University Daily Kansan
Friday, Sept. 11, 1970
5S
Kansan Staff Photo
Cross Country Coach Bob Timmons
... league champions ready to defend crown
Cross Country Team Sets Sights On Third Straight Conference Title
By BOB NORDYKE
Kansan Sports Writer
Surveying the prospect of running off with a third straight Big 8 cross country title, KU track coach Bob Timmons seems to be brushing up on his mastery of the understatement.
Timmons said, "I really don't know yet how the other schools have improved or how their recruiting has gone, but we're certainly going to be contenders again."
That means the outlook is bright for a KU repeat as conference champions.
The coach continues, "With the kind of success we had last spring and the terrific spirit we have right now, we'll be in better shape individually than a year ago."
There is abundant evidence for Timmons' guarded optimism. Only two men are gone from last year's championship squad, and it is likely that only two seniors will be among this fall's top seven runners.
Freshmen Bob Peliken, St. Louis, and Kevin Reabe, Waterford, Mich. are new additions that Timmons feels have a "chance to make it big."
Timmons' 14-man squad will be captured by Jay Mason of Hobbs,
N. M., one of four seniors on the team. Other seniors are Jim Nei- house, Dennis Peterson, and Mike Solomon.
Rounding out the squad are juniors Thorn Bigley, Rich Elliott, Rick* Peterson, Doug Smith and sophomores Dave Anderson, Jon Callen, Brian McElroy and Jeff Wray.
The current crop of distance men features an impressively balanced squad that returns all of KU's first five finishers in the Big 8 championship run last November.
KU won that match going away, though the Jayhawk's top man finished in ninth place. It happened that the next four men crossing the wire were also Jayhawks and KU won with a low score of 55 points.
Timmons likes this balanced squad that lacks a super-star but has great spirit and competitiveness that results in a team effort seldom seen in track and field competition.
This year's goals are already set—another Big 8 title and an improvement over last season's disappointing showing in NCAA competition.
A conference title this year would be the twentieth since 1928, spanning the careers of KU greats
including Glenn Cunningham, Bob Karnes, Herb Semper, Wes Santee, Billy Mills, Bill Dotson and John Lawson.
Much of KU's continued success, says Timmons, is due to his predecessor Bill Easton who thrust the Jayhawks into national track and field prominence in the early 1950's.
"The national reputation we enjoy," explained Timmons, "is a credit to the teams Bill Easton put together."
This year's squad is progressing well according to Timmons and so far there have been no major injury problems.
With classes beginning earlier this fall, the four-milers have had two extra weeks to run, easing into top shape more slowly than was necessary last year.
The Hawks' first challenge comes September 26 against Iowa State at Ames on what Timmons calls "undoubtedly the toughest course in the conference." He describes it as having "long, high, challenging hills" and set somewhere in there is a swinging bridge.
"Did you ever try to run across a swinging bridge?" Timmons asked. "Did you ever try to walk across a swinging bridge?"
Holden Bolsters Defense
By DON BAKER
Assistant Kansan Sports Editor
Pepper Rodgers said in pre-season football practice that one of his biggest questions is the defensive line. The situation was a problem to begin with but became more of a problem when lettermen Karl Salb and Steve Carmichael were forced to hang up their cleats because of injuries.
Often when a coach finds a severe weakness in his football team, he will find the solution in the junior college ranks. But the business of relying on junior colleges for help is risky as many of the players are untested to major college football and major college academics. If a juco transfer does not make the grade in both departments, the coach has wasted his time and effort.
But when taking such a chance proves worthwhile the entire program can benefit and lessen the headaches of a coach remarkably.
Darril "Duke" Holden, Sr. represents just such a case for KU in the coming football season. Holden, an imposing crew-cutted 6-2, 243 pounder, appropriately nicknamed "Duke," appears to be filling more than just a hole in the Jayhawks' defensive line.
"Holden has been a great influence over our entire football team," Rodgers said.
Holden, at 28, holds the distinction of being the oldest player on both the KU squad and in the entire conference, but Rodgers said that age has not been a factor in his influence.
"No, age has had nothing to do with it," Rodgers said. "I meant that just by this guy's overall attitude and presence he has been a great help to our football team."
