Sports
University Daily Kansan / Tuesday, October 6, 1987
9
No lights or camera just action for Avery
Scott Carpenter/KANSAN
Eldridge Avery, KU defensive end, pursues Southern Illinois quarterback Fred Gibson. Avery had two sacks and recovered a tumble Saturday.
By CRAIG ANDERSON
Staff writer
Kansas senior defensive end Eldridge Avery looked more like a big backfill in the Jayhawk locker room Saturday after Kansas beat Southern Illinois 16-15 at Memorial Stadium.
"If you want to talk, we'll have to go outside," Avery said, smiling. "I don't like talking with all these cameras around here."
With a football tightly cradled one arm, Avery dugged in and out around players and media in the congested dressing room. He soon had escaped to a more serene spot outside the locker room.
With senior defensive end Teddy Newman missing most of the game Saturday because of a concussion he suffered in the Louisiana Tech game, Avery had to play the entire game at his end spot. Avery moved into Newman's backfield and senior Stacy Henson played the entire game at left defensive end.
Avery had good reasons to think that the television broadcasters would want to talk to him. For one thing, the ball he had in his arms was the one he had recovered when Saluki tailback Byron Mitchell fumbled in the third quarter.
"Eldridge played a great football game," said Vie Eumont, Kansas defensive line coach. "He played
At that point, Southern Illinois had the ball in Kansas territory and was ahead 10-3. A Saluki score might have put the game out of reach, based on the way the Jayhawk did the ball during the game. It was not nohow however, because the 6-foot-3, 265-pound Avery recovered the fumble.
The fumble recovery was just part of what was a good day for Avery. He had only five tackles at his defensive spot, but when he did make the play, he made big ones. Three of Avery's tackles were for a total of 14 yards in losses.
aggressively throughout the game and was in there fighting at the end."
Though Avery wasn't shy on the field, he did do his best to avoid the media types that hovered around the Kansas locker room after the game. When he was finally tracked down, he said he was happy with the way he
had played.
"Being a senior, it was an especial
business for me. Avery said, "
briety was not an issue.
"I just liked the way he was."
losses. Saturday's fumble recovery was the first one he has had since he recovered two during his freshman year in 1983.
During the Jayhawks' first four games of the season, Avery has been a big-play man on the defense. He has had seven tackles for 33 vardues in
All of Avery's successes have come in a season in which he and his teammates have had to deal with the adversity of a 10-game losing streak
"We want to build on this win," he said. "I'm a senior, and I want to go to a bowl game. I get tired of going home and seeing Jamelle Holway with a (national championship) ring on his finger. I want my own ring."
over the last year that finally ended Saturday against Southern Illinois.
Players discuss demands
The Associated Press
CHICAGO — Striking NFL players met last night to determine ways to get management back to the bargaining table, including dropping the sticky issue of free agency from their agenda.
While the union was buoyed by minuscule attendance at the first strike games on Sunday, reports continued that there would be additional defections of veteran players this week to add to the nearly 100 who crossed picket lines in the first two weeks of the strike.
"You heard the American public say that it's not the owners or the people dressed up in team jerseys they come to see. It's the NFL talent and abilities and personalities that make things work."
Sunday's strike games were hardly a hit at the box office. Overall, NFL stadiums that normally fill to 95 percent of capacity were just 26 percent filled, including gatherings of just over 4,000 at Detroit and Pittsburgh. Those two and four other teams — Tampa Bay, New England and New Orleans — had all-time low attendances, and Buffalo had its second-lowest.
"That's what we're here to debate," Holloway said. "I think there's pressure on both sides now to negotiate. There certainly a consensus among the players on the committee to get back and bargain. We think after this weekend's games, the momentum is in our favor."
Brian Holloway of the Los Angeles Raiders, a member of the NFL Players Association, was asked before last night's meeting whether the union might back away from its law agency demands.
While the union met in Chicago, five members of the NFL Management Council Executive Committee met for $4\frac{1}{2}$ hours in New York. Chairman Hugh Culverhouse, owner of the Tampa Bay Buccaneers, said they would be waiting for the outcome of the players' meeting.
Basketball coaches wind up in-home recruiting battles
Staff writer
By DARRIN STINEMAN Staff writer
The Kansas men's basketball coaches will wind up this fall's in-home recruiting tomorrow in the New York City area after three weeks of battling the other major NCAA Division I powers for blue-chip players.
Since Sept. 17 when officials of Division I schools were allowed to enter recruits' homes, the Kansas coaches have visited Texas, California and Indiana. They will visit recruits in New York and Connecticut tomorrow.
Kansas coach and recruiting director Alvin Gentry said he and coaches Larry Brown and Ed Manning tried to make themselves with the prospects.
He said the players they visited usually asked the coaches where they would fit into the program, how many players Kansas was recruiting, how the school was academically and whether a fifth year of school would be paid for if they didn't graduate in four years.
"We basically give them an opportunity to know us, and we tell them about the program." Gentry said. "We give them an idea of the social situation in Lawrence as well as the academic and athletic aspects."
Most coaches spend up to three hours when visiting a recruits' home. Genry said the Kansas coaches tried to be in no more than an hour and a half
"We don't take in any highlight films like some schools do," he said. "We try to do it verbally by asking and answering questions."
Gentry said he was somewhat disappointed that few of the most highly-toued prospects were considering Kansas.
"That has bothered us a little bit because we've been one of the most dominating teams in the country the last four years," he said. "We were a little disappointed because we were among the final eight teams being considered by some of the top 20 kids in the country, and then we were eliminated although we are as good as anyone in the country."
He said the Midwest location of the University might be a reason why the Jayhawks lost so many ton recruits
not a media center like New York or Los Angeles," Gentry said.
