University Daily Kansan / Monday, October 5, 1987
9
SportsMonday
Ex-Hawk gives football to son
By DAVID BOYCE
Assistant sports editor
Seventeen years ago, on Saturday,
October 17, 1970, Vince O'Neill ran back 96 yards for the second-longest
return in Kansas football
history.
The record is a 97-yard return by John Hadi in 1959.
"I only bring it to day when we someone brings it up," O'Neill said. "Every once in a while people come back, and they say, 'You ran that return for a touchdown.'"
O'Neill, an officer for the Lawrence Police Department, now spends his Sunday afternoons taping the ankles of his nine-year-old son, Kyle, before his son's Lawrence little league football games.
The ritual is the same each Sunday for five weeks. First a substance called Tuff Skin is sprayed on Kyle's ankles, then his father rubs Vaseline on them before finally wrapping the ankles with gauze tape.
O'Neill learned the procedure from Dean Nesmith, longtime KU athletic trainer, to help prevent ankle and foot injuries.
As a result of his 35 years of involvement in football, from sandlot at age four, to watching and teaching football, O'Neill is full of football stories.
Presently, though, O'Neil gets his buckling, his son's budding football ball.
"Sometimes I see a little of myself out there," O'Neill said. "And that's spooky. At the same time I get excited for him."
Kyle, 9, first played football last year, and now plays fullback and kick off retainer for his team. Kyle is a standout in the junior year, his father excelled while at Kansas.
"When Kyle told me he wanted to play, I made sure that was what he really wanted to do," O'Neill said.
"I know when I first wanted to play organized football that even if my dad had hit me across the face and told me not to do it, I still would have played," O'Neill said. "Of course my dad didn't. Kyle has that same kind of enthusiasm."
Kyle said he liked playing fullback because each game he got the opportunity to run with the ball and fight for vards.
"I like it because I get a chance to hit," he said. "In school you can't hit because it's against the rules."
O'Neill said he taught his son the fundamentals, such as stance, run blocking, and pass blocking.
"I also tell him that on offense you attack and you don't run out-of-bounds," he said.
During O'Neill's three years with the Jahyhaws, 1970-72, he also played that tough, gritty brand of attack offense.
In 1970 O'Neill played right split back on a run-oriented offense that featured John Riggins as the fullback. As a sophomore, O'Neill again played with Riggins, who was then a senior.
"We ran a hero's offense and Riggins was the hero at fullback." O'Neill said. "Back then we had multiple offenses like today, we just didn't have all that ping-pong around in the back field."
"But we had a very good offense." Kyle is looking forward to meeting Riggins in November when Riggins and O'Neill go hunting.
"Kyle has great hands and I think he would make a good tight end, but right now Kyle loves to play full-back." O'Neill said.
Riggins recently sent Kyle a photo with the inscription, "Listen to your
father's advice concerning football techniques, it's when the two talk about which position best suits Kyle that disagrees begins.
O'Neill, who played for coach Pepper Rodgers in 1970 and Don Fambrough in 1971-72, came to Kansas from Texas. He recruited from North Plainfield, N.J.
And although Kyle listens to his
He said cheating existed as much then as it does now. "It wasn't until years later that I found out how involved it was," O'Neill said.
"One day I will sit down and write this out."
Except for some bad feelings about recruiting, O'Neill said football had left him with many good memories.
"I have over a million dollars worth of memories and the vast majority are good," he said.
-football is a flash in the pa-
O'Neill said. "I played organized ball
for 10 years, and it went by so
loudly. But it was a jammed 10
years."
He said even though football left him with so many memories, the game went by too quickly.
But O'Neill can now reflect on his early days in football when he watch
"When I first started playing, my helmet was a Rawlings leather hat." O'Neill said. "My son's first helmet is plastic with a padded cushion on the inside."
O'Neill said even when the team he played with made the change to a plastic helmet, the helmet did not have padding.
After O'Neill's days at the University of Kansas, he played one year with the Buffalo Bills in 1973. That year he also watched O.J. Simpson become the first person to rush over 2,000 yards in a season.
"The greatest compliment I ever received came from him," O'Neill said. "Simpson one game told me, 'You got some good juice inside you too. In fact I think you run inside a
"It was like God saying you are accepted," O'Neill said. "What O.J. said meant a lot to me, because I was in awe of his talent.
little better than I do.'
"I never saw him take a direct hit. He was so analytical about the game and I was there," O'Neill said with a smile. "I was there and it was great."
And usually just before the O'Neills leave for Kyle's football game, Kyle receives some inspirational words before another afternoon of football.
Kyle and his dad share their final pregame ritual, the application of an antiflare cream under Kyle's eyes.
Above, former KU running back Vince O'Neill wraps the ankles of his son, Kyle, in preparation for Kyle's football game. Below, O'Neill gives Kyle a halftime pep talk on how Kyle can improve during the second half.
Kvle adjusts a strap on his shoulder pads before the game.
Memories of war and football highlight '47 team reunion
BY ELANE SONG Special to the Kansan
They were World War II veterans who turned their attention from the battlefield to the football field.
It was the Jayhawks first major bowl appearance. Kansas lost the game 20-14 against Georgia Tech in the final minute when KU quarterback Lynne McNutt fumbled the ball on first down at the one-ward line.
Three-tye members of the 1947 Kansas football team met over the weekend for the 40th year reunion. The team, which compiled a 8-12 record, featured an All-America athlete, seven All-Big Six players and appeared in the 1948 Orange Bowl.
