SPORTS
UNIVERSITY DAILY KANSAN
Wednesday, July 1. 1992
7
Daron J. Bennett / KANSAN
Rhain Buth, Wichita junior, smashes a return in his match during the Mainline Classic tennis tournament. Buth was playing yesterday afternoon on the courts near Allen Field House. Buth, who was unranked in the tournament, lost to third-ranked Ivan Baron. Plantation, Fla., 7-5, 6-4.
'Hawks begin doubles play
By Kristi Klepper
Kansan staff writer
Doubles play starts this afternoon, and singles action continues in the Mainline Tennis Classic at the Allen Field House courts.
Mike Wolf, who played for Kansas from 1983 to 1987, defeated No 10 seed Rob Kresberg of New York 6-3, 6-3 in his first main draw match yesterday. Wolf won four matches to qualify for the main draw.
Wolf won the Mainline tournament in 1990 and was the USTA Segment IV champion in 1989 and 1990.
"On a given day, he is as good as anybody in the tournament," said Kansas coach Scott Perleman.
No. 1 tournament seed Oren Motevassal of Israel defeated Mark Avidon of Roswell, Ga.
in the first match. 7-6, 6-3.
Perelman, Mainline tournament director, filled three main draw wild-card spots with Kansas junior Rhain Buth and former Kansas players Paul Garin and Rafael Rangel. All three lost their first matches in the main draw.
Junior Brian Harris was the Jayhawk who advanced the best in qualifying play. Harris won two matches before losing to Andre Kawasaki in S.C., wontent on to qualify for the main draw.
Harris will team with senior Bertnall, and Garvin will pair with junior Ian Goodman in
"Harris played well but ran out of gas in the third match," Perelman said.
"I think the tournament's wide open," Perelman said. "My feeling is that there's going to be a lot of upsets along the way."
Kansas bids coach farewell after 40 years and one day of service
By Randy Rosetta
Special to the Kansan
When the workday comes to a close today in the Kansas Athletic Department, one of the University's longest, most productive and more memorable tenures will also ease to a close.
Floyd Temple, assistant athletic director, will retire, completing a career that spans precisely 40 years and one day at the University of Kansas.
Temple, 66, was recognized last week in a retirement ceremony sponsored by the department.
"I really don't know if I deserve all these kind words," Temple said after being introduced by Bob Frederick, athletic director. "I just made a habit of showing up for 40 years and working as hard as I could."
Temple was hired in 1952 as an assistant to Duck London, Kansas' athletic director at that time. He was the baseball coach from 1954 to 1981, compiling a 437-396-7 record. He also served as an assistant football coach from 1958 to 1966.
tor, offered him the job.
Kansas never captured a conference championship under Temple. Because of budget limitations Temple was limited to four baseball scholarships until 1975, and he did not have assistant coaches most of the time. Temple said much of his recruiting was conducted through campus tryouts during the fall of each year and that his coaches were graduate assistants or student volunteers.
Temple, who played both baseball and football at Kansas in the late '40s, moved into his role as assistant athletic director in 1981, when Bob Marcum, then the athletic direc-
In 1975, the amount of scholarships increased from four to 13. The Kansas baseball program had begun to prosper under Temple's guidance. In the four years before he stepped down as coach, the Jayhawks were 127-62-2, including three seasons of 30 victories or more. Those three years still stand as the best in Kansas baseball history.
"It was amazing that as soon as I got more scholarships, I became a better coach," Temple said. "It was tough to leave at that point, but I'd seen a lot of coaches who had stuck around a few years too long, and it affected the way they ran their programs. I didn't want to put myself in that position. Now I can look back and thank Bob Marcus for convincing me to leave before I got fired."
Temple ranks third with 40 years of service behind legendary basketball coach Forrest "Phog" Allen and long-time trainer Dean Naismith.
Temple said there was one down side to his job. He watched a lot of coaches come and go, something he said he never got used to, especially the firing of two close friends—Don Fambrough and Ted Owens, who coached for 19 years.
"Athletics is a very difficult business sometimes," he said. "I understand the importance of winning and losing, but it still bershes me when people like Don Fambrough and Ted Owens, who both devoted their lives to the University and this Athletic Department, are treated the way that they were. Coaches are human beings, and sometimes in the changing of the guard it seems like they are only seen as statistics."
