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INSIDE: Wyoming athlete charged in fatal car accident. SEE PAGE 3B KANSAN.COM:The Kansas-Wyoming game will be played on Nov.24.
SPORTS
THE UNIVERSITY DAILY KANSAN
WWW.KANSAN.COM/SPORTS
1B
WEDNESDAY, SEPTEMBER 19,2001
Commentary
Chris Wristen
Columnist
sportskansan.com
Weekend football can heal a nation
The game had to be played. We needed it.
A Saturday afternoon without football just wouldn't be normal.
The NFL, the Big 12 Conference and virtually every college football conference had postponed their games last weekend, as had Major League Baseball and NASCAR, out of respect for the victims of last week's terrorist attacks, and to give Americans a chance to find closure and make a return to normalcy.
But I couldn't find closure, and I couldn't bear spending a fifth straight day watching Tom Brokaw and Dan Rather find 200 more ways to tell us that the nation had experienced a great tragedy. Hours in front of the TV didn't help me cope. They made me feel worse.
I needed closure. I needed a change. I needed football.
For a few hours football could take my mind off of the loss of life and threat made to our nation's freedom. A simple game could give me back my piece of mind.
For the record, football was played at Memorial Stadium on Saturday afternoon. Fourteen friends and I gathered in the grassy field next to Memorial Stadium and turned it into our own gridiron. Gone were the thousands of tailgaters who would have been there prior to the originally scheduled Kansas game against Wyoming. Gone were the bright lights, turf field, Megavision board, Crimson Girls and talented athletes. But none of that mattered on Saturday afternoon.
What mattered was friends and football.
For two hours we clashed like titans in the steady rain. Nobody cared who won or lost. All we cared about was hitting someone hard, getting tackled into a pool of thick mud and getting back up to do it again. We sloshed through puddles. We tackled. We missed tackles, dropped passes, threw interceptions and scored touchdowns.
For two hours we played football—and we didn't think about terrorism, death or fear. The scariest thing in our minds was a guy named Spencer who tackled like an All-Pro and left me face-down in the mud on numerous plays.
In the wake of a national tragedy, a simple game of football with friends helped us forget about terrorists and bombings for a while and live like normal college students once again.
Others found solace in the same game.
As I drove home to my apartment that evening I saw more KU students playing football. Guys were playing catch in front of Allen Fieldhouse, a game was being played next to Robinson Center and another game was taking place behind Oliver Hall. Two kids, each probably 10 years old, were tossing the pigskin in a front yard with their dad. It looked like a normal Saturday afternoon.
We were all affected by the terrorist attacks on our country; there's not question about that, but many people found comfort and consolation in the game. It provided a release for emotions and helped calm the storm that rocked America just eight days ago.
That's why there was no question we had to play football on Saturday. President Bush advocated a return to normalcy, and without Saturday football things just couldn't be normal.
Walk-on bumped to starting role
Hill's injury against UCLA gives Goodrich chance on starting squad
By Jeff Denton Kansan sportswriter
Barry Goodrich was standing on the sidelines Sept. 8 when wide receiver Harrison Hill was bumped out of bounds during a first quarter punt return. The next voice Goodrich heard was Hill's, moments before the starting offense hit the field for its first possession against 14th-ranked UCLA.
Wristen is a Leawood senior in journalism.
"You got to get in there Barry," Hill barked as his left shoulder throbbed.
Goodrich's eyes next moved toward Kansas wide receivers coach Clarence James. The offense sauntered onto the football field without one of its starting wideouts. James said his job was to find a replacement for the Jayhawks' three-year starter. He put his arm around 6-foot-1, 195-nound Goodrich and told him he was the guy.
Goodrich had no time to react.
"There was no time for any pep talk," James said.
"That was a shock, he was nervous as heck. Barry wasn't expecting to start the game against UCLA, let's be real."
For the first time since his senior year in high school, Goodrich, a junior, was on the football field to start a game. But unlike the success he experienced as a high school senior in Middleton, Wis., his first taste of starting a college football game was bitter.
The UCLA secondary suffocated Goodrich all afternoon. The one ball thrown his direction skipped two yards in front of his feet. He said that he had trouble getting separation off the defensive back and that he never found a flow from the first snap to the last.
"I was really nervous because I don't know if you can really prepare yourself for something like that," Goodrich said. "It was devastating to know that Harrison — a team captain and a team leader — went down like that."
