University Daily Kansan, February 23, 1983
Page 3
Officials worry about chewing fad
By MICHAEL BECK Staff Reporter
Staff Reporter
--salt:
But Lewis also said his sales of chewing tobacco and snuff had leveled off.
The students congregate in the hallways or in the asphalt-and-brick sanctuary of the smoking area at Lawrence High School and spit in cups.
Their trademarks are cowboy boots, baseball or cowboy hats and bulged
"I'm not sure why I chew," one student says. "There's a lot of people who don't chew."
Dipping snuff and chewing tobacco are growing popular with teenagers, and although there are no statistics, increased sales and the addition of new brands of chewing tobacco tell the story.
DAVID MCPAUL, marketing director for Dillon Stores Inc. in Hutchinson, said Monday that the trend started about three years ago when Walt Garrison, former running back for the Dallas Cowboys, testified to Americans that a pin between the cheek and sum felt good.
McPaul said that increased demand lured three new brands into the market, but that the biggest sellers were still selling their products chewing to bacco and soak for snuff.
But the demand for chewing tobacco and snuff has leveled off in the last year, he said, and sales have always been seasonal. He said he sold the most chewing tobacco in the summer and during harvest.
Phil Childers, manager of the Heart of America Tobacco and Candy Co. in Topeka, said he agreed that the seasons influenced sales of chewing tobacco, but that new brands stimulated sales to teenagers.
Jim Lewis, manager of Rusty's IGA Inc., said sales increases for his stores in past years were due to Garrison's advertising campaign.
"I THINK THESE ADS on smokeless tobacco appealed to young kids," he said.
Jim Roberts, manager of Rusty's IGA at 23rd and Louisiana streets, said the biggest sellers at his store were Red Man, selling for about 90 cents a pouch, and Skool, selling for about 98 cents a can.
Because of new federal taxes on tobacco, he said, prices are higher for chewing tobacco and snuff than they were a few weeks ago. Normally, he
He said older people were the largest consumers of chewing tobacco at his store, and by use teenagers was just a passing fad.
said, there is a 20 percent mark-up on chewing tobacco and snuff.
passing off School officials say that though it might be just a fad, the habit is less than ideal.
than been.
BEFORE SCHOOL, DURING lunch hour and between classes, they said, students empty their joys of chewing tobacco, snuff and the resinous end-product.
"It's terrible. They spit anywhere and everywhere," said Robert Lowe, a school psychologist. "And there's nothing you can do about it."
Brad Tate, Lawrence High School principal, said tobacco chewing among students increased tremendously about three years ago and was still common.
School administrators can do .. curbching in schools, he said.
"We try to treat it as we do smoking," he said. "We get them to go to a specified area."
To punish students, Lowe said, "You have to catch them in the act, and if they spit as they go by a sink, that's hard to do."
LOCAL DENTISTS SAY they had not noticed the increase in tobacco and
snuff chewing among their patients. Older chewers develop stains on their teeth.
Stephen Oakson, a Lawrence dentist, said he had not seen any patients in Lawrence who chewed, but at Holton High School in Holton, where he practices once a week, he had seen several cases among older students.
Phil Falkenstein, another Lawrence dentist, said he had not noticed problems from chewing tobacco, but he detected problems sometime in the future.
Richard Knubley, a periodontist, said dentists were expecting a definite increase in cancer due to chewing tobacco and snuff.
Gerald Hartman, a radiation therapist at the University of Kansas said there was an increase in cancer due to tobacco, would not show up for 30 or 40 years.
HE SAID THAT chewing tobacco could cause cancer of the cheek and lip, but that the use of radiation had been stopped stopping the cancer in its early stages.
"Lip cancer is easily taken care of with radiation, but with the use of surgery, there's always a danger of missing some of the cancer," he said.
Sid Wilson to leave KU for new position
By ANDREW HARTLEY Staff Reporter
Sid Wilson, KU sports information director since July 1980, will leave the University in two weeks to take a job with the department of the University of South Carolina.
Wilson said yesterday that effective March 6, he would become the assistant athletic director for media relations at South Carolina, a position in which he will serve the sports information department and television and radio contracts.