Georgia Tech came up with the ball and erased Kansas' chances for a tie or victory.
"We're a family," said Otto
The war experience became a common bond between the players. The players said the success and closeness of the team also explains why they played for the reunion, usually held once every five years.
The 47 team was unusual in that most of the players had interrupted their studies to fight in World War II.
Schnellbacher, a former All-Big Six defensive end. "We had a closeness when we were players, and we enjoy each other."
Schnellbacher was a co-captain on the '47 team and has since organized the reunions. He chose the Eldridge Hotel, Seventh and Massachusetts streets, as their reunion headquarters.
The reunion began Friday morning with a golf match at the Alvamar Golf and Country Club, cocktails and dinner at the Kidridge.
The recently renovated hotel was selected because during his college days it was the place to be, Schnellbacher said.
It turned out to be a special reunion for Bill "Red" Hogan, former quarterback, when teammates and other alumni sang
The following morning the '47 team met at the Adams Alumni Center for a luncheon buffet. Afterwards, they went to Kansas Memorial Stadium to watch the Jayhawks win their first game of the season, 16-15, against the Southern Illinois Salukis.
"We talk about our grandkids and our families and report to each other. We remember the good times," Schnellbacher said.
"And lie," he added jokingly.
He said the secret of success for the 1947 team was a combination of talented players and some outstanding leaders.
Hogan, now living in Prairie Village, has attended every reunion and most of Kansas' regular season games.
"Happy Birthday" to him at the luncheon. Hogan celebrated his 66th birthday Saturday.
"There was an esprit de corps, and you see that today with so many people coming back just to be here," Evans said. "It shows the spirit that we had. We were a very unusual group."
Evans, named All-America in football and twice in basketball, was called the "greatest Kansas athlete since Jim Bausch," an Olympic decathlete, in the KU 1947 football program.
"We had a superstar in Ray Evans," Hogan said. "We also had a bunch of players that when you were fired, they would tell the job — the better they responded."
It was a great thrill just to go "o"
he said about the 1948 Orange Bowl.
"But to lose that game was a tremendous letdown emotionally.
We try to forget that game. It hurts enough just to think about it."
Fans' opinions vary
By MIKE CONSIDINE
Staff writer
The first Kansas football victory in eleven games brought a wide range of opinions from Jayhawk fans. While the 16-15 victory over Southern Illinois is cause for optimism, many felt that it was not necessarily an indication of better things to come
"It's gonna be very good for the kids' morale," said Brock Snyder, a KU alumnus from Berryton. "The players deserve it, but I don't think this, in any way, is to go give (Coach Bob Valesente) an indication that things are all right."
Milt Wade, a Lenexa resident who said he had attended Jayhawk games for 20 seasons, was disappointed.
"I don't think they play with any intensity. Wade said, 'we don't even know if they are up to it' or spike it."
Wade said that if the team didn't improve by season's end, Valesente might have to be replaced.
"You can't change the players, so you may have to change the coach," he said.
Most fans who were interviewed agreed that Valaleste should have the remainder of the season to prove himself. However, some weren't willing to wait that long.
"Bob hasn't applied the talent well at all," said Eric Hughes, a Kansas City, Mo., sophomore who was selling paper "Jayhawk beaks" to the fans. "I would have fired him last week. How could things be much worse?"
I would make him some kind of
administrator." Del Braddock, a 1975 Kansas graduate from Leawood, said. "He's a good man, but I don't think he has the situation under him."
Very few fans agreed with Hughes. Many said they felt that the second-year coach inherited a difficult situation.
"I don't think he was left much," said Kent Wade, a 1976 Kansas graduate from Overland Park. "I don't have much respect for the coach he followed (Mike Gottfried)."
"I think he's on the way to turning things around," Zena Monsour, Pittsburg sophomore, said.
Losses to NCAA Division I-AA schools Kent State and Louisiana Tech and the narrow escape against Southern Illinois drew criticism.
"It takes a long time to build a program, but we should be able to beat the easy teams," said Roger Niles, St. Louis, Mo. freshman.
"He's gone down instead of up."
Lenna resident Karen Kay said.
Some felt that the team's improved grade point average worked in Val.
What looms ahead for the Jayhawks?
"It's good that he'd done that, but we need to win some games," said Randy Dickson, Topeka sophomore.
"I think the team itself will get better," said Bob Derby, Lawrence Desideria Oklahoma and Nebraska coming up, it may not show in the scores.
Scoreboard
Baseball
American League
Boston 4, Milwaukee 1
Baltimore 4, New York 2
Chicago 5, Oakland 2
Kansas City 10, Minnesota 1
Oklahoma City 10, Tennessee 7
Seattle 7, Texas 4
Cleveland 10, California 6
National League
Chicago 7, Montreal 5
Pittsburgh 4, Philadelphia 2
New York 11, St. Louis 6
Cincinnati 2, Houston 1
Los Angeles 5, San Diego 3
San Francisco 5, Atlanta 4, 1
innings
Pro Football
Pittsburgh 28, Atlanta 12
San Diego 10, Cincinnati 9
Cleveland 20, New England 10
Indianapolis 4, Buffalo 6
Tampa Bay 31, Detroit 27
Chicago 35, Philadelphia 3
Washington 28, St. Louis 21
Chicago 35, Kansas 10
Green Bay 23, Minnesota 16
Houston 40, Denver 17
L.A. Raiders 35, Kansas City 17
Dallas 30, New York Jets 24
Seattle 24, Miami 20