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University Daily Kansan Tuesday, March 2. 1954
Don't Want the Facts Ma'm
Bluebook Article on Phog a Masterpiece of Bunk
Its difficult to define a formula for successful magazine writing. Some authors are masters of character study. Others know how to devise complicated plots. A few are brilliant satirists. When it comes to informative, non fictional articles, many methods can be considered. Perhaps the best way is to disregard facts and substitute fabricated fairy tales.
Bluebook features an excellent example of this system through John S. Phillips's baloney-filled tirade entitled "The Most Hated Man in Basketball." This vile character, as you may have heard, is KU's own Phog Allen.
We could sum up our evaluation of Mr. Phillips's masterpiece in a couple of short, snappy sentences. However, going on the assumption that feminine readers might be offended, we'll list some of the more
interesting phrases and let you draw your own conclusions.
The article gets off to a roaring if inaccurate, start with the following paragraph: "The cat-calls and Bronx cheers were scattered at first, changing slowly into an intermittent roar of booing hisses. The recipient of this was Phog Allen, coach of the Kansas basketball team which had just won the N.C.A.A. championship against the LaSalle College in Madison Square Garden on the night of Mar. 21, 1952."
We all make mistakes, so we can easily overlook the fact that KU had won the N.C.A.A. crown several days previously by running St John's into the court at Seattle, some 3,000 miles away. The score was 80-63. The Jayhawker-La Salle clash was an Olympic playoff affair.
Phillips goes on to explain that Phog thrives on boos and that the Garden demonstration was a mild one compared with those in the Big Seven. An illustration: "The boos
there reach a great crescendo when Phog, leading his team, steps out on the court. Phog always picks the far end to make his entrance, and he walks slowly, with measured steps giving his boys a chance to become thoroughly saturated with the fury of the crowd."
"At the far end he stops, turns and faces the team, and says, 'At'm boys.' He doesn't need to say anything more. These young Jayhawkers are convinced that every man, woman, and child is against them—and against Phog—and they go out fighting like wild beasts."
We don't doubt Phog receives his share of the raspberries from the local folk in Columbia, Manhattan, or Lincoln. They probably don't turn cartwheels when the Jayhawker team makes its entrance either.
But we can't recall any instance where Tiger, Wildcat, or Cornhusker rooters have fired carbines or submachine guns at Kansas cagers. If everybody was in a wild fury, as
Phillips says, one might expect such outbursts to be commonplace. Furthermore, we'll wager 10 to 1 that Born, Kelley, Patterson and company aren't really convinced every five-year-old in the stands is filled with a burning hatred for the bullies from Mt. Oread.
Phillips goes on to describe Phog's playing days, when he was a member of the Kansas City Athletic club team. Then he discusses a famous Kansas game in Madison Square Garden.
"Of recent memory to fans is Phog's arrival in the east on Dec. 15, 1951, with his team scheduled to play St. John's. (The fact that the contest was played in December, 1950 is beside the point.) The basketball world had one of its brief periods of quiet. Many of the notables gathered at a dinner in Boston where Phog was to give an after-dinner talk, something he does very well."
should have defeated Kansas. But Kansas, won, 61-60."
KU didn't need cloak and dagger schemes to take that one. The Jay-hawkers could have whipped St. John's any time, any place. Just look what happened a year later in Seattle.
The author admits Phog is not the type to rest on his laurels. "The basketball world got a striking example of this last year. There was rejoicing in the rival camps of the Big Seven, because Phog had lost his great Lovellette. So coaches, players, and fans licked their chops at the prospects of what would happen to the Jayhawkers and Phog."
At that dinner, Phog blasted eastern basketball, its tactics, style of play, and the fact that a western team always was under an officiating handicap when it invaded the Atlantic coast. His remarks spread to New York City sports pages. Phillips then writes:
"The season started with their wishes fulfilled. Kansas lost to Kansas State in the finals of the Big Seven pre-season tournament, some six or seven games after the KU opener with Tulane) and then took a 79-58 drubbing at the hands of the Oklahoma Aggies. (This occurred in the middle of February.) Colorado set the Jayhawks back on their heels with a 72-69 victory." (It was 72-68 and the loss came in January, not at the start of the season.)
Rep. Clifford R. Hope (R.-Kan.), chairman of the House Agriculture committee, has announced he may ask federal aid for farmers in southwest Kansas and eastern Colorado whose wheat crops were ruined by the recent dust storms.
