THE UNIVERSITY OF JALYA KANSAN THURSDAY, OCTOBER 9, 2008 SPORTS 7B BIG 12 FOOTBALL Heisman voters view Chase Daniel ASSOCIATED PRESS ASSOCIATED PRESS Missouri's football program is sending a toy slide viewer to Heisman voters and media in an effort to promote quarterback Chase Daniel for the award. NEW YORK — In the tradition of the Ryan Leaf leaf, Joey Harrington's Times Square billboard and the DeAngelo Williams mobile, Missouri has found a unique way to remind Heisman Trophy voters to keep an eye out for Chase Daniel. The Mizzou football slide viewer, a View-master-style toy that's sure to bring back childhood memories, has been showing up in mail boxes of voters and media members around the country. "I didn't want to do just a mouse pad or a coffee mug, other standard items or more basic items. I didn't want to do anything that people could just toss aside." Missouri sports information director Chad Moller said by phone Wednesday. "We wanted to create a little splash and do it in a classy manner." Moller credited Missouri men's basketball SID Dave Reiter for the idea. He tossed it during a brainstorming session during the summer. It wasn't an immediate winner, but the idea stuck with Moller. "I'd never see anyone promote using one of those," Moller said. "I wasn't even sure they even made them anymore." Moller found a company in Beaver Creek, Ore., called Image3D, that made what he was looking for and ordered 2,500. "You can argue that we really didn't need to do anything for Chase with him being a finalist last year and coming in on everybody's short list," Moller said. "But we've never been in this place before, so we decided, let's embrace it and have some fun with it." Promoting Heisman Trophy contenders is almost as much a part of the awards history and tradition as the big bronze statue itself. Decades ago, that meant getting a player a prime spot in the preseason magazines and sending out posters or fliers touting his accomplishments. More recently, it's become all about the Internet. Aside from www.ChasetheHeisman.com, football fans can follow the seasons of the two players Texas Tech is pushing for Heisman consideration — quarterback Graham Harrell and receiver Michael Crabtree — at www.passorcatch200.com. There's www.Patwhiteplayshere, com, which provides all there is to know about the speedy West Virginia quarterback. And Purdue set up www.CurtisPainter12.com to get the word out on its senior quarterback. That's just to name a few. But every now and then a school comes up with something that truly stands out. In 1997, Washington State coach Mike Price came up with a very simple idea to promote Leaf, his star quarterback. Longtime athletic director Rod Commons, who retired last year, had two secretaries fill up a big box with leaves that were falling off the many trees on the Pullman campus that autumn. "We addressed envelopes with our mailing list and the girls stuck the leaf in there and mailed it out," he said by phone from Pullman. That was it. No explanation, just a leaf in an envelope with the university's return address. "It got instant publicity," Commons said. "People started talking about what this leaf was and where it came from." And it cost a lot less than, say, putting a picture of a player on 10-story billboard in the heart of New York City. Moller said he had $50,000 in his promotional budget this season. The slide view project's initial cost was $25,000, he said. He plans to send out more slides (they cost about $1) of Daniel and other players such as Jeremy Maclin and Chase Coffman, who will be promoted for various awards and honors. Moller said the response he's received on the slide viewer has been all positive, especially among those with young children. "I wish they could vote," he said. Point taken Jerry Wang/KANSAN Members of the KU Fencing Club practice at Robinson Gymnasium. To view an audio slide show of the group's fencing practice and hear from club members, go to WWW.KANSAN.COM/VIDEOS. RACING Hamilton holds F1 lead, could extend it Sunday TOKYO — Formula One time leader Lewis Hamilton is confident he can extend his lead over rival Felipe Massa by defending his Japanese Grand Prix title Sunday. The McLaren driver looked set to win last year's F1 drivers' title in his first season after winning at a rain-soaked Fuji Speedway, but relinquished his 12-point lead in the final two races. "I feel a lot stronger this year than I did at this time last year," Hamilton said Wednesday. "We have three races left and we'll do everything we can as a team to come out on top." more than Ferrari's Massa, and another win in Japan would put the