The Hot Route
KU FOOTBALL
BLOG AND
PODCAST
@KANSAN.COM
CONVENTION CONVERSATION
Senators suggest free wireless Internet nationwide. POLITICS | 6A
FOOTBALL SPECIAL SECTION
THE STUDENT VOICE SINCE 1904
Be sure to grab a Kansan on Thursday to get a special preview of football season. THURSDAY
THE UNIVERSITY DAILY KANSA
KANSAN
n that natural e for