6A • THE UNIVERSITY DAILY KANSAN
SPORTS
FRIDAY.AUG.31,2001
Jones: Player fights back from accident
CONTINUED FROM 1A
restricted to light jogging, but weight lifting and running were disallowed. The Dallas doctors were cautious with the 18-year-old. Rushing him would stifle his recuperation.
"My doctors did not know what to think," Jones said. "They had never dealt with a situation like that before. They couldn't tell me if I would ever return to football. They pretty much just told me to wait it out and see."
In the spring of 2000, Jones made his return to the football field, but his body was still weak. His weight dropped to 235 pounds after he had built it up so dramatically during his redshirt season, Roll said. He had taken a giant step to make it back, but not being able to work in the weight room hindered his progress.
"He lost a year of training, but you could see in his eyes that he was going to make it back," Roll said. "He wanted it."
Last fall, Jones served as Kansas' third-string tight end behind ex-Jayhawk Jason Gulley and junior David Hurst. He played in four games that year to earn his first varsity letter. During spring football, Jones had declared himself fully recovered
from the accident that nearly took his life 16 months before.
In a spring football game in April, Jones showed his teammates and coaches that the wreck was behind him. On a pass play near the end of the scrimmage, quarterback Mario Kinsey lofted a 37-yard pass in front of the sprinting Jones. After beating starting strong safety Jake Letourneau to the goal line, Jones sprawled out to make a diving touchdown catch in the back of the end zone. After the game, coach Terry Allen said to a horde of reporters that Jones would be in the running for the starting tight end position.
Last Tuesday, after watching Jones and Hurst battle throughout two-a-days, Allen announced that Jones would be his starting tight end in the season opener tomorrow.
"It's A.J.'s time to shine," Allen said. "Last fall, we were pretty guarded with him. But he'd done so well this summer to become a starter; he's earned it."
But Jones is just pleased to be back playing the game he loved, the game that brought him to Kansas and the game he nearly lost Nov. 28, 1999.
Contact Denton at 864-4810
Golf coach helps team find the green
By John Domoney Kansan sportswriter
The year was 1980. and Kansas men's golf was mired in a string of unfulfilled seasons that had seen it finish in the middle or toward the bottom of the Big 8 Conference for nearly 20 years.
CHRIS BURKET/KANSAN
Ross Randall, coach for the Kansas men's golf team, helps a player with his swing on the fourth hole at Alvamar Golf Course. Since Randall took charge of the program, he has produced 11 top-four conference finishes and four All-Americans.
The Jahawks were looking for a change, and little did Kansas know that the man who would steer the program into national prominence was a Californian working as a golf pro in Ames, Iowa.
Ross Randall, who left Iowa and migrated to Kansas, couldn't be happier with his decision to come to Lawrence. In the 22 years that he's been the jayhawks golf coach, he's built a program that is now among the elite in the nation.
"The longer I stayed here, the more I loved Alvamar and Lawrence, and now it's my home," Randall said. "I'm comfortable here and proud of the school."
For Randall, coaching collegiate golf wasn't what he set out to do when he graduated from San Jose State in 1968. He had a stellar career that saw him earn first-team All-American status in 1967 to go along with his second-plain finish in the 1964 NCAA Championship, which he lost to his longtime golfing friend, Hale Irwin.
After a run on the PGA Tour from 1969 to 1976, Randall assumed the role of head golf professional at the Ames Golf and Country Club for two years. Then the idea of coaching golf presented itself in the form of an offer from Iowa State.
Luckily for Kansas, Randall didn't accept the offer at Iowa State and ventured to Lawrence instead to oversee a program that has produced 11 top-four conference finishes and four All-Americans since his arrival.
"It's nice to see them come in when they're 18 because some are scared about being at a big school and being away from home." Randall said. "My wife and I enjoy watching them
grow up and going to weddings and sending put baby gifts."
It's this father-like approach that has earned Randall his players' admiration and respect on and off the golf course.
"Coach is a pretty laid back guy," senior golfer Casey Harbour said. "He's a firm believer that if you want to be a good player, you'll practice individually on your own until you become a good player."
In his years as coach, Randall has come to realize that the term "good player" has changed. He credited the changes in equipment and the players' fitness levels for ushering in a period of competitiveness that hasn't
been seen before.
"The players I recruited 15 years ago that would have been our No.1 or No.2 player couldn't make the team now," Randall said.
The three-time conference coach of the year still carries the same love for his job that he did more than two decades ago. And Randall doesn't have any plans to relinquish his role anytime soon.
"I just want to continue to graduate players and be a competitive program," Randall said. "Hopefully as long as they think I can help them, I'll keep doing it for a while."
Contact Domoney at 864-4810
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