Hope May Seek Help For Dust-Hit Farmers
Rep. Hope said state committees could authorize conservation payments by county units to farmers who cultivate their land in an effort to stop wind erosion. He said he would ask a new appropriation if available funds were not sufficient in some localities.
Last summer many counties in Kansas were listed as "disaster areas," meaning that farmers could receive federal aid to buy feed for livestock. The plan was originated to help farmers in Texas, where an especially severe drought forced cattlemen to sell their livestock because there was a shortage of water and feed.
"Then something happened. The Big Seven and other teams over the country aren't quite sure today what it was. The Kansas team journeyed down to Manhattan to play Kansas State, which had won the first game with the Jayhawkers easily. (93-87 is easy?)
Maybe the farmers hit hardest by dust storms do need federal aid, but the situation seems to be approaching a point where farmers ask automatically for government help whenever their bank deposits don't appear in five figures.
There are few who will argue that federal aid to Texas cattlemen was not necessary. But how necessary was it for most Kansas farmers?
In our home county, whenever farmers parked their 1953 model cars to discuss the news of the day, they asked each other, "Do you know anyone who's in distress?" No one did. Farmers at home weren't buying as many new combines or planning a trip to Europe in the fall, but they weren't starving, either.
Not so long ago no one worried much about the farmer. If dust and drought ruined him, that was all right, too. And no one worried if the price of wheat was $2 a bushel or 20 cents a bushel.
New concepts came into being. The Rural Electrification administration enabled farmers to modernize their homes and farms. The Soil Conservation service helped them to use their land more efficiently. And there was an attempt, by restricting farm production and supporting farm prices at certain levels, to guarantee a higher income for the man of the soil.
Then came the New Deal, bringing all sorts of legislation to improve the lot of the farmer. Of course, the farmer was not the only one who was helped by the so-called social legislation passed during Franklin D. Roosevelt's first two terms. Union labor, and people everywhere who worked by the hour, received benefits.
Although some parts of the various farm programs that have been in effect in the last 20 years were ridiculous while some of the good parts suffered from poor administration, the net effect was probably beneficial.
One result of all the agricultural programs has been to make farmers overdependent on government assistance, subsidies, price supports, and so on. No one wants to return to the cave man philosophy of the "survival of the fittest" but it's time to stop babying the farmers. They're all bit boys.
—Sam Teaford.
Letters
Dear Mr. Grandon,
"His comments about the St. John's players and coach McGuire had the St. John's team seething mad when they stepped on the floor, which is exactly what Phog wanted, because St. John's had a fast team, one of the best in the east, and
One of us is laboring under a misconception relative to the statutes of Kansas law on the matter of signals to be used to indicate the direction in which one intends to maneuver his automobile. (Read your article in the Kansas dated Feb. 24, 1954)
First and foremost, this letter is not intended as a criticism. I am not ridiculing your ignorance of the law nor alleging a superior knowledge of the law on my part for I am not satisfied that you are ignorant of the law nor that I know the law on this matter.
I have not checked the subsequent session laws to determine whether that section has since been amended. If not it appears that arm signals are not the only legal way in Kansas to evidence the fact that you intend to turn your automobile in one way or the other. If the section is as muted, perhaps, a 'blinker signal light' will 'stand up' in court. I have not taken time to peruse the Kansas Supreme Court reports to ascertain the value of the use of 'blinker signal lights' as evidence in court.
If your source for the Kansas law which you stated is Kansas General Statutes, 8-549, 1949. I wish to call your attention to the fact that said statute was amended and that the amendment appears in the 1951 Supplement to the General Statutes of Kansas, 1949, under the same chapter and section number, a part of which reads as follows:
Again, I am not saying that I am right and you are wrong. About all I hope to succeed in doing is placing upon you the burden of producing your sources to substantiate your idea of Kansas law on this matter.
"Where a motor vehicle is equipped with illuminating directional signal devices front, and rear, such mechanical devices may be used in lieu of such hand and arm signals when in proper working order."
If you have a source proving that your views as expressed in the article are correct will you please let me know as I am sincerely interested in the true law on the subject.
Sincerely,
Jerry Berkley
second year law
—Chuck Morelock
LITTLE MAN ON CAMPUS by Dick Bibler
University men were absent from the streets Sunday. A notice Saturday warned: Wolf hunt Sunday at Linwood (a near-by town).
It is said by some that the hit tune, "Stranger in Paradise" was written by the fraternity men who wait tables at KU sorority houses.
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