The move will reunit Wilson with his former boss at KU, Bob Marcum, who left his job as KU athletic director in January 1982 to become the director of athletics at South Carolina.
"SID HAS A GOOD background and is used to be around good programs. And I recognize his contributions in the media area," Marcum said yesterday.
The position that Wilson will take, Marcum said, did not exist before it was offered to Wilson. However, Marcum said the new position was necessary for his program and was not created solely for Wilson.
Marcum said that because South Carolina was not part of a college conference, it needed more power in leadership and needed an add the new position.
Wilson, 33, took over the job of KU sports information department last 1809, replacing Don Baker, who resigned to enter private business.
Wilson came to KU from Baylor University in Waco, Texas.
Wilson
where he was the sports information director. He also was assistant sports information director at the University of Oklahoma from 1973-77 and sports editor of the newspaper in Ardmore, Okla., from 1972-73.
AUTHOUGH THE DUTIES of the job at South Carolina are similar to his duties here, Wilson said the new position was a step up for him.
"From a career and financial standpoint, it's a situation I couldn't turn down." Wilson said.
He called his job with the KU athletic department interesting, frustrating, trying at times and sometimes unpleasant — but always a learning experience.
One of the most unpleasant experiences of his job, Wilson said, was fielding questions about the removal of a teammate as head football coach last December.
Wilson, who has always worked for a college in a large conference, said he would have to adjust to working for South Carolina, a major independent college.
He said he had only positive thoughts about working for former athletic director Jim Lessig for six months and athletic director Monte Johnson,
LESSIG, WHO IS now the commissioner of the Mid America Conference based in Columbus, Ohio, said yesterday. "In the short time I spent at the University of Kansas, I was terribly impressed with Sid.
"I think the way we showed that was when we changed his title from sports information director to assistant athletic director last fall. We expanded
his responsibilities to include radio and television contracts
Johnson, who has been Wilson's boss for only a few months, said, "We hate to lose him. We give nothing but our best wishes to him."
Johnson said he was not surprised by Wilson's announcement, knowing his close friendship with Marcum, but said he would have preferred that Wilson stay at KU.
Floyd Temple, assistant athletic director, said, "Sid's a very down-to-earth person who doesn't have any errors."
Temple has seen many sports information directors come and go during his 29 years with the KU athletic department.
JOHNSON SAID that in the interim the present sports information staff would carry on the functions of the department until a successor could be appointed. This role would be immediately and the new director would be named as soon as possible.
Johnson could not say whether the present staff would be retained after a successor had been named.
Man stops death threat; two klansmen charged
By United Press International
KNOXVILLE, Tenn. — A 71-year-old black man said yesterday two Ku Klux Klanms put a pistol to his nose and threatened to kill him because "they just didn't like my color."
As it turned out, Robert Fleming, a bespectacled retired janitor, wrestled the gun away from one of the men, and broke them both and held them for police.
"The gun was so close to my nose that I could smell it," said Flemming. "I just knew they were going to shoot me. And we were in the door. He did this. They just didn't like my color."
Carl Edwin Solok, 31, of Smyrna, Ga., was charged with felonious assault and accessory to felonious assault, and Douglas Wayne Solok, 28, of Lakeland, Fla., was charged with two counts of felonious assault.
BOTH MEN WERE arraigned yesterday in Knox County Sessions Court for their role in the Sunday night incident and were being held on $20,200 bond. The suspects told police that
were members of a Klan faction in Georgia.
remaining said he heard shots fired outside his Knox County home Sunday night and walked out to investigate.
Police said the suspects had been seeing shots into an empty bus parked at a nearby church and had also been stabbed in a cold black youth, Preston Littlejohn Jr.
Flemming said, "I thought they were bird-hunting. They pulled a gun on me."
Flemming said he started walking away, saying he "didn't want any trouble."
"THEY WERE TERRIBLE looking," he said. "They looked like they were crazy. I just did what they said. The one with the pistol said, 'I'm going to shoot you.' He hit me there and knocked me down.
"He was standing right over me. I took that gun away so quick that he didn't know it. Then I commenced to working on him. Then the other guy came up, and I hit him. They just stood there and the police came.
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