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University Daily Kansah Thursday, April 19. 1956
15
KU Relays
Committee Plays Vital Role
When entries come in, committee members compile them by events and work out details such as heats and lanes. They prepare scorecards, act as recording officials and man the telephone system at the relays.
With the possibility of participating in the Olympics to spur them on, trackmen will put forth their mightiest efforts Friday and Saturday in the 31st annual Kansas Relays in Memorial Stadium. It should be a great spectacle with some of the best performers in the United States on hand. The least we can do is to show our appreciation.
Let's, however, save a bit of our applause for the student committee which runs the relays so successfully year after year. In the midst of photo finishes and soaring javelins, the students who do so much to stage the top-notch show are often forgotten.
And remember, they do all this on their own time, free of charge.
While the rest of us are watching basketball games in early December the committee begins its work for the relays by mailing out entry lists. Its job is a continual one until the relays are over, some five months later.
They, as well as the athletes, richly deserve
Senior managers of this year's relays are Don Johnston, Pittsburg, and John Simpson, Salina. Bob Elliott, Wichita junior, is chairman of the Relays Parade, and Tom Hampton, Salina junior, chairman for selection of the queen.
Other members of the committee are Fred Heath, Kansas City, Mo., Dick Raynolds, Emporia, and Bill Buck, Kansas City, Kan., seniors. Jay Ochs, Wichita, Bill Sayler, Kansas City, Kan., Ed Petrick, Caldwell, and Martin Hanna, Winfield, juniors.
Walter Ashcraft, Ashland, John Barrett and David Graves, Kansas City, Kan., Dan Casson, Topeka, Ralph Wright, Paola, Don Dunaway, Mission, and Stephen Hill, Lawrence, freshmen
our appreciation. After the relays why not pat one of them on the back, or tell him how well everything went off. It's a small price to make a deserving guy happy.
Ray Dean, Kansas City, Mo., Bill LaRue, Bird City, Eldon Benso, Gorham, Bob Peterson, Emporia, Dave Lhuillier, Joplin, Mo., Roger Jones, Leawood, and Minter Brown and Wayne Rolley, Topeka, sophores.
The adviser for the committee is Dr. Edwin R. Elbel, professor of physical education.
Recent History
—Kent Thomas
Dirigible Brings Catastrophe To Sky
It was a windy, overcast morning in New York. People scurried along Broadway and Fifth Avenue in their normal big city fashion, unimpfind and even a little resentful of each other. The wealthy gave ominous glances at the sky as they left their Central Park West apartments, then stepped into waiting vehicles that hurried them off in the general direction of 42nd Street.
All Is Serene
But the forenoon and early afternoon passed uneventfully. When the early afternoon editions of the papers hit the streets, they carried the standard news items of the time. Roosevelt Advocates For New Jersey New Dueler Jimmy Simpson Duke of Windsor Plan Early Marriage After Her May 3 Divorce
This was Thursday, May 6. 1927 a day that began as just another transitional spring day, but ended in a disaster that splashed across newspapers the world over.
And so the afternoon dragged on. Tourists stood in line to get tickets to the latest Rodgers and Hart hit, "Bobes in Arms." People, not only in New York, but across the country, were singing, whistling, or humming the show's top songs, "Where or When" and "The Lady Is a Tramp."
Toward late afternoon the wind became stronger and the skies got darker. New Yorkers shook their bed, pulled up to their home before it started to rain.
Crowds at Ebebts Field were watching the Pirates pummel the Doggers 5 to 1. Suddenly they became aware of a huge shape coming in overhead from the ocean. A lot of noses they were able to discern that it a dirigible, a lighter-than-air airship.
The closer it got, the bigger it seemed, until finally the people saw the big swastika on the rudder and knew it was the great German airship, the Hindenburg, the world's largest.
New York Stares
As it passed over the baseball stadium and headed for lower Manhattan, the Flatbush fans gasped in awe that such a huge craft could move so effortlessly, let alone fly.
It steered right and headed towards Times Square, the heart of Manhattan. As the giant ship slid through the sky, traffic came to a standstill and heads popped out of office windows. The hustle and bustle of Times Square became a mass of craned necks and upturned faces. The noisy and pestiferousaxis suddenly pulled to the curbs as drivers and passengers alike sawked at the Hindenburg.
After slowly circling over midtown Manhattan the Hindenburg headed south towards its landing area at the Lakehurst, N.J., Naval
Air Station which is halfway between Jersey City and Atlantic City and slightly inland. It is about 90 miles from New York.
At 4:15 p.m. the Hindenburg was sighted by the Lakehurst observation tower. At that time the wind was very strong, so Captain J. Koehler selected to move out over the ocean again to weather conditions improved.
Had 10 Ocean Crossings
This was Pruss' first flight as commander of the silver liner, and it was the airship's first transcontinental voyage of the year. The previous year, under the command of Captain Ernst Lehmann, it had carried 1,002 passengers on 10 ocean crossings. On this trip, Lehmann rode along as adviser to Capt. Pruss and Captain Albert Stampf was the second-in-command.
At 7:20 p.m. the two landing lines were dropped and the ground crew made them fast to the mooring cars on the circular track about the mast. As the crew began to make the line taut, the wind shifted, making the big ship difficult to maneuver.
At 7 p.m. the Hindenburg reappeared at 500 feet over the station. A light rain, which had been preceded by a thunderstorm, was falling and the ground was soaked. The sun was setting, but visibility was good. At this time, the Hindenburg was more than 12 hours late, having been delayed by Atlantic head winds. It had left Frankfort at 2:19 p.m. Monday.
It gathered too much momentum and drifted several hundred yards past the mast. From his position on the colla, Capt. Pruss shouted, "Pay out."
