Page 4
Summer Session Kansan
Friday, July 7. 1961
By Chuck Morelock
The BIG GAME is still four and a half months away, but fans, you'd better buy those tickets now because tomorrow may be too late.
In case anybody needs to be reminded, said game will feature the Kansas and Missouri football teams. Date for this spectacular, which may make World War II seem peaceful by comparison, is Nov. 25.
probably be among the finest in the country
IN THE LIGHT OF RECENT EVENTS, the game will be bigger, noisier, more publicized, harder fought, and emotionally charged than any KU-MU clash in history. Why? For these reasons friends:
2. The conference championship and the Orange Bowl bid will probably rest on the outcome.
3. And speaking of championships, both teams will be fighting for one with no-strings-attached. As everybody knows, KU whipped the Tigers 23-7 last year, only to have the resultant title snatched away by the Big Eight fathers in college football's answer to the Munich Pact. The championship, therefore, was officially awarded to Missouri, but Tiger fans heard many a taunt during the long winter months about their team's technical crown, their smoke-filled-back-room crown, etc.
4. THE BASKETBALL RIOT which highlighted the latest KU-MU basketball game will have fans on both sides itching for combat, unless preventive measures can be taken in advance.
5. If things do get out of control, and let's hope they don't, the game might be the last in this long and colorful series, at least for a while.
Thus, it should be fairly obvious by now why the game is getting such a buildup. Both schools have more important things to worry about, but you can't change human nature and human emotions overnight, especially when those humans live in Kansas and Missouri.
KU
IT WOULD BE A SHAME if the series did have to be temporarily halted. For one thing, this would mean that both schools would have to play an incomplete conference schedule, which in turn would complicate the crowning of the loop champion at season's end. For another and more important reason, this would mean that both schools would have created a Frankenstein-type monster which neither could destroy. In other words, the problem, how to cope with mass hysteria, would have gotten so complicated that it simply couldn't be solved.
KU
KU and Kansas State used to have trouble confining the action to the playing field. But officials from both schools put their heads together, cracked down on violence, and presto; peace.
There's no reason why KU and Missouri can't do the same.
Dressen's Job In Danger Now
NEW YORK — (UPI) — They're betting in baseball that Charley Dressen's scalp will be the next one hanging in the Milwaukee wigwam.
The American League, in the time-honored tradition of firing the manager of a loser to appease the fans, already has dispensed with a pair. Joe Gordon got the axe at Kansas City and Cookie Lavagetto was given the heave-ho by the Minnesota Twins.
Nobody really believes that canning Dressen will make National League champions out of the Braves overnight. It is merely a front-office formula for giving a hypo to the lagging box office when the home forces are drawing customer ire and, even worse, indifference.
It is no secret in the baseball business that nary a manager ever won a race without the horses. Back a few years, a fellow named Casey Stengel was in such managerial ill repute in Brooklyn that he was paid not to manage for a year. That's the same gent who of late won the American League flag 10 times in a 12-year span and tossed in seven world championships for good measure. After which he was fired, too, just to prove that even success isn't necessarily a saving factor.
KU Players Off on Tour
Two KU quarterbacks, Lee Flachsbarth of Atchison and Roger McFarland of Ft. Worth, Tex., are serving as roving ambassadors of football good will this summer.
Flachsbarth and McFarland have been speaking to civic and fraternal groups, alumni, and football fans throughout the state answering questions on KU's prospects for 1931, what it's like to play for Jack Mitchell, the upcoming Missouri game, etc. Last year John Hadl and Fred Hageman hit the gridiron trail with notable results; KU set an all time home season's attendance record.
The boys this year will hit every section of the state, visiting big towns as well as villages. They'll also stray across the border into Missouri. St. Joseph, for example, has always been a good Jayhawker center.
NEW YORK—(UPI)The secret of the modern home run hitters is out at last—it's the bat and not the ball that's responsible for the ever-increasing productivity of major league sluggers.
Lightweight Bats the Answer To the Home Run Question
another journey on their state-wide tour. Both are quarterbacks.
KU's roving football ambassadors. Lee Flachsbarth (left) and Roger McFarland mount up for
The authority for this news is no less an expert than Stan Musial the National League's greatest hitter since Rogers Hornsby and a seven-time batting champion. Now 40 and nearing the end of his record-filled career, Musial gave his views on the evolution in the art of hitting during the last 20 years and in customary Musial fashion his opinions made sense.
"OF COURSE THE BALL IS LIVELY," said Musial. "But the big change in the game during my career has been in the bats, not the ball."
According to Musial, a whole new concept of long-ball hitting is behind the change—a change which has produced a new crop of .250 and .260 home run hitters. Foremost among these this season is the Yankee's Roger Maris, who is hitting home runs at the record Ruthian pace despite an average in the .250's.
Other examples of high homer-hitting but low average wallopers are Rocky Colavito of the Detroit Tigers, Bob Allison of the Minnesota Twins, Willie McCovey of the San Francisco Giants, and numerous others.
"When I broke in it was fashionable for the home run hitters to swing thick, heavy bats weighing 38 to 40 ounces and in some instances all the way up to 44 or even 48 ounces," explained Musial. "Then
Former FB Aide Dies in Columbus
Paul Schofer, former KU assistant football coach during the Chuck Mather era, died at the Ohio State Medical Center in Columbus, Ohio, last Friday.
Schofer, who served here from 1954 to 1957, entered the Center for leg surgery on June 20, later developed pneumonia, and then suffered two heart attacks before passing away. He had been assistant Dean of Men at Ohio University.
He is survived by his wife Laura, two sons, and a married daughter. One of his sons, Jerry, was a football star at Lawrence High School.
the idea developed that the speed of the bat at the moment of contact with the ball was the key to long distance hitting and the result was the production of the new light, tapered bats with skinny handles and most of the wood at the upper end.
"Thus," concluded Musial, "You have hitters who hit terrific drives when they connect solidly but don't have enough wood all along the bat to punch out shorter hits when they don't connect with the thickest part of the bat."
"THESE BATS HAVE TERRIFIC DRIVING POWER." Musial continued, "A ball that is hit with the thick upper end takes off like a skyrocket. On the other hand, the modern hitter who hits a ball down near the end of the handle can't hope to get enough wood on it to push it over or past an infielder.
6-Hour Photo-Finishing FAST MOVIE AND 35MM COLOR SERVICE (By Eastman Kodak)
721 Mass.
HIXON STUDIO
VI 3-0330
Typewriters
Electrics, Manuals Rentals, Sales, Service Office Equipment
Lawrence Typewriter 735 Mass., VI 3-3644
BIRD TV - RADIO
VI 3-8855
STEREO
908 Mass.
- Quality Parts
- Guaranteed
- Expert Service
BUSINESS MACHINES CO.
Portable typewriters 49.50 up.
Cleaning and repairing for all kinds office equipment.
PRINTING by offset.
Mimeographing and Ditto work.
912 Mass.
VI 3-0151
CAMPUS BARBER SHOP
- Open All Summer -
WELCOMES KU STUDENTS AND VISITING STUDENTS, BAND BOYS, ETC.
Just North of Student Union