Page 12
University Daily Kansan, September 5, 1980
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Knee operations fail to spoil Odell's life without football
By TRACEE HAMILTON
Sports Writer
Sports Writer
He drummed his fingers heavily on the dining room table. Absent-mindedly shuffling the pages of Grant's anatomy textbook like a deck of cards, he was completely unaware of his actions, as if his mind didn't know what his body was doing. He fidgeted in the straight-backed chair and rotated a sweaty lemonade glass in his other band.
John Odelm will not keep still, and as the opening is scheduled, this season draws him. He will find it even harder.
Odell, a former standout lineman for the
Farmers League, has been unsuccessful, to
organize a football team.
THE 8-POOT-5,250-pound defensive tackle was hurt during the second game of the 1978 season against the Washington Huskers, a dismal match-up for both KU and Odell.
The Huskies trounced the Jayhawks 31-2 and mangled Odell's knee. He suffered a broken fibula, torn ligaments and a dislocated knee, one of the most serious injuries an athlete can suffer.
THE HUSKIES faked inside. Odell's assignment was the fullback. He closed the hole. The ball went around the end. Odell followed until someone hit the side of his right knee.
"I rolled around on the turf a little while, and that was it," he said.
The only reassuring aspect of Odell's injury, according to head trainer Dean Nesmith, was that the veins and nerves to the lower leg were not injured.
"In all my years, I've seen only three dislocated knees," Neasim said. "John's injury is the only one I've seen that happened during a fall." He recalled the incident to mend, but John has worked hard at it."
KU FANS REMEMBER Odell as a standout sophomore who, in 1977 and 1978, showed signs of becoming one of the greatest defensive players in KU history. Bud Moore, then KU's head coach,
said Odell was one of the top newcomers in the nation at defensive tackle.
After his injury, Odell used every bit of courage he exhibited on the playing field to recover from his injury. Even when he remobilized beehive he never play again. Odell kept struggling back.
His first operation came three days after the Washington contest.
"I intended to be able to play again by the end of the 1979 season," he said. "I thought I would play again up until two weeks before my second surgery."
The second operation was one of reconstruction.
"THEY WENT IN and pulled everything up
their backs. "Odell said: "It
seems I had enough the first time."
After the surgery, the leg steadily improved, then arradially worsened.
"I think the knee was too loose for the muscles to take over," he said. "It's better now than it was."
"I'd say that I have about 75 percent of my original strength back."
To regain that strength, Odell has been working out on an orthatron machine, which exerts pressure according to the amount of resistance the athlete exerts.
"It helps strengthen both sides of the leg," Odel said. "But right now I'm taking it slow."
THE WORDS CAME out in a rush, and judging
that I was on his face, the speaker didn't
like the sound of his face.
"I thought I would play again for a long time, but it's getting kind of ridiculous," he said. "I've been out of college football for two years. It would take a lot for me to come back even if I would have just quit, but with my injury, it would be a long shot."
Now, instead of hitting blocking dummies, Odell is hitting the books. He said his grades had been low.
Odell, once a double major in journalism and
physical education, said he dropped journalism because of a lack of time. He says he intends to earn a degree in advertising later.
AND INSTEAD OF GETING in shape for a season of hard-hitting Big Eight football, Odell is
"I can play a slow game of tennis and a slow game of basketball," he said. "I used to be pretty good at basketball, but not anymore.
Odell said that when he ran, the knee "went too far back."
"It doesn't bother me to walk," he said. "I can run at a good speed for half a mile, then it gets faster."
Odell is a realist, but not a pessimist.
"Who knows, I may be back next year," he said. "I'll call up me now.
"But I stand the chance of getting out there and really messing my knee up. In some cases where there is nerve damage, dislocated knees have been amputated.
"It's not like I'm scared to get out there."
IF ODELL FEARS anything, he is careful not to show it. His injury has not changed his caretaker.
"Pro ball was a long shot," he said. "I suppose all guys who play college ball think about it. I might have been good enough to play, but that's just mustbe."
"I don't want to be a coach all life, maybe I
should just say," he said. "There are lots of
other things I like to do."
Odell will to coach football in high school and college but he is not ruling out other opportunities.
Right now, Odell contributes his time instead of tackles to the KU football program. He helped freshmen players through enrollment and has become the idea of going back on the field to help coach.
"I don't know if I'd feel right coaching guys I'd
baby'd you right, and I don't know if
Baby'd you right, either."
ONE REASON ODELL keeps active in the
John Odell
program is Head Coach Don Fambrough. Odel, a
tremendous respect for him,
had his tremendous respect for him.
"He was here when I was playing, but he wasn't coaching," he said. "The other coaches weren't the ones who recruited or coached me. They're kind of distant."
"He knows me, knows how I played, and knows if I was any good. Time will tell if he'll pull the team around, but he certainly knows how to treat his players."
While Odell has physically adjusted to his injury, his mind is still on the game of football.