Fambrough, who coached Kansas from
1971 to 74 and again from 1978 to 81, said he was honored to be complimented by Temple.
"If someone with the loyalty and commitment of Floyd feels that way, then I've got to be flattered because he is what the University of Kansas is all about," Fambridge said. "They don't come any more loyal than Floyd Temple."
Temple alsowitnessed the arrival ofcurrent coaches Glen Mason and Roy Williams, two people whom he sees as vital to thefuture of Kansas athletics.
"I just can't say enough about those two people," he said. "They have brought a high level of success to this University and have done it within the rules. If this Athletic Department is going to continue to grow, it would be nice if those guys both have a 40-year celebration like mine."
Williams indicated that his feelings for Temple were mutual.
"When I was hired I was not exactly a household name, and even people within the department weren't sure how I'd do." Williams said. "But Floyd let me know right from the start that he was going to support me. That meant a lot to me then, and it still does."
As part of the ceremony Friday, Temple received several gifts. The most notable was an announcement by Frederick that the baseball locker rooms in the new addition to the Parrott Athletic Center will be named in Temple's honor. Temple was inducted to the University of Kansas Athletic Department Hall of Fame during the 1991-92 basketball season.
Jayhawks' undrafted underclassmen set sights on '93 Big Eight baseball title
By Randy Rosetta
Special to the Kansan
For three days, former Kansas baseball pitcher Curtis Schmidt waited for the phone to ring.
hurts."
When it finally did, Schmidt learned that he had been drafted by the Montreal Expos in the 41st round of the annual June Amateur Baseball Draft.
"It was getting kind of late in the draft, so I was just a little bit nervous," said Schmidt, who was assigned to the Expos' Class A Jamestown, N. Y., club." It was getting up early in the morning and staying close to the phone, making sure that nobody tied up the line."
For the Kansas underclassmanwho had hoped to receive a similar call, the news was not so good. As the draft wound to a close, none of the juniors on the Kansas team had been selected by the 28 major league teams.
Three underclassmen were projected as likely draft picks by Kansas coach Dave Bingham; pitcher Jimmy Walker, catcher Jie Niemeyer and second baseman Jeff Berblinger, who Bingham said had the best chance at being chosen.
Berblerian realized his chances were minimal because a broken thumb forced him to mish 24 games in 1992. Bingham said that Niemier and Walker both suffered sub-par seasons in 92, but all three players still were contacted by scouts who inquired what amount of money or incentives would lure them away from Kansas.
"All your life what you dream about is playing pro ball," Berlinger said. "And although I had a feeling I wouldn't go this year, it still
"All three had several teams that probably would have drafted them had the monetary numbers been right," Bingham said. "But in a sense, these kids put themselves in an unsignable position because they recognized that KU offers a chance at a very good education. It became a matter of sign-ability rather than simply ability."
The three players have at least three semesters remaining before they graduate, Bingham said. He also said that in jumping at the chance of professional baseball, many players fail to complete what little time in school they may have left.
back to school the incentive just isn't there."
"If you get a kid who's getting close to finishing a degree, then it becomes a matter of whether or not he wants to interrupt his education and devote at least three or four years to minor league baseball and what it takes to keep moving up the professional ladder," Bingham said. "A lot of kids will jump at the chance to play, and when then it's to go
To a program fighting to gain respect, being nearly shut out in the draft might have been a step backward. But Bingham said the reasons the scouts shied away from Kansas players could prove to be a boost to the program.
"This is the first year where we've had kids who have let the scouts know that they value their educational possibilities at KU as much as they do reaching the higher levels of baseball," Bingham said. "That's exactly what we've been shooting for, and from that standpoint, this draft was critical to the overall development of our program."
Berblerink says he is confident that when next year's June draft rolls around, the call will come. But first, he says, he will be counted on heavily next season when Kansas tries to win its first ever Big Eight Conference title.
"Last season was a real disappointment for me personally and a lot of the players who I started here with," he said. "When we first got to KU, we set a goal of improving the program enough so that we'd be in the tournament by now. Last year was a step back instead of progress, so I know I feel like there is still something left for us to prove. I feel like I've proven myself enough to be drafted next year, so that pressure is off."