British driver in a position to clinch the championship next week at Shanghai. Massa is coming off a disastrous 13th-place finish at Singapore last month, but isn't ready to concede anything. Hamilton has 84 points, seven "We are seven points behind, but there are 30 points in front of us so we will fight to the last lap of the last race," the Brazilian said. In Singapore, the Ferrari driver pulled away from a pit stop prematurely, taking the fuel rig with him up pit lane. Massa subsequently dropped from the lead to 18th and last place, then incurred a drive-through penalty for an "unsafe release from a pit stop." Kimi Raikkonen, Massa's Ferrari teammate, is looking to end his run of four races without points, while denying Hamilton a chance to build on his lead. "It hasn't been the type of season I was expecting." Raikonen said. "Things started out OK, but the last four or five races have not been good. For myself, it is more or less over, but I'll do the best for the team." Defending world champion Raikkonen is fourth in the standings, trailing Hamilton by 27 points and BMW-Sauber's Robert Kubica in third by seven. Last year's race at Fuji Speedway was hampered by heavy rain, but organizers say the forecast is more promising for Sunday's race. GOLF Associated Press Tiger set to start playing again after injuring ACL ASSOCIATED PRESS "Luckily, I don't play football," Woods said Monday. Tiger Woods says football players who have the kind of knee surgery that ended his season usually are not at their best for two years. Woods said his knee will probably be no more than 85 percent strong when he returns, but he sees no reason why he can't get back to the level of play that brought him nine victories in 12 official events this year, no finish worse than a tie for fifth. One week after winning the U.S. Open in a 19-hole playoff at Torrey Pines, Woods had surgery to rebuild the anterior cruciate ligament in his left knee. If the healing process runs its normal course, he said he will not be able to swing a club until January at the earliest. "The healing process for an ACL is six months," Woods said during a video conference to announce the 16-man field for his Chevron World Challenge in December. "No matter what I try to do, I can't speed up that process. That puts me into January. Unfortunately, I can't rotate, I can practice on that leg until then. "I believe the stat is after six months, the ACL is 85 percent in strength, and then over the next year-and-a-half, it will gain its 100 percent strength," he said. "So it's basically a two-year process." Woods said his goal was getting his body healthy for 2009 to compete at a high level. He said his nine shots of competition, from an eight-shot vie- tory in the Bridgestone Invitational through his playoff victory at the U.S. Open for his 14th career major, the best start of his career. "I think I played better in this stretch than I have at any time in my career," said Woods, whose 65 career PGA Tour victories trail only jack Nicklaus (73) and Sam Snead (82). "I may have won more major championships, but I certainly have never been in contention in as many events, or won as many events in a row. I had a pretty good run." In the only three tournaments he didn't win between August 2007 and June 2008, Woods finished two shots behind Phil Mickelson at the Deutsche Bank Championship; two shots behind Geoff Ogilvy at Doral; and three shots behind Trevor Immelman at the Masters. But he could face a fresh challenge when he returns. "Nobody is going to knock Tiger off anywhere," Kim said last week at the Tour Championship. "He's staying there until somebody starts giving him more a challenge on a week-to-week basis, and that's my goal. This gives me an opportunity to know what I need to work on for next year to be ready when he comes back. Over the last five months, Anthony Kim has emerged as golf's brightest young prospect with victories in the Wachovia Championship and AT&T National at Congressional, along with a starring role in the U.S. victory at the Ryder Cup. "And I'd love to give him more of a challenge than I did before." Choose a Career Teaching Languages ASSOCIATED PRESS Teachers of world languages are in demand today and will be increasingly sought after in the years ahead. VALUE MENU - LARGE CHEESE PIZZA - MEDIUM - ITERAM PIZZA - 10" STIX + WINGS - MEDIUM POKEY STIX + - 10" CHEESE + 2 ROLLS - 10" CHEESE + WINGS - 5 PEPPERONI ROLLS - 10 BUFFALO WINGS Tiger Woods describes his first ocean front golf course during the announcement of Punta Brava, Tuesday in Los Angeles. 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