Off Court Obligations Keep Phog Allen Busy
If Phog Allen's current schedule is any indication, there is a lot more in being a big-name basketball coach than merely coaching a team through its 20-game season.
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The great KU coach now is engaged in his busiest off-season speaking tour of his career. Between now and May 21, Dr. Allen has 30 speaking engagements in four states. In one stretch he has six speeches in five days.
His "grapefruit and lettuce league" as the famed mentor refers to it includes 14 athletic banquets and five commencement addresses. His prize request, though, is one received last fall—a graduation address for May, 1954.
This summer Dr. Allen is scheduled to receive a holiday—at least his schedule isn't filled for the hot months yet. His schedule—a four-page booklet—is posted on the back of his office door for handy reference.
In June he is scheduled to be the principle lecturer in a cage clinic at Eastern Washington College of Education, and he is a staff member of the Texas Coaching school in Austin, Texas, August 3-7.
"I haven't enough sense to refuse when I'm asked to speak," the coach-turned-traveler said. "But I really enjoy getting out among Kansas people. They really appreciate your trouble."
Netters to Open Against Iowa
The tennis squad will open its season here Monday against Iowa university and will engage in two other matches over the holidays.
Iowa boasts the Big 10's top singles player last year, Norman Barnes, and is expected to give the Kansans a stiff fight.
Coach Dick Mechem's netters will travel to Baldwin Tuesday to meet Baker university and will be host to Northeastern Oklahoma State college April 9. The Oklahoma team is noted as a southwestern tennis power and has defeated Big Seven champion Oklahoma once in the last two seasons.
Lettermen Pete Fotopoulos and Al Headstrom should carry the brunt of the Jayhawk's load, coach Mechem said. Other players seeking the three other positions are Merle Sellers, Joe Conklin, Don Franklin, Dick Mercer, and Dave Edwards.
K-State Drops, Adds Two Baseball Tilts
Manhattan — (U.P.)— Kansas State today cancelled two baseball games with Tulsa and added games with Memphis, Tenn., naval air station and Wichita university.
The Tulsa contests were cancelled at the request of Tulsa when it was discovered the Golden Hurricane already had games scheduled April 9-10.
The Wildcats open their season April 7 with Arkansas State at Jonesboro, Ark. The Big Seven conference opener is April 17 with Nebraska here.
BUSY-Veteran Kansas basketball coach is having to pay the price of fame this season. Dr. Allen, now engaged in the busiest off-season speaking tour of his life, has 30 engagements in four states between now and May 21. In one of those "grapefruit and lettuce league" series, he has six speeches in five days. Phog's reputation will cause him to speak at 14 athletic banquets, and five commencement addresses. June he is slated as the main lecturer in a basketball clinic and will be a staff member of a coaching school
The 1953 edition of the Faculty Fossils softball team needs pitchers, according to Nino Lo Bello, instructor in sociology and the team's playing coach.
Faculty Team Seeks Talent For'53 Season
"We lost our best pitcher, Bill Conboy of the speech department, to Northwestern university," Mr. Llo Bello said today. He added that the team lost its No. 2 hurler, Herk Harvey, who is no longer teaching.
The Faculty Fossils entered intramural competition last year and won the Independent "A" divisional championship. Its record for the season was 9-1 with one of the wins being at the expense of the KU varsity football team.
Mr. Lo Bello, the Fossil first baseman, needs outfielders also. Practice sessions are held at 4 p.m. Thursdays and 10 a.m. Sundays at the intramural field. Any staff member interested should call Mr. Lo Bello or report directly to the field. Squad members returning from last year are Jack Reardon, shortstop, instructor in English; Dick Buskirk, outfielder, instructor in economics; Dick Harp, second baseman, assistant basketball coach, and Bob Fevurly, catcher, assistant in bacteriology.
Kansas' sweep of four baton hauls at Texas, left the Jayhawks holding three of the seven University division records. This year's sprint medley and four-mile marks of 3:21.8 and 17:14.0 were new records. Last year's foursome erected a distance medley standard of 10:06.0.
