Friday, Nov. 5, 1954.
University Daily Kansan
Page 3
Kansan photo by Larry Tretbar
AL FRAME
NCAA Titleholders To Meet OU Tomorrow
By LOMERTT D. RICHARDS
After the breaking by Oklahoma A&M of a winning streak that extended over seven years, the KU cross-country team defeated Drake university and will seek its second victory of the season tomorrow. Before the start of the Nebraska game it will race the Oklahoma team over a three-mile course on Mt. Oread.
That is what will happen tomorrow, but there is a story behind all this, a story that falls under the shadow of a sometimes not too impressive gridiron giant.
It's a story that has a major part in the filling of the University's trophy cases, a story that rides on the scarred legs of Glenn Cunningham, of Fred Rodkey, "Poco" Frazier, Erie Klann, Hal Moore, Earl Jones, Bob Karnes, Herb Semper, and the record-breaking Wes Santee.
The distance then was dropped to two miles, and except for the individual performances of Glenn Cunningham in 1311 and 1332, the Kansas runners didn't see the tape until 1471, when Capt. Karnes, KU track workhorse, led the team to victory.
Things fared better when Kansas entered the Big Six conference in 1967, when a tough team dance man, leading the wolf, Kansas took its first conference title.
It begins in 1911 with the first cross-country team, a five-mile course, and the Missouri Valley conference. Kansas though, never entered the record books until 1926 when he took first in that year's meet. The team, throughout the early years, never won a conference meet.
The year 1948 saw the onset of the Big Seven conference and it was
still Kansas and Karnes winning the meets of 1948 and 1949. For the next two years it was the stocky redhead from Illinois, Semper, who provided the gas for the Jayhawks—leading the team to a record low score of 13 in the 1951 meet.
In 1952 the distance was upped to three miles, but that didn't change the story. That year it was Kansas and Santee. Last year Santee set a new three-mile record for cross-country in a time of 15:06.8, and Kansas took its sixth Big Seven crown and its seventh conference title.
The picture, though, of the cross-country dual meet is even brighter. Beginning in 1920, when four Kansas runners hit the finish at the same time to take the meet from Oklahoma, until last season's end the Jayhawks have won 58 victories to their opponents' 28—the last 27 stories being competitive. Again the tailing being Cunningham, Karnes, Semper, and Santee head the list with other great KU stars—Harris, Jones, Klann, and Moore—who led victorious teams in the '30's and early '40's.
Cross-country, not just a race before a football game, but for KU a champion tradition.
TO ALL FOOTBALL FANS:
An Invitation to You From the Crystal Cafe
For Good Food-Before and After the Game 609 Vermont Open Sunday
We are proud to have been chosen by Prof.Russell Wiley and the University of Kansas To provide the new uniforms for the
K. U. BAND
UNIFORM CO.
WICHITA, KANSAS
Designers and Manufacturers of HIGH QUALITY UNIFORMS EXCLUSIVELY 44 Consecutive Years in Wichita, Kansas