The ship lost its perfect equilibrium, and its tail dropped sharply. The time was 7:23 p.m. As the bottom rudder struck the ground, a low report or boom was heard by the spectators, and as the ship bounded up again, a flash lit up the twilight. Flames burst from the rear of the gondola on the port side, then sped forward enveloping the ship in moments. The flames crackled and the duralum ribs could be seen
On the ground, several hundred spectators stared through the rain as the air giant slowly got closer to the mooring mast. Among the spectators were newsmen, photographed by many of the local personal persons who were to travel to Germany on the ship's return flight at midnight.
Prepares To Land
Against the wind, only one mooring car operator heard this. He paid out, while the other one moved in the opposite direction.
The airship decreased its altitude and circled at 150 feet, preparatory to landing.
When the stern struck the earth, another explosion was heard, then a series of them as the ship crumpled and burned.
before the hulk sank to the ground. The giant buckled midships and settled amidst red flames and black smoke.
Searching heat drove the spectators back hundreds of feet and the women screamed in panic.
When the first explosion hit, some of the crew members were blown from the ship. Others jumped through the windows to the ground. Among these were the three captains, who were in the fore part of the ship. All were burned severely.
Because of the suddenness of the disaster, there was conflicting testimony. Sabotage was hinted, then disproved.
Dr. Hugo Eckener, a German dirigible genius, came to this country to seek out the cause of the accident. He said the use of helium in the airship was not a safety hazard. Our Navy investigators disagreed, and said that hydrogen which was much safer, had been suggested for use.
Passengers and crew members, whether breathing or not, were rushed to near-by hospitals. One passenger ran from the holocaust a moment after it happened, rushed into an airline office, his face blackened, and put through a long-distance telephone call to his mother in Chicago.
A flurry of investigations soon began. The Navy had one, the Germans had one, and the Department of Commerce had one.
Investigations Follow
Of the 97 passengers and crew, some were dead, many missing, and many more injured. At midnight, the embers of the metal skeleton were still too hot to search. It wasn't until Sunday that the death toll claimed its last victim, Capt. Lehmann died that day of severe burns, the 36th and final death of the Thursday tragedy.
The mishap sounded the death knell for dirigibles. The Hindenburg was insured for $2½¹⁰ million; its value was only $15,000. This made it the heaviest loss in aviation history. The 36 persons who died were preceded in death by 348 others in dirigible accidents.
Finally experts testified that the ship could have been ignited by St. Elmo's fire, a brush electrical charge, resulting from disturbances in the atmosphere. The Department of Commerce said this was the most probable cause, and the Germans concurred.
On May 12, the U.S. War Department ordered abandonment of airships and deflation of its three blimps, having determined that all future lighter-than-air activity would be devoted to balloon experiments.
Editor:
As far as I am concerned, Coach "Phog" Allen is the best coach who ever coached the game of basketball. His record of winning over three-fourths of his total 1004 games, a record unequaled by any other coach in the United States, easily points out my basic reason for thinking as such.
Having previously been a sport, editor for a Western Kansas daily newspaper, I naturally took great interest in Coach Phog Allen's and the school's problem of whether or not Coach Allen would, or should, be forced to retire at the close of this basketball season because of the Board of Regent's ruling: "A 70-year-old faculty member is to be retired on the 30th of June, after he reaches 70 years of age." As you know, Allen reached the age of 70 years last Nov. 18, 1955.
Allen had coached here at the University of Kansas for the past 39 years; and although already 70 years old, he asked the Athletic Board and the Board of Regents to allow him to prolong his job for one more season. Expecting a great team next year, he said: "It would be the thrill of my life to end a long coaching career with a truly great team."
But he was turned down by the Board of Regents because of their retirement age ruling. If Phog had been allowed to coach next year, it would have interrupted the complete retirement age ruling, which has been in force here at KU since July 1, 1944; therefore, Phog had to go.
This retirement plan is a good plan, and is needed. But some people who do not know what all is behind this rule do not agree.
The retirement age ruling is based on the principal idea that, from national experiences, the average person of today begins to decline both physically and mentally between the ages of 65 and 70. Therefore, because of this natural decline in efficiency, this rule was made. Rather than having one person hold the elderly when each individual begins his decline. This is mainly because there
Germany said that a new and greater dirigible would soon be under construction at the home of Mr. Koehler, then been. The construction never began.
Except for a brief revival during World War II, when blimps served as Navy sub-killers, the lighter-than-air ship has been a thing of the past and is safe, safety, and economy of airplanes; he made this type of ship obsolescent.
But its real end came in May 1937, when the Hindenburg exploded in its destiny with death. —Leo Flanagan
Motor trucks account for 16 per cent of the total motor vehicle registrations in the nation.
is no person on earth or any mechanical machine which possesses this knowledge. It is the very same thing as there is in business. That is, there must be a "common denominator," a set limit.
This idea is also used by insurance companies in the setting of their rates. This decline in efficiency caused by age, raises the premium. But, all people are different, and some are actually able to continue and be as efficient as a younger person for a few years above 70. And it also goes in the opposite direction. Some faculty members begin their decline prior to becoming 70. Because of a person not being able to hold the responsibility of deciding when each person begins his decline, this Board of Regents retirement age rule is, and will remain, essential.
This is why Coach Phog Allen had to be released. The problem was not based upon him alone, but upon the KU faculty as a whole, considering all the faculty members. Had Coach Allen been accepted for another year, it would have meant changing the retirement age ruling for the complete faculty. This would have put the College back into the same circumstances it had been in prior to 1944, the puzzling question of who can decide when a person is going to begin his decline. The retirement age plan is a must!
Derele W. Knepper
Clay Center freshman
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