Page 6
University Daily Kansan
Monday, Sept. 17, 1962
By Roy Miller
Playboy, a magazine which is better known for its display of feminine limbs than for its football analyses, selected KU's 1961 football team as the best 11 the nation. In a similar pre-season poll this year, however, the Playboy prognosticators have changed their attitudes toward KU.
KU, according to Playboy, will break even this season, winning five of ten games. The Playboy swamis say Kansas State will win only one less contest than KU.
KU IS prophesied to place fourth in the conference race. Defending champion Colorado is picked to finish last.
Flayboy 1961 "number one team" finished the season with a 7-3-1 season, placed second in the Big Eight and was unranked nationally.
Perhaps it was the early losses KU suffered last fall that discouraged the publication's editors from giving the Jayhawks a high rating again this year.
AND, TOO, they discovered that Curtis McClinton and John Hadi graduated. In all fairness to the magazine's integrity, their 1961 selection was no doubt made before Bert Coan injured his leg in spring drills.
Coach Jack Mitchell has termed his team a "young" one. They may be young, but we don't feel they're so young as to place fourth in the Big Eight. Neither do we feel the Buffs will land in the cellar position.
Taking a look at some pre-season polls of higher repute, KU will finish anywhere from 11th in the nation to fourth in the Big Eight. Some of these same polls, though, have been known to be wrong. It's a rarity if their predictions are true, even if that's the name of the magazine.
ONE OF THE EARLIEST polls, and possibly one of the more authoritative, Street and Smith's, 1962 Football Yearbook, does not include Kansas in their choice of the nation's top twelve teams. Missouri, in the number 11 position, is the lone Big Eight representative on the list.
Last year, Kansas was Street and Smith's number two team in the country.
In a sectional analysis this year by Bob Hurt, sports editor of the Topeka Capital-Journal, Kansas is picked to finish third. Writes Hurt, "Kansas, which saw seven of its 1961 luminaries graduate into professional ranks (since, several of that number have been eliminated for the pro teams), has little reason to contend for the title except for halfback Gale Sayers, a gold-plated recruit."
THE STREET AND SMITH projected league finish is: Missouri, Iowa State, KU, Oklahoma, Nebraska, Colorado, Oklahoma State
Nebraska Coach Shows Optimism
LINCOLN, Neb.—Special—After the shakedown cruise of early fall drills at Nebraska, Coach Bob Devaney and his staff are not attempting to hide an optimistic approach to the football season.
The first game finds the Cornhuskers going against the University of South Dakota in Lincoln Saturday, then to Ann Arbor for a contest with one of the Big Ten's top teams, the University of Michigan.
Devaney is a believer in the twounit system. He is convinced that, barring injuries to key players, his squad is deep enough to permit this type of battle plan.
"We know our players are hitting, there is deep-rooted enthusiasm and if we have sufficient natural talents in actual combat, we'll surprise some people." Devanay said.
The Cornhuskers have more speed in the backfield than a year ago plus Bill (Thunder) Thornton, a solid fullback who has led the Cornhusker offense the past two seasons.
and Kansas State. ("Enthusiasm — not victories — continues to be Kansas State's most important product as the Wildcats have failed to win a Big Eight game in two seasons under energetic Doug Weaver.")
***
Street and Smith's pre-season "Best in the Nation" pick is Alabama, one that differs with many of the other pre-season polls.
Dell football yearbook has KU winning six of the ten games on the coming schedule. KU will finish in fourth place in the league battle, according to the magazine.
TRUE MAGAZINE'S yearbook names Kansas as the league runnerup behind Missouri. The next three teams are Iowa State, Nebraska and Oklahoma.
The Saturday Evening Post rates KU as fourteenth in the nation, two levels behind Missouri, the only other loop representative on the list.
In the magazine's September cover story article, the league analysis shows Nebraska as runnerup to Missouri, followed by Oklahoma, KU and Iowa State.
PARADE, a Sunday newspaper supplement, gives KU the highest national rating it received in pre-season polls. Parade names KU as 11th in the nation. It describes KU as "always well coached, aggressive."
No other Big Eight team is ranked above KU on the list, and Oklahoma, the only other Big Eight school on the 20-team Parade list, fills the 19th position.
This Week Magazine, another Sunday newspaper insert, lists Missouri as the strongest team in the Midlands and considers Iowa State, Oklahoma and Kansas as "strong teams" in the section.
THE THIS WEEK pre-season guesses show Iowa State to be Missouri's toughest opponent.
One-hundred and thirty-four area sportswriters and sportscasters, in a poll conducted by Don Pierce, KU sports publicity director, favor Missouri for the loop crown.
Their votes placed the remaining teams in this order: KU, OU, I-State, Nebraska, Colorado, O-State and K-State.
Mitchell Calls Scrimmage The Worst We've Had'
Brooks Injured; Out for Season
By Steve Clark
Mitchell said this week's main emphasis would be on pass defense. "We're not rushing the passer. Our pass defense is getting worse instead of better."
Following what Coach Jack Mitchell termed "the worst scrimmage we've had," the Kansas Jayhawkers move into their final week of practice in preparation for Saturday's season opener against Texas Christian University in Memorial Stadium.
"WERE JUST BAD." Mitchell said, shaking his head. "We would have been better off if we had not even scrimmaged."
He indicated that there would be little "shuffling of players" this week. "It's getting too late to shuffle. We've got to find 11 boys to go with. Besides, we're about shuffled out. When we move a guy up, he looks poor; when we move a guy down he looks good."
The final intra-squad scrimmage was held Saturday at the stadium with the Blues (the first and second teams) defeating the Whites (the first and fourth teams) 27-12.
AS AN EXAMPLE, the Jayhawk-ler coach used sophomore halfback Gale Sayers, who moved from the third unit back to the first unit for the scrimmage session. Sayers made several long runs, but buffed often.
"Sayers is a fumbler," Mitchell said. "I don't know what we are going to do about him. We don't have any room for fumblers on our ball club."
He said that a "culmination" of the three scrimmage sessions showed that the Jayhawkers were slow, poor defensively, fumble-prone and "out of shape."
MITCHELL CITED reserve quarterback Brian Palmer, Winnipeg, Manitoba, Canada, junior, and reserve end Andy Graham, Lawrence senior, as having outstanding scrimmages.
ON THE MALLS SHOPPING CENTER
LOST FOR THE YEAR?—Fulback Willis Brooks was possibly lost for the year during Saturday's scrimmage session when he reinjured his shoulder. Brooks' loss leaves KU with only two experienced fullbacks.
Two men were injured during the scrimmage with one possibly being lost for the year.
Palmer led the reserves to two touchdowns while displaying a strong passing arm. Graham showed crisp blocking and tackling throughout the two-hour session.
Wildcats 'Where They Should Be'
man, who has also been injured, did not scrimmage Saturday, but was expected to be in pads this week.
FULLBACK WILLIS BROOKS,
Hutchinson junior, reinjured a
dislocated shoulder. Brooks' loss leaves
the fullback corps with only two
experienced players, Ken Coleman,
Wichita minor, and Armand Baughman,
Hutchinson junior, who are
bidding for a starting berth. Cole-
The other injured player was center Mike O'Brien, a 6-5, 218-pound sophomore from Liberal. O'Brien injured a leg and had to be carried from the field with a stretcher. His injury is expected to keep him out of action for a couple of weeks.
MANHATTAN—Special-With a little more than a week of preparation left Coach Doug Weaver feels his Kansas State Wildcats are just about where he thought they would be.
"It's too bad about Brooks," Mitchell said. "He was coming along real well."
There have been disappointments and enlightenments of course since the opening of practice August 30. At K-State, however, the better things outweigh the misfortunes.
And one of the finer things has been the shift of Willis Crenshaw to fullback. "Tm extremely pleased with the way Crenshaw has fit in," Weaver said. "He does a lot of things naturally. We did not know for sure how he would do, but he has been impressive at both line-backing and running."
Crenshaw, who was an all-Big Eight selection at end as a sophomore, was dropped from the squad for disciplinary reasons last year. Now as a junior, he appears ready both physically and mentally.
Welcome Students
Students: Be sure to apply for your student discount card entitling you to a 10% discount on all your dry cleaning.
10% Discount Card
- No finer dry cleaning at any price
- No extra charge for 1-hour service
842 Mass.
VI 3-9594