback I've seen . . . He could out-run, out-pass and out-kick all of us, and was tough."
Tom Triplett, freshman coach — Triplett is in his second year as head freshman coach, formerly a varsity line assistant. Triplett was an All Southern guard at Western Kentucky.
JENNINGS WAS A wingback as a player for Oklahoma and he still holds Sooner records for most passes caught in a season and most receiving yards for a career.
HE WAS AN ALL CIC halfback at Emporia, his alma mater, in 1946.
A brief rundown on each assistant is a follows:
Floyd Temple, scout squad assistant — Doubling as head baseball coach. Temple is a ten-year member of the Jayhawker athletic department.
Wallace was still number one when the season opened against Army. But the second team came in
"I started thinking about that. When we got to the option play I knew he was right."
Seven Jayhawk Assistant Coaches Give Aid for Successful Program
He has been varsity baseball coach nine seasons. He was a third baseman on KU's 1949 Big Seven championship team.
It takes more than just a head coach and a group of 11 players to produce a successful football team. Although they are seldom publicized, Coach Jack Mitchell's seven assistants are indispensible to the Kansas football program.
(Continued from page 1)
Cabrera -
A brief rundown on each assistant is a follows. George Bernhardt, line coach — Tomorrow's homecoming match will recall to Bernhardt the homecoming game of Lawrence high school this year. At that game, Judy, his daughter, was named Lawrence High queen.
"The time trials this fall marked the first time since last spring I've had a clock on me" Cabrera said. "This long lavoy helped.
(Continued from page 1)
year, when he placed 186th in the league and 65th in the NCAA meet, steams from a rest from active running.
"When I returned to school I wasn't tired of running."
Cabrera, a two-miler, missed the outdoor track season last spring because of a hip injury. He went through a series of heat and physical therapy treatments here and at the KU medical center in Kansas City during the outdoor schedule.
"The coach was sort of sore at me all spring, I guess he thought I was gold-bricking," recalled Cabrera. Easton is not unhappy with Cabrera now.
to score both touchdowns in a narrow 20-14 defeat and started the next game against Texas A&M.
The seconds never were seconds again. Wallace hurt both knees early the next season and Mitchell was in for keeps as the Sooners twice tied Kansas for the old Big Six title, then started their streak of outright crowns in 1948.
Mitchell earned high reputation as a nifty runner. He is the only quarterback in league history to win the individual rushing championship.
Upon graduation from OU, Mitchell became head coach at Blackwell, Okla., high school, where he guided his first club to a 9-2 season. He was called to Tulsa as backfield coach in 1950, then served two seasons in the same capacity at Texas Tech under DWitt Weaver.
PITTSBURGH — (UPI) — Big Daddy Lipscomb, defensive tackle for the Pittsburgh Steelers, never attended college, but learned to play football in the U.S. Marines.
Harness Crowd
Mitchell is married to the former Jeanne Kincheloe of Arkansas City. They have two sons, Jack 12, and Jud. 8.
WESTBURY, N. Y. —(UPI)—The largest crowd ever to witness a harshe race in the United States was 54,861 for the 1980 running of the Roosevelt International at Roosevelt Raceway.
Leatherneck Grad
BALTIMORE—(UPI) —The Baltimore Clippers, newest entry in the American Hockey league, are coached by former New York Ranger captain Red Sullivan.
New Allegiance
Never Know
DETROIT — (UPI) — Detroit Lions linebacker Max Messner was considered a better basketball prospect than a football player when he attended Ashland (Ohio) high school.
... CESSNA 150
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