Despite Kansas' inability to attract the cream of the recruiting crop, Gentry said the coaches weren't panicking.
"We'd like to get the best players we can possibly get, but we can't worry about that. We're going to get some good players." he said.
One place Kansas may be able to find some good players is in junior colleges. Gentry said the high quality and quantity of Kansas junior college players gave the Jayhawk program an edge over other schools.
'Although we're on TV a lot, we're
"This is the best year in 20 years as far as having major college talent in junior colleges," he said. "We're in a situation where Kansas has the best junior college conferences in the country, bar none. Most of these kids are in their junior college players they're able to step in and play on the level we plan on."
49er subs smash Giants, 41-21
The early signing period for letters of intent start Nov. 11 and ends Nov. 18. Under NCAA regulations, schools are prohibited from releasing the names of recruits until a letter of intent is signed.
EAST RUTHERFORD, N.J. - Del Rodgers ran two yards for a touchdown late in the first half and Mike Wells returned a blocked punt for another score 28 seconds later as the San Francisco 49ers beat the New York Giants 41-21 in an NFL replacement game last night.
The Associated Press
Only 16,471 fans attended the nationally televised replacement game, a record low for the Giants at
76,000-seat Giants Stadium. The previous attendance low was established late in the 1983 season, when 25,156 fans braved a cold, rainy day to watch the Giants, who would finish 3-12, play St. Louis.
Bill Walsh. He had the 49ers open the game with a reverse and then employed a wishbone offense much of the second half under the direction of backup quarterback Mark Stevens.
About 40,000 tickets for last night's game were returned by fans, making it the first non-sellout in 87 games at Giants Stadium.
Quisenberry wants to leave Royals
Those who did attend were treated to the offensive genius of 49ers coach
Giants coach Bill Parcells broke out laughing when he saw the wishbone and gestured across the field to Walsh, who joined in the laughter.
KANSAS CITY, Mo. — Dan Quisen berry says he's tired of not being used and wants to be traced from the Kansas City Royals.
Quisenberry, who signed a lifetime contract in 1985, was the premier relief pitcher in baseball between 1980-85. But he finished the 1987 with only eight saves and was hardly used in the second half of the season, as each game in the second place in the American League West, two games behind Minnesota.
The Associated Press
It was about the only thing that Parcells had to laugh.
"I still feel that I can pitch and feel
the need to pitch," Quisenberry, 34,
said. "I can't let that hope die within
myself and have to pursue that hope
somewhere else."
"I have to hope there's an opportunity somewhere else. I didn't want this to happen. I don't think anybody has ever upon me," said Quissenberry, who with a 4-1 record and a 2.76 earned run average along with his eight saves.
The submarine-throwing righ-tand said he doubted there would be an opportunity for him in Kansas City.
One difficulty in trading him will
be a contract that gives him a guaranteed base salary of $1.1 million for each of the next three seasons and a real estate partnership with Royals' co-owner Avron Fogelman through the year 2025.
"If the real estate partnership is an impediment to that trade, I'm willing to be bought out." Quisenberry said.
In 1985, Fogelman made Quisenberry a 24.7 percent owner of Stewart's Ferry, a 700-unit apartment complex in Nashville, Tenn., in addition to other holdings.
Senior volleyballer eyes future
By ROBERT WHITMAN
Staff writer
When talking about the Kansas volleyball team, Shannon Ridgeway talks first about how fun this game was, not the team's 5-11 record.
"Overall, this year has been the most fun for me. I don't know if it's because I'm a senior or not," said Jennifer Miller, her sister. "It's nice, like a bib party."
There are six players on the team who are seniors in athletic eligibility. Ridgeway is also a senior academically. She said she would have enough credit hours to graduate in May with a bachelor of arts degree in crime and delinquency studies.
Ridgway said that when she graduated she would like to work with juveniles in the probation and parole systems. She said she became interested in the field of criminal justice as secretary for a probation officer in the Federal Probation Office in Topeka.
"She has worked since about the time I was in the fifth grade. She would come home and I would hear about the things she was doing and see what she was doing." Ridgeway said.
Ridgway said she would serve an internship next summer and get some placement help from the officer her mother works with.
"I went to the office to pick up my mother one day for lunch and he asked me what I was studying in school. I told him and he said, 'I wish I had known that. I would have been Ridgeway said. "He works with adults. I like kids, that's why I chose the juvenile end of it."
Ridgeway started taking courses toward her major when she attended Barton County Community College in Great Bend. But volleyball was what attracted her to Barton County after she graduated from Seaman High School in Topeka.
Even though she was named city volleyball player of the year in Topeka, Ridgeway said she didn't think at the time she was ready for a four-year college. She said she was recruited by Kansas, Kansas State and several junior colleges. Ridgeway said she chose Barton County because she liked volleyball coach Jean Drennan.
summer after Ridgeway freshman year and was not going to return to coach. So Ridgeway started looking for another school.
Barton County finished sixth in the National Junior College Athletic Association tournament in Ridgeway's freshman season. But Drennan was married during the
Ridgway was recruited by former KU volleyball coach Bock Lockwood, but he resigned before the 1985 season. Current coach
"What I didn't want to do was play at Barton County for a year under Jean, then under a new coach at Barton County for a year, then under a third different coach at a four-year school," Ridgeway said.
Frankie Albitz was hired and when practice began, Albitz started with three-a-day practices and weight training.
"Out at Barton County, we'd practice one and a half hours, or two hours at the most and we'd condition." Rideway said.
She also said practices were more intense at KU, especially this year, with more scrimmage-like drills. Its all necessary to keep up with the pressure in conference schools and a tougher non-conference schedule, she said.
Chris Roesner/KANSAN
Outside hitter Shannon Ridgeway digs the volleyball during practice. The team was practicing yesterday afternoon at Robinson Center.