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SPORTS
KANSAN.COM/SPORTS | THURSDAY, SEPT. 24, 2015
AP PHOTO
Column: Wiggins needs to carry his team to playoffs
MIKE MAICKE
@MJ Maicke
This time last year, Andrew Wiggins was focusing on getting ready for his first NBA season. Just a few months earlier, he had been selected with the No.1 overall pick in the 2014 NBA Draft, and the anticipation was building.
But the start of the 2015-16
Head coach David Beaty and defensive coordinator Clint Bowen shout as the Kansas defense runs onto the field on Sept. 12.
JAMES HOYT/KANSAN
MYTHS AND TALES
KANSAN.COM
AMIE JUST
@Amie_Just
More than dirt lies under the streets of downtown Lawrence. There's an interconnected network of underground tunnels that join different buildings and sections of the Massachusetts Street area together.
Entering the tunnels is illegal, unless the passageway opens access to someone's property. With no existing map outlining the course of the tunnels and no knowledge of what condition the paths are in, walking underground is dangerous. Many of the tunnels have also been sealed off.
Then why are they there and what are they used for?
Many different theories and rumors circulate the town, but only some have been confirmed.
Several of the downtown tunnels were known to have been built in part by J.D. Bowersock and the Bowersock Dam, completed in July of 1874. In that time, electricity was carried via a conveyor belt system rather than through the overhead electric wires that are everywhere today.
Architectural historian, Brenna Buchanan, said the basement of Ernst & Son Hardware (located at 826 Massachusetts St.) used to
be an old seamstress factory. The sewing machines were powered by hydroelectricity from the dam. In that case, Bowersock's tunnel system could have reached the store (about 0.5 miles from the dam) and branched out farther downtown.
Buchanan has been in the tunnel that starts under Liberty Hall and runs to Hobbs Inc across the street. She said the tunnel used to connect to the Eldridge Hotel, but has long since been closed off.
Lawrence Journal-World articles from 1962, 1964, 1987 and 2009 have testaments from people who had been in the tunnels all over Lawrence.
Two boys found a tunnel, what they called a cave, near West Ninth Street and Avalon Road in 1962, according to the Lawrence Journal-World. The article cited "unconfirmed speculation" about the tunnel being used for the Underground Railroad.
preserved.
According to a Lawrence Journal-World article on March 4, 1964, tunnels were found under the old Lawrence Brewery and Byrd Tannery building. That building has since been razed, but the building stood on Maine Street, just north of the Lawrence Memorial Hospital. According to that article, the tunnels were supposed to be salvaged and
In 1987, two other tunnels were discovered at Sixth and Massachusetts Street when the Underwood Building was destroyed.
The tunnels aren't fancy by any means. Many of the tunnels, according to people who have seen them, aren't very big. With hardly any room to stand, people crawled through the mold, grime, and mud that coated the paths. The article from 1962 detailed how the tunnel the boys found was roughly three feet in height.
As for urban legend, anything goes.
Historians in Lawrence have been on both sides of the
Underground Railroad theory, but because there isn't enough evidence proving either side, the debate still rages on.
The Underground Railroad dates back to the 1850s and 1860s. The Bowersock Dam started construction in 1872, and was completed in 1874.
In Wabaunsee County, Kan.
(two counties west of Douglas
County), there is documented
evidence of the Underground
Railroad. No such proof exists
for Douglas County, but
theoretically, its possible.
Will more tunnels show up somewhere? Who knows. You never know what could be under your feet.
WILL WEBBER
@wmwebber
LETTER FROM THE EDITOR
None of these stories are new, but then, legends rarely are. They're repeated and passed down from class to class, accumulating embellishments and alternate perspectives along the way. And while most cities'
histories go down in flames, Lawrence's pretty much begins there (shouts out to William Quantrill). From the free state to the freak state, this city has maintained an identity that no one else in Kansas would want to claim. So we're breaking oral tradition and writing a few of these stories down.
Not so.
But why are these stories worth telling? Well, I grew up in Kansas City with the understanding that Lawrence revolved entirely around the University, and more specifically, Keith Langford. Not so.
As hard as it is to believe,
Lawrence existed before your
freshman year andv it will
live on beyond your four or five or eight years here. This city is unique in that it accommodates more than 20,000 students in addition to a wealth of business owners, families and vagrants. It's the city where a real estate tycoon can push a Bugatti and Dennis can push a shopping cart (if you don't
know who Dennis is, stay tuned for future stories). So as we have the time of our lives, it's important for us to acknowledge those memories made and forgot in the bars and classrooms and streets before us. These Lawrence myths — true or not — have survived to 2015 and it's time you brushed up.
necessarily a poor neid goat percentage, considering his team lacked multiple offensive threats to take the pressure off him and relied on him to create a lot of his offense.
However, the efficiency he put up at the FIBA Americas speaks to the type of player Wiggins could become. And the Timberwolves are going to need that Wiggins if they're going to have any chance at a postseason run.
It has been more than a decade since they've made the playoffs, and even with new additions, there's still a long way to go before the winning culture can be restored.
coach Ray Bechard said after the team's rough performance. "Offensively, we hit .220, that's probably the lowest of the year. We had to rely on some other things."
The first set of the match proved to be difficult for the Jayhawks as they trailed the Wildcats throughout the majority of the set. Kansas took the lead a total of three times in set one. Eventually the Jayhawks took the lead at 19-18 and held it to win the set 25-23.
Right side hitter Kelsie Payne led the Jayhawks in kills, posting six throughout the set. Setter Ainise Havili
RAY BECHARD Head Coach
"Offensively, we hit .220 thats probably the lowest of the year. We had to rely on some other things."
The Jayhawks recorded only 11 kills in the second set, a relative low for the team. The leader in kills in the second set was outside hitter Madison Rigdon, who added four kills to bring her total to five.
can't change, our body language can't change."
wait continued to prove herself as a defensive specialist by adding five more digs to her five from the first set. Wait was diving all over the court, trying for balls that seemed impossible to save.
The Jayhawks took the third set 25-22 in a hard-fought battle. Payne continued to post impressive kill numbers, adding six to make her total 15 in three sets. Havili assisted her teammates and put up 16 assists to increase her total to 38.
Wait led the team in digs. She showed her dedication to her defensive position by taking a full-speed hit to the face
"One ball, one set, one match at a time," Wait said.
"That's what I focus on."
the fourth and final set came much easier to the Jayhawks as the fire that was once burning within the Wildcats began to die. The Jayhawks took the set 25-21.
Havili added another 16 assists to bring her total to 54 — only three away from her personal best. Rigdon used those assists to post six more kills and finished the day with 14. Payne ended the day with 20 kills, five coming from the final set.
but saved the ball and immediately got back up.
Five players ended the game with a dig amount in the double digits. Wait led with 27. Havili had 12 and posted yet another double-double for the season. Defensive specialist Addison Barry had a spectacular night in the back, recording a season high of six digs.
"[Barry] was digging everything in her zone," Bechard said. "That was big."
The Jayhawks will face Kansas State once again on Nov. 25 in Manhattan. For now, the team's next test comes against TCU on Saturday on 2 p.m.