Lowly Pittsburgh Club To Lack Fear in '53
(This is another in a series on prospects of major league baseball teams).
Thursday, April 2, 1953 University Daily Kansan
Havana, Cuba—(U.R.)—The Pittsburgh Pirates lack so much hope they face the National League pennant race without fear?
Holdover Pete Castiglione (286 last season) will be at third again
It is clear, after five weeks of training, that the Pirates are doomed to another eighth-place finish. There are signs of improvement but not enough for a team which finished $54\frac{1}{2}$ games out of first place with a 42-112 record in 1952 to do more than close the gap to respectability and plan ahead for 1954 and 1955.
According to manager Fred Haney, the plan this year is "to field our strongest possible team and forego experiments."
His current plans are to start rookie Dick Cole, up from Hollywood with a .286 batting average at shortstop, and team him with Danny O'Connell, returning serviceman, to provide the double play combination. According to Haney, this combination will develop into big league stature and may even be the nucleus of Branch Rickey's "team of the future."
but first base is a problem. Haney says he would start 31-year-old George Metkovich (.271 in 1952) at first if the season opened to tomorrow but he hopes rookie Al Grunwald will take over during the season.
Haney had planned to experiment with Ralph Kiner at first base during spring training but has been unable to do so as yet because of Kiner's holdout.
The pitching seems either too young or too old. Johnny Lindell, 24-9 at Hollywood, and $100,000 bonus whiz Paul Pettit, 15-8 with the same club, are the most important additions. Both have gone nine innings but Lindell is 36 and Pettit is 22 so it may be "no more" for one and "not yet" for the other.
Veterans are Howie Pollet, 7-16 last season, Murry Dickson, 14-21. Bob Friend, 7-17, and Forrest Main 2-12.
On 45's
Pretend by King Cole
Bell's
925 Mass.
By DON SARTEN
Bill Veeck, the owner of a baseball team in St. Louis, Mo., has a problem. He has learned from past experiences with the Cleveland Indians that baseball fans love only the perennial winners. He may have bought the St. Louis Brown's with a vague idea of transferring the team to a better city, but certainly outdid himself in trying to put together a good team for St. Louis fans last year. But it was to no avail, the fans still did not attend baseball when the Browns—fairly well known as the "lowliest" in the league—played.
This spring he attempted to move his team to another city. Other big league owners, whose approval is necessary before any such move is possible, threw up their hands in horror and said no. So Mr. Veeck has a problem.
We have a problem too. This university has managed to make a national name for itself in football, basketball, and track. And it gets enough publicity and money spent on these sports to attract people consistently and keep them on what we hope is a paying basis.
But not so in baseball. And not in anybody's imagination can baseball be thought of as a "minor" sport. Yet the coach of the baseball team on the Hill must spend much of his own time getting what passes for a baseball field in playing condition prior to each practice session. One can imagine the hours he must spend before games with visiting teams, the apologies he must make for the scrubbier portion of the fresh football practice field that passes for the KU baseball diamond.
It's true that baseball is carried on out of finances obtained through football and basketball receipts. There is no charge for watching KU baseball. On the other hand, there can't be much of an outlay.
It's just a hunch, but if we had a Bill Veeck in the athletic department, he might give this school a national reputation in the greatest American pastime of them all, baseball.
He wouldn't have to scour the surrounding country for topnotch players, either. The state of Kansas, as have many other states, has a fine baseball program for all ages, from old timers, for the younger boys, to American Legion ball, for the older ones. There is talent galore on the Hill, that, with only the least bit of encouragement, might turn out for the team.
But no player, in any sport, can play that extra little bit that makes a good team a great team—without plenty of fan support. Noise means as much to them as to any basketball or football player in the land, perhaps more—and they don't care if it's for them or against them—just so there's a lot of it.
Since we've gone this far, we might as well go all the way and suggest some lights be strung up and night baseball introduced to students. Put in a grandstand, some green grass, chalk-line basepaths, and who knows, Kansas might next be known as a power in the greatest of all sports, baseball!
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