SEE GOODRICH PAGE 5B
Barry Goodrich, junior, number 86, is an unproven wide receiver. He is the slotted replacement to take injured Harrison Hill's position.
EN-KAE CHANG/KANSAN
Oklahoma edges Kansas as recruitment begins
By Ali Brox
Kansan sportswriter
Two basketball prospects who had Kansas on their lists of possible schools have orally committed to the University of Oklahoma.
According to Alliance Sports, Kelenna Azubuike,a 6-foot-5 small forward from Victory Christian High School in Tulsa, Okla., committed to Oklahoma on Thursday. Azubuike took his only official visit to Oklahoma the weekend of September 7-9. He had four other visits planned, including one to Kansas. Azubuike said he liked coach Calvin Sampson's attitude.
"I really liked coach Sampson. I really like his coaching style. I am really impressed with their
program and facilities, their building behind the Lloyd Noble Center. It showed me that they are wanting to move up, and I'm impressed with that, the team, the campus and the academic support they have."
they are Azubuike averaged 37.5 points, 11.8 rebounds, five assists, six steals, and three blocks per game last season. He should have no trouble qualifying academically. He said he has a 3.6 grade point average and scored 1080 on the SAT.
guard prospects in the class of 2002. Despite his verbal commitment to Oklahoma, Alexander's dad, Steve, told Alliance Sports his son would still visit other schools before signing the letter of intent in November.
The Sooners received another verbal commitment from Oklahoma native DeAngelo Alexander. Alexander is a 6-4 shooting guard from Midwest City High School in Midwest City, Okla. Alexander is listed by Alliance Sports as one of the better two-
"He has certainly given a verbal to Oklahoma but he is looking at other schools too," Steve Alexander said.
Alexander lists Kansas as one of his final six colleges and has said he may make an official visit to KU the weekend of Oct. 13.
Kansas, Oklahoma and Oklahoma State are still in the running for Kevin Bookout, a 6-8 power forward from Stroud High School in Stroud, Okla.
SEE BASKETBALL PAGE 48
Molly LaMere, Papillion, Neb., senior, serves the ball to UMKC at a game Monday night. The Jayhawks won in four sets. Kansas' next match is 7 p.m. tonight at the Horeisi Family Athletic Center.
ANTHONY REYES/KANSAN
Volleyball starts Big 12 play against improved Iowa State
By Steve Laurenzo Kansan sportswriter
The Kansas volleyball team finally enters Big 12 Conference play at 7 p.m. tonight at the Horejsi Family Athletic Center, after a week of postponed games following the terrorist attacks Sept. 11, and a non-conference interlude Monday night.
Tonight the Jayhawks take on the Iowa State Cyclones, who could easily be called last year's conference doormat, as they finished 2-27 on the year and 0-20 in the Big 12 play last season.
However, coach Ray Bechard isn't taking the match lightly. The Cyclones come to Lawrence with a 3-2 record.
"They're balanced, and they're much improved," Bechard said. "Last year they depended on a couple of players offensively, and
this year they're spreading that offense around a little bit. I think there is a sense on that team that they all have a responsibility offensively."
Kansas enters the match undefeated, 9-0, making it tied with Missouri for first place in the Big 12. A win tonight would mean the best start in the history of the program, last year's team set the current record of 9-0.
Monday night the Jayhawks learned about taking an opponent too lightly. They struggled to beat the UMKC Kangaroos in a fourgame, hard-fought match.
Bechard said last week's delay of play may have been the reason the team struggled.
"I think we underestimated that a bit," he said. "I think it was more of an issue than maybe what we thought. We thought we had a week long of just practice and
really pushed them, but they were thinking about a lot of other things."
Junior defensive specialist Jennifer Kraft said Bechard addressed a few basic issues in practice yesterday.
"We worked on improving our overall game, things like moving our feet in transition," Kraft said. "In order for our team to be successful, we definitely need to do that."
The team is ready to play better than it did Monday, Bechard said.
"They were very attentive in practice," he said. "I think they were disappointed in their overall play against UMKC. They came back today a little more enthused, a little more focused on what we need to do."
Contact Laurenzo at 864-4858
MLB
MLB
Cincinnati
6
Chicago
5
MLB
Atlanta
3
St. Louis 9
MLB
Milwaukee 4
4
Chicago
3
New York 11
MLB
Boston
Bosto 7
Tampa Bay 2
1.