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University Dally Kansan, April 6.1983
Sports
Owens has last hurrah at banquet
By JAN BOUTTE Sports Editor
Ted Owens called it his last hurrah.
Ted Owens caused it his last hurr. Through the tears shed at last night's basketball banquet, it wasn't hard to find the cheers and the heartfelt good words for Owens from those involved with Kansas basketball.
IT WAS A NIGHT of thank yous and glowing compliments, and there was no confusion as to how the gathering of about 250, including team members, their families, and Williams Fund supporters, felt about Monte Johnson's decision to dump the coaching staff.
Owens' talk was riddled with jokes, including some about his own situation. He explained his lateness by saying he missed his unemployment checks were long.
Some compared the litany of praise for Owens to a wake. All were there to eulogize the late great KU coach, who smiled through the evening until the very end, when he told the gathering. "I don't know who will be the new coach at KU, but no one could ever love this place more than I do."
IN HIS FIRST public appearance since receiving his walking papers on March 21, Owens listened as coaches, players and lovers of KU basketball reminisced about the Owens years. And when it finally came time for the featured speaker, Owens talked of the players that he had coached and the changes that he had seen in his 23 years at KU, 19 of them as head coach.
Johnson did not attend the banquet. The banquet, in the Kansas Union Ballroom, was very much like a wake, with many taking advantage of Owens' and his wife's first public appearance to offer their condolences.
Although the banquet usually puts the players in the spotlight, they moved to the background last night. The team awards were presented, but only one team received all of their turns at the lectern to have their say about the topic of the night, Owens.
KELLY KNIGHT AND CARl Henry shared the most outstanding performer
Kelly Knight received the Bill Bridges Award for most rebounds, and team captains Jeff Dishman and Mark Sommers were honored. Sommers spoke for the team and gave Owens a plaque.
award, named after Forrest "Phog" Allen, and Tad Boyle received the other award voted on by the team, the "Dutch" Lonborg Award for inspirational play.
As each member of the coaching staff spoke, he talked of the future of the players that had been brought to and coached at KU. Their remarks ran true to their message, but they were not about the firing, yet positive about the team and Owens and the future.
"Don't for a minute think that when this team wins the Big Eight championship next year I won't be sitting
somewhere taking some of the credit for it "I'll said.
OWEN'S ALSO SPOKE to the players about their future. "I hope you'll have a great team, he said. I hope you're going to be successful we've been if we had been here with you."
Jo Jo White, in his quiet way, spoke of Owens' influence on his life, both as a player and as a coach.
Before Owens spoke, Jim Carothers, an associate professor of English, presented a poem, which has become a part of the basketball banquet in the past few years. Like the rest of the banquet, the poem is usually dedicated to the players. But this one, written along the lines of "Casey at the Bat," reviewed the highlights of Owens' career and summed up with, "It's bittersweet in Jayhawk land — 'cause Ted is moving on."
In his first public appearance since being fired, Ted Owens talked about his years at the University of Kansas to team members, their parents and KU supporters at the basketball banquet last night in the Kansas Union Ballroom.
Jo Jo White is standout in crowd of applicants
I wish that I could get my hands on the list of applicants for the KU basketball coaching position. I'd put five stars by Jo Jo White's name.
Today is the deadline for applications for the position which opened up when Monte Johnson fired Ted Owens and the rest of his staff.
A lot of names are on the list. At last report from Lonnie Rose, the chairman
of the search committee, more than 40 had been considered. We can speculate all day about who they all are.
THE LATEST RUMOR was fueled by a Kansas City Times story that reported that New York Nets coach Larry Brown was checked into a Kansas City hotel in a room registered to M. Johnson, supposedly to check into security. For now, no one is taking so much just add Brown to the list of possibilities.
NO MONTE, there is no Santa Claus. I'm an eternal optimist, but even I have become reconciled to the fact that Dean Smith isn't busting down the door to come back to Kansas. KU has a lot to offer, but it isn't coaching nirvana, especially with the handy hatchet man around.
