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Hostile Hoch Mania Dies With MU, CU Victories
"Now that we've lost a couple at home I don't hear any cries about a visitor not being able to play in Hoch auditorium. Maybe those visitors simply had a better team than we did. Maybe, we were better than our opponents when we were winning 33 straight."
It was Phog Allen speaking. Kansas' veteran basketball coach hasn't been bexed by the reputation his home court has acquired over the years. But he has been amused. For, it is a fact that Hoch, since its erection in 1929, has been little better than a neutral court for Allen's teams.
Reason is that Hoch is not a basketball arena at all, but a music and forensic hall in which a court is staked off now and then. Over the years, since the Jayhawks played the final season of the old Missouri Valley in Robinson gym, practice time at Hoch has been allocated a shred at a time. This necessarily has been parcelled out between band practice, orchestra practice, organ practice, conventions, clinics, speeches, plays, movies, and Christmas vespers.
fourteenth Jayhaws seldom practice on their home court more than thrice a week, using the old rectangle at Robinson, where they haven't played a game in almost three decades, for the bulk of drills. Too, the periods at Hoch usually are 60 or 90 minute snatches, forcing the squad to originate, or finish an interrupted workout at Robinson.
Nobody has liked such patchwork, but, facilities being what they have been, there was no other route.
"Talk about a home court advantage," Allen snorts. "Our home court advantage is a joke, compared with other home court advantages. Some weeks we've practiced on our home court no more than our invading opponent for a given game. Yet when we play on the road our opponent has been practicing on his home court every day. By that standard, our home court record shouldn't be as good as it usually is.
"Too, I'm always hearing that the construction of Hech confuses the visiting team. Well, players don't look at those arches and organ lofts when they're shooting. They look at the basket.
"I think our teams should get credit for winning as many games
here as they have on their own merits, instead of pointing to architecture."
Tuesday, January 18, 1955 University Daily Kansan
"You know," Allen remarked facetiously, "Hoch was our reward for winning six consecutive championships from 1922 through 1927."
Whether its been Kansas' superior clubs or the enemy's contourphobia, or both, the Jayhawks can look back on their last season in Hoch as containing the final four links of that record 33-game home-court victory streak, which started in 1951. Missouri snapped this Jan. 4 with a 76-65 conquest. Colorado followed last Monday with a 65-54 vanquishing. Hoch also housed ribbons of 26 and 21 consecutive victories.
From such feats the legend of the "Hostile Opera House" was woven. During the last streak it became a mania with the invaders. Basketball folks talked so much about it, sophomores thought they were entering a house of mirrors, bigger than the ones they'd challenged, at the county, fair back home. And seniors, knowing the playing floor was underlain with unsymmetrical concrete, remembered how much it took out of their legs last year and slowed down their fast break.
ast break.
"No wonder Kansas loses so few at home!" they used to nod knowingly at one another. "It would take a while to get used to this place."
And all the time, Kansas wasn't "getting used to it" much faster than the visitors.
That latter problem will become even more acute before the Jayhawks dedicate Allen fieldhouse, their new 17,000-capacity palestra southwest of the campus proper. They won't play in it until March 1 when Kansas State comes in. Meanwhile, Allen is insisting upon 30 practice days on the new floor previous to the opening. Trouble is there will be three more games in Hoch during February. So the Hawkers must practice there too, when they can. And until the
Those interested in trying out for the baseball team should report to 205 Robinson gymnasium at 4:30 p.m. today, Coach Floyd Temple said.
Baseball Hopefuls Asked to Report
Freshman try outs will be held at a later date.
KU Subs Beat Ft. Riley, 92-69
With four players hitting 17 or more points, the Kansas, "B" basketball team last night scored an easy 92 to 69 triumph here over a Fort Riley team that faded in the second half.
The first half was nip and tuck, with KU holding only a 40 to 55 halftime lead. But in the second half four Kansans got hot to put the contest beyond the visitors' reach.
Ron Johnston and Bill Heitholt got 21 and 20 points, respectively, and Jerry Alberts and Jack Wolfe
Box Score
| | G F T F | G F T F |
| :--- | :--- | :--- |
| Alberts | 7 3 5 | Sullivan | 0 3 |
| Cox | 0 9 1 | Myles | 2 2 |
| Joseph | 4 2 1 | Jepsen | 1 1 |
| Heittholt | 4 2 1 | Doland | 0 0 |
| Hurst | 1 0 2 | Vondrk '1 | 1 0 |
| Jett | 1 0 2 | Booker | 0 3 |
| Justinson | 1 0 2 | Booker | 5 4 |
| Wenger | 0 2 0 | Leone | 8 4 |
| Wolfe | 5 7 1 | Planta'da | 6 6 |
KU "B" 92 Ft. Riley 69
Totals   36 20 22  Totals... 23 23 17
Half score, 40-35, KU.
17 apiece to pace KU to its fourth victory in six outings.
Twenty points by diminutive Dom Leone and 18 by Dick Piantananda were not enough to offset the Kansas balance. The Army team now has a 19-7 season record.
fieldhouse floor is ready. Robinson will continue to furnish the chief practice site.
If the Kansans can pull out of their present slump, this triangular journey will become as famous as the annual Northern Badlands' trek to Lincoln and Ames.
Sasnak,Nu Sigma Nu Win Independent 'A' Contests
Only six games were played in the intramural basketball leagues yesterday, with two independent "A" games contested in Robinson annex.
Sasnak 43. 69'ers 28
Piling up a nine-point first-half lead, Sasnak coasted in the second period to a 43 to 28 victory over the 69'ers squad. Sasnak displayed a well balanced team with all seven members marking the scoring column. Two men shared the scoring honors for Sasnak hitting in different periods. Swanson Silvers tallied 13 of which only a field goal came in the first half while Bill Perich totaled 12 more all in the first half. Dick Liester paced the 69'ers with 12 followed by Charles Spencer and 11 points.
Nu Sigma Nu 56, Battenfeld 36
With full team participation, Nu Sigma nu defeated Battenfeld hall,
56 to 16. Nu Sig led at the half by a comfortable 15-point margin, 30 to
15. Ten men scored for the medical fraternity with high-point honors
going to Nicholson who tallied 13
The largest antieared creature on earth, an Alaskan bull moose, may weigh 1.800 pounds, stand nearly eight feet high at the shoulders, and carry antiers six feet across, the National Geographic Society says.
Meek May Take Houston Offer
Meek, who was recommended for the job here to replace resigned Clyde V. Lee by old Tennessee coach Gen. Bob Neuland, also took away a good impression when he left here by plane early today.
Houston —(U.P.)— University of Houston's problem of filling its head coaching job appeared nearer to solution today after a visit by Kansas State coach Bill Meek and encouraging reports from Utah.
Meek, who since 1951 brought the cellar-dwelling K-State Wildcats to the status of a serious contender in the Big Seven loop, "visited" the Cougar campus here yesterday and made "quite an impression," Athletic Director Harry Fouke said.
points. Charles Smith led the Battenfeld squad with 11 points.
**Independent "B"**
Chicken Pickers 42, Alpha Chi Sigma 30
**Fraternity "C"**
Sigma Nu 28, Sigma Chi 27
Philt DV 39, Delt III 15
Phiam Gam 25, AEpi 21
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