"I DON'T MISS two-days, and I don't miss the practices, he said. "But when games start, I practice."
"I wish I could go out there. It just eats me alive."
Odell confessed that he missed being in the limelight. too
"You get used to people knowing who you are and other players knowing how you played."
"It's hard to handle. Everybody goes by the wayside."
In front of a mirror,
"I just feel it was a little before my time."
He froze for a moment.
Tape, mind aid return from injury
Picture 14 football fields end to end. Now picture them rolled up in a ball. That's about how much tape KU trainers use to treat injuries each day.
"Most of our time is spent in prevention, taping and training the athlete's spine it was built by resistive exercises."
Dean Nesmith, men's head athletic trainer, estimated yesterday that his crew used 80 to 90 rolls of tape every day to combat injuries. Each roll measures 15 yards. Nesmith said that the most important part of a trainer's job was to move injuries, rather than merely treating them.
Nesmith said a resistive exercise was one that strengthened a limb or joint and made it less stiff.
"ANKLE INJURIES are the most common,
especially in football," he said. "Tackling and
blocking are aimed at the legs. Knee injuries are
not as frequent, but are more serious.
"Ligaments are easily torn and require an operation. Rehabilitation takes about six months."
Cynthia Booth, head women's trainer, said that motivation was essential to recovery from illness.
"THE ATLHETE IS anxious to get back in competition," she said. "Our goal is to return them to the level they were at before the injury
"Sometimes it's hard to make them go slow."
Both men's hair is dark and thick grey. Booth, who has been a trainer for both men and women, said the injuries for both sexes were basically the same.
"There's not that much difference in working with men and women," she said. "The injuries are quite different."
Brewers bomb Gura, Quiz for 8 runs in 9th
Neamith, in his 43rd year at KU, said he had not noticed a dramatic increase in decrease in blood pressure.
"I think the numbers are basically the same," he said. "The equipment is better, but the boys are still bad."
Sports Writer
By MATT SEELEY
"I'd like to be the star," White said. "Maybe next time."
KANSAS CITY, Mo.—It may have been Frank White's birthday, but it was the Milwaukee Brewers who did most of the celebrating last night.
The Brewers' barrage put a damper on White's birthday. But White managed some celebrating of his own with his first hometown of the year in 1943. His White's solo shot broke a 1-1 tie in the fifth.
Down four runs run into the ninth inning, the Brewers erupted for eight runs to beat Kansas City, 9-6. That spoiled what appeared to be a bawning end to a festive evening for the Royals.
Quisberry, however, failed this time. The lk-dabler served up seven Brewers' singles on Sunday, including
ROYALS' STARTER Larry Gura, struggling throughout most of the game, gave up back-to-back singles to start the top of the ninth. Kansas won 6-4, but the Ravens, who was brought in for the fourth time this season.
"I'm not a strikeout pitcher." Quisenberry said. "I was roughed up like this once. One time my older brother got hold of me when I was five."
UNTIL LAST NIGHT, Quisenberry had entered the lead in the team effort to win all six.
"Hey, I hope no one says anything bad about Quisenberry." Milwaukee's Thomas said. "The kid's done a helvella a job all season, and we really didn't hit the ball that hard tonight."
THE ROYALS SEEMED to have the birthday cake caked after the seventh. George Brett knocked a three-ball, no-strike pitch off Milwaukee starter Bill Travers into the left-centerfield for an 19th home run of the season. The bummed run was followed by a four-minute standing ovation.
After White's home run, the Royals scored again in the sixth to go ahead 3-1. Catcher John Wathan doubled and came home on Jose Cardena's single.
Two innings later, however, the candles on the cake went out.
"We got even with Kansas City for embarrassing us at home," Brewer manager George Bamberger said. "I think we have a chance to win club. We should have been doing this all year."
The Brewer victory completed a three-game sweep of the Royals and marked the first time this year that the Royals had been swept at home. It was the first time since April 13, when the Royals lost their third straight in Baltimore, that Kansas City had been swept.
White's birthday was not spoiled by the loss, "It's not a game where it's going to tear you up," he said. "We haven't won the division yet, though."
Brett finished the game one point lower than
he began it, going 1-for-3 and dropping his major-league leading average to 401.
Brett also established a Kansas City record by reaching the 100 RBI mark the earliest in a season. His home run gave him exactly 100. John Mayberry, the previous title holder, accomplished the 100 RBI feat on the 14th of September.
THE ROYALS' loss kept their magic number at 11. The number is the combination of Kansas city victories and Texas losses needed for the playoff season. The eastern Division title. Texas was idle last night.
More than 21,000 fans attended last night's game, putting Kansas City over the 2 million on the field.
Flanagan, Orioles falter
From Kansan wire services
Mike Flanagan, last year's Cy Young winner, lost miserably for the second straight time last night as the Baltimore Orioles dropped another game behind in the American League East.
Flannagan was pounded by the Oakland A's for nine hits and four runs in four innings. He dropped the Orioles 2% games behind division-leading New York. The
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