Rodgers' appraisal of his startling left tackle was reflected by Holden himself when he speculated on the coming season.
"I can't really predict how we will do because I'm new here and don't really know the other teams in the conference that well." Holden said. "But I do know that you can't round up a better bunch of guys. We've got a lot of material and I think we'll be a threat to anybody."
Just how Holden found his way to Mount Oread is almost storybook in nature. He never played football in high school and probably would never have pursued higher education had it not been for a chance opportunity to work with juvenile delinquents seven years after his high school graduation.
After receiving his high school diploma from Bakersfield, Calif. High School in 1959 Holden spent two years working at odd jobs. Joining the army in January of 1962 and having spent 13 months in Korea, Holden returned to the states and finished his service at Fort Hood, Texas until his discharge in January of 1965.
The next year was spent again working at odd jobs before an opportunity developed to work with juveniles in a reform school in Nevada. Holden found the work to his liking but then realized that higher education would be
necessary to pursue the field at any length.
Thus in the following fall of 1967 Holden enrolled in Bakersfield Junior College to begin work on a psychology major. Even at this time football had still not entered the future athlete's mind.
"In the spring semester I had a class with one of the football coaches and he kept bugging me to come out for the team." Holden said. "Eventually I decided I would go out for spring drills that spring."
In actuality Holden did more than just "go out" for the team. In 1968 he was a junior college All-American while Bakersfield Junior College won the conference championship and finished fourth in the nation in the final Junior College Grid Wire Service poll.
With this individual success Holden found numerous colleges willing to help pay for the education he wanted and after narrowing it down to UCLA, San Diego State and KU, he finally decided to wear the Crimson and the Blue.
"Actually my folks live in Kansas City and that was partly my reason for choosing KU." Holden said. Holden is a family man as he and his wife, Marta, have a one-year-old child, Darril, Jr.
But regardless of the reason, KU fans can be thankful that Holden found his way to Mount Oread because it appears he will be filling more than just a hole in the defensive line.
Kansan Staff Photo
Darril "Duke" Holden
... the Jayhawks "old man"
Speed and Size Key for Buffaloes
By JIM FORBES
Kansan Sports Writer
The University of Colorado football team returns this year bigger and more impressive than the 1969 team that finished 8-3, including a 47-33 victory over Alabama in the Liberty Bowl.
The 1970 Colorado team will be one of the biggest units in the Big Eight. There are 18 Colorado linemen who tip the scales at 230 pounds or better, and seven running backs who weigh in at 200
pounds or more. These figures alone insure the Buffaloes as being one of the most physically impressive teams in the conference
Cliff Branch, a junior college transfer from Wharton, Tex., has run the 100-yard dash in .093. and last winter tied the world record of .059 in the indoor 60-yard dash. Branch and Larry Brunson, another junior college transfer who runs the 100 in .095.
The team has added another weapon besides weight to their football arsenal-speed.
will hold the wide receiver spots.
Another speedster for the Buffaloes is Larry Thomas, sophomore, from Freeport, Tex., who runs the 100 in .09.6. Thomas, the heaviest of the running backs, weighs in at 225 pounds. Thomas has already made quite an impression on Big Eight sports writers in pre-season scrimmages. In the Buff's first scrimmage, Thomas ripped off 117 yards in 10 carries. Thomas didn't play his freshman year because of injuries.
Still questionable is the position of quarterback. In mid-season last year, Eddie Crowder, the Buffaloes' head coach, moved All-American Bob Anderson from quarterback to running back and divided the signal calling duties between Jim Bratten and Paul Arendt. Bratten is now winning
Colorado is returning eight offensive and eight defensive starters from last year's squad. The Buffers have gained depth in most of the team positions.
the quarterbacking race after leading the team in the final two games of last season. Bratten is a 5-11, 195 pound senior from Anaheim, Calif. Bratten is small by college football standards, but Crowder has confidence in his ability.
Returning this year, are veterans such as Don Popplewell, who has increased his weight from 214 pounds to 237 pounds, and Herb Orvis, the Buff's impressive defensive end, who weighs in at 228 pounds.