Monday, Dec. 7, 1959
Part of Equipment
University Daily Kansan
Page 3
Lost Lens Is Athlete's Doom
By Carol Heller
Time-out was called at the KU-Syracuse game this fall.
The coaches, referees and football players clustered about a small patch of gridiron, scraping the grass with their toes. Some of them were on their hands and knees peering even more closely at the ground.
They were not looking for the football. Leland Flachsbarth, Atchison freshman, had lost a contact lens.
"That's the big hazard with football players wearing contact lenses," said Dr. Ralph Canuteson, director of health service.
"The lenses are easy to lose and difficult to find—they are only one half inch wide. Often the player has to sit out the rest of the game."
Both men wear the lenses only during games, but Flachsbarth plans eventually to buy a pair for daily wear.
Plays With One Lens
Flachsbarth, a quarterback on the alternate unit, is one of two football players who wore contact lenses in this year. The other is Richard Rohlf, Kirkwood, Mo., senior, a guard on the starting team.
In Flachsbarth's case, he was able to play with iust one lens.
Rohlf wears ordinary every-day contact lenses, but Flachsband wears athletes' lenses, which fit much tighter against the eye.
Rohfh has owned his contact lenses since high school, but Flachsbarth's lenses were bought for him by the athletics department.
"We consider contact lenses part of the necessary equipment for a player," said E. L. Falkenstien, athletics business manager.
Part of Equipment
"Sometimes a player may already own lenses, but when a boy needs lenses to play and can't buy them, we supply them."
The athletics department has bought contact lenses for players
for the past six years. They are paid for from the medical supplies fund.
"The lenses are not so expensive now," added Mr. Falkenstien. "They cost $200 a pair at first and now they are down to $150."
He pointed out that athletes are fitted with contact lenses only on a doctor's prescription.
After an athlete is fitted with the lenses, he begins wearing them for short periods daily, gradually increasing the time until he can wear them all day or at least during a game.
Less Dangerous
Dr. Canuteson said that contact lenses are useful to athletes because they eliminate wearing cumbersome glasses and guards and lessens the danger of broken glasses.
Other than occasional loss of a lens or the momentary discomfort experienced when a lens slips into the corner of an eye, he said contact lenses are not dangerous in sports wear.
"It is conceivable that if a player received a blow in the eye with an elbow his eye could be injured, but this does not happen often.
"The main drawback is that in most cases a player becomes worthless when he loses a lens because he
cannot see to play the rest of the game, and he does not carry replacement lenses."
WELCOME KU Fisher's "66" Service 23rd. & Louisiana Hrs. 6-12 VI 3-8474
Dick Harp, basketball coach, said he did not think any of the basketball players would be wearing contact lenses this season. The last player who wore them was Lee Green, Kansas City, Kan., in 1957.
STOP IN TODAY
Eiseley Wins Science Prize
Loren C. Eiseley, former KU faculty member, has been awarded the 1959 Phi Beta Kappa Science Prize of $1,000 for the best scientific book written for lay readers.
Prof. Eiseley is now provost and professor of anthropology at the University of Pennsylvania.
He was assistant professor of sociology and anthropology at KU from 1937 to 1944.
The award was given for the first time this year. It will be given annually by Phi Beta Kappa, national scholastic honor society.
Prof. Eisley won the award for his book, "Darwin's Century."
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