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Friday, April 21, 1961 University Daily Kansam
Bv Dave Culp
Coach Floyd Temple is starting his eighth season as the Kansas baseball coach, longest tenure in Javhawk history.
He has an over-all record of 75-69 and his teams have finishes of three fourths, three sixths and a third in the Big Eight.
THIS RECORD MAY NOT sound very impressive, but Coach Temple has had to fight several major problems in trying to bring a top diamond squad to Mt. Oread.
Scholastic ineligibilities have been a big problem which seems to creep
Floyd Temple
up at the start of each season. Also, Temple has been hard hit by crucial graduation losses throughout his stay at Kansas.
But, these problems are those which are not uncommon to other league coaches. KU's Temple must try to develop a winning squad in the face of a situation with which few other coaches in the Big Eight must contend. This problem is a shocking dearth of scholarships available for the baseball team.
COACH TEMPLE HAS ONLY five scholarships to dole out to incoming freshmen each year. After using up this paltry total, the only other way Temple can convince promising players to come to Kansas is through persuasion. But, it is hard to try to persuade a prospect with only a mediocre record on which to stand.
Probably the main reason Kansas has an unimpressive baseball history is because it has not been able to offer enough scholarships to lure sufficiently good players here with which to compete against perennial powerhouses like Oklahoma and Missouri.
Missouri and Oklahoma have dominated the Big Eight for the past 34 years. Together they have copped 24 league crowns. During this period these schools were virtually the only ones to offer scholarships to baseball players. Missouri and Oklahoma have 14 and 16 scholarships respectively.
THE PAST TWO SEASONS. Oklahoma State has won the conference—a direct result of a stepping up of the baseball program, which included more scholarships. O-State has 20 baseball scholarships.
All this goes to prove that the school which is willing to give many scholarships is the one which will probably dominate the conference.
These other Big Eight teams have proven that it is necessary to have a good recruiting system to build a good baseball team, just as it is in football, basketball or any other intercollegiate sport.
But a coach cannot bring to a campus an abundance of talent if
he is able to offer only five scholarships. What other drawing power does he have?
ONE ASSET IS good facilities. Quigley Field, once an athletic abortion, has been slowly developed to the point where it is almost on a par with other finer fields in the conference.
This year dugouts and an electric scoreboard have been added. The playing surface is in comparatively decent condition, although there are some rough spots in the outfield. With a little more work and time the diamond could easily be brought up to the level of almost any in the area.
IN THE PAST Temple's players have not been of the caliber to successfully compete with some of the conference schools, which reverts back to the scholarship program. A look at Temple's records shows this. Although it is nothing to brag about, but merely winning more games than he has lost seems a great achievement in Coach Temple's situation.
Another factor is the coach himself. Coach Temple may never be another Stengel, McGraw or Mack, but the fact that he has been here longer than any other baseball coach testifies that he is apparently doing the job which his superiors expect of him.
Although these factors may be important, there still remains the most important thing, the top players are going to play baseball where they can receive a "free ride." With five exceptions, this can't be done at Kansas and therefore the outstanding high school players say, "Thanks, but no thanks," and wander off to someplace else and turn up a couple of years later on a Big Eight championship team.
COACH TEMPIE BELIEVES that if he could offer 12 full scholarships KU would be a contender for the league title very shortly. But, from where will the money for these scholarships come?
"An increase in the number of baseball scholarships could come about only if our football and basketball programs continue to excel.
Olympic Stars in 36th Relays
MAYBE SOME DAY in the near future Coach Temple will be able to offer more scholarships to prospective ballplayers. It would certainly be better than losing a good student and a good athlete because neither the individual or the University has the necessary money to provide an education and a chance to play baseball.
Baseball is a non-profit sport and must rely on the only money-makers, football and basketball, for support." says Coach Temple.
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Iowa State, Iowa, Kansas State,
Oklahoma State, Marquette, Missouri,
Oklahoma, Texas, Texas Tech,
Wichita, Redlands, and Kansas.
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In 1952 Haylett was the coach of the American track team at the Olympics.
Referee for the Centennial Relays will be a world-reknowned Kansan from arch-rival Manhattan, Ward Haylett, track coach at Kansas State.
Preliminaries, decathlon events,
and the high school division started
at 9 a.m. today and will run through
5 p.m. Tomorrow, more preliminaries
and decathlon events will be run in
the morning with the big afternoon
show starting at 1:30.
Relays Has Interesting Past
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THE 1954 RELAYS was highlighted by KU's Wes Santee churning the second swiftest mile in American history, up to that time,
by winning the Glenn Cunningham feature in a smoking 4:03.1, a record that still holds in Memorial Stadium.
At the 35th Kansas Relays last year the Jayhawkers won two relay titles, added four individual gold medals and crowned the outstanding athlete in the KU Relays, Cliff Cushman.
The only record set during the
two-day meet was established by Jim Baird of East Texas State as his leap of $25-5^{3/4}$ gunned down the oldest mark in the books, Ed Gordon's broad jump record of $25-4^{3/4}$ set in 1931.
OTHER OUTSTANDING performances in last year's Relays were by Cliff Cushman in winning the 400-meter intermediate hurdles in 51.2; Charlie Tidwell's wind-blown 9.4 victory in the 100-yard dash and Bill Alley's javelin toss of $244\cdot 2\frac{1}{2}$.
in the country which holds the decathlon, an event or series of events which dates back to Grecian times.
The Kansas Relays is also outstanding because it is the only meet
THIS GRUELING TEST shows the ability of the athlete not in just one or two events, but in ten.
The events include the 100-meter dash, 400-meter run, javelin, broad jump, shotput, high jump, 100-meter hurdles, discus, pole vault and 1500-meter run.
The record of 7167 points was made by Phil Mulkey of the Memphis Olympic Club last year.
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