Some of them were hopefully placed on the list by the search committee or Monte Johnson. Others actually applied for the job. I'm glad I'm not on that search committee. I wouldn't want to call coaches who fit the specifications that Johnson set out in his coaching style, just so that they could laugh in my ear.
What KU does have to offer is a solid program, supposedly a respectable amount of money, a good university and tradition with a capital T.
That seems like an attractive offer, but Johnson is looking for the kind of client that wants to see you.
White stands out from the crowd because he wants to coach at KU. He's part of the Jayhawk basketball tradition. He cares.
THERE ARE OBVIOUS short-term advantages to making White the head coach. With only a week left before national signing day, anyone else would be in a no-win situation. But White could salvage the two recruits who are waiting on a coaching decision to make their final decision.
Curtis Aiken, the Buffalo recruit whom White was visiting when he got the pink slip long distance, has made it to the final rounds, stays, he'll be in Lawrence in the lawry.
Jim Pelton, the signed 6-8 forward from California, should also be saved with Jo Je's hiring.
Another advantage would be the assurance that the players already here would stay here. Even without a recruiting year, that's enough to take care of next year, and maybe even the next.
ENOUGH OF THE convenience of hiring White. On top of all those factors, White is plainly just a good coach.
No one could contest that he knows basketball. From his KU playing days to the Olympic team, to the Boston Red Sox, he played for and coached with the best.
No one could get away with trying to say that he isn't a good recruiter. Just take a look at the talent that he has in his pipeline. You can see that he has been back in Lawrence.
White is a bit short of the requirements in experience. Johnson wants someone who is a proven winner in big time college basketball. The assistant job at KU is White's first coaching job. He was straight from the pros to KU Strike one.
JOHNSON CAN TRY to get around making a commitment by hiring someone else and try to keep White on as an assistant. And if he can sign the kind of coach he says he wants, Johnson must commit to it, and commitment to KU by doing just that.
White is black. That's something new for KU, but just about anything is since there have only been five KU head coaches in the history of the sport.
But why should White, or KU, settle for second best? In White, KU can get a loyal, knowledgeable, young and experienced player on the basket球 tradition at Kansas.
Golf team places 5th at Mizzou
By BILL HORNER Sports Writer
The rain ruined KU's parade
The Kansas women's golf team finished fifth in the rain-shortened Missouri Invitational in Columbia, Mo., last week, which was cut short from 34 holes to 18 holes because of soggy conditions.
Assistant coach Kent Weiser said that if the tournament schedule had gone as planned, the Jayhawks would have finished higher.
"Everyone was disappointed that we didn't get to finish the tournament, because we were in position to take third place," Weiser said.
THE SEVEN TEAMS were scheduled to play 27 teams each day. After 18 place, Kansas wgs in fifth place. Nine holes later, at the end of the first day, the Jayhawks had moved up to fourth place.
The next round, scheduled for 27 holes, was wiped out by rain. But because nine-hole scores could not be counted under NCAA rules, final scores were reverted to 18 hole scores. The result — fifth place.
"Our attitude and our enthusiasm was high," Weiser said. "It's really too bad we couldn't finish."
Missouri won the event with a score of 313. Nebraska was second a 320, and Stephens College finished at 334. And in the final, while Kansas finished at 333.
KU'S PATTY COE tied for third place individually in the tournament with a 77. Jan Stanford of Nebraska won medalist honors with a 75.
Other Kansas scores were Bev Boozer, 83; Maureen Kelly, 85; Solveig Thorsteindtolin, 87; and Leaen Loeffholz, 93.
"I was pleased with Patty's scores," Weiser said. "She did a fine job, but I'm not sure why our other scores were so high."
The Missouri tournament was KU's second of the year. The team played at place elsewhere the season at the Rayburn Classic in Jasper, Texas.
Women of GSP-Corbin
You're invited to attend the Career Fair
Tonight 6:45-8:30 p.m. GSP Cafeteria
Undecided about a major? Stop by the Career Fair and pick up some information and speak with representatives from various schools and departments.
BRITCHES CORNER
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