Rodgers now target for nasty letters
Fan mail of all varieties
Pepper Rodgers, whose team made a complete reversal in 1969 from their 9-1 record and first place conference finish the year before, has been the target of nasty letter writers of late. Although he hasn't received as many as last year, he has been called everything from "a man who is doing his thing," to one "not worth a pimple." In a usual Rodgers fashion, Pepper takes the barbs in stride.
Kansas football coach Pepper Rodgers gets letters.
He received one recently from an irate Missouri fan. Kansas was humiliated, 69-21, by Missouri, so Rodgers wasn't certain what the man was mad about. Still, the man told Rodgers he was "not worth a pimple."
Pepper answered in typical Rodgers' fashion:
"Dear Sir:
Dec. 5
1969 KANSAN 7
"I regret to inform you someone has been writing nasty letters and signing your name to them." . . .
Pepper Rodgers essayed one of the most remarkable riches-to-rags epics in the history of college coaching this fall. Last year's team was 9-1 before losing the Orange Bowl to Penn State in the famous 12-man game.
Rodgers' team won one, lost nine this fall. It was the first time since 1908 a Big Eight Conference team had fallen from first to last in one season.
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But Pepper has not changed. He says he received fewer letters this year than last. "I got more nasty letters when we were winning than when we lost," he says. "Everybody wanted to tell me how to keep winning."
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The 9-1 to 1-9 fall, however, is in keeping with Rodgers' personality.
As for the season, he turned serious—just for a moment.
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As he says, "How can you be Comeback Coach of the Year if you go along 5-5, 5-5 all the time?"
"I think I needed it," he said.
"Like a lot of young people—I'm young in the coaching profession—we all have a tendency to think we have all the answers. Success has come so easily.
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"Well, not easily, but it seemed easy after it was over. But this will make me a better man. It'll make me appreciate all the good things that have happened and all the good things that are going to happen."
Rodgers' looks at the Jayhawks, plummet "like a death in the family. Everyone says they know how it feels, but they really don't."
The 38-year old coach came to Kansas in 1967 after 10 years as an assistant coach at Georgia Tech, his alma mater, Air Force, Florida and UCLA.
"The biggest difference in this year and last," he says, "was momentum and competition for positions."
Rodgers remains optimistic, and for the first time he's excited about his upcoming freshmen. He thinks there will be competition for positions on his team next year, something that did not exist this fall.
The last two years have been topsy-turvet, but Pepper says:
One thing Rodgers cannot tolerate is sympathy. He says the nicest compliment he received all year came from a 16-year old boy, who told his mother:
"I'm not sorry for Pepper Rodgers. He's his own man and he does his own thing."
He took a 2-7-1 team, lost his first three games and broke out with a 5-5 record his first year.
"I'm going to retain my positive attitude. I always compare it to starting a golf match. You think you can par every hole, but you
"I've got a lot of vindictiveness in me. I'd hate to be playing me next year."
He grins when he says it, but he adds, "And that's the truth."
Reflecting back on this year, especially the horrible shellacking by Missouri, Rodgers says:
don't. I've never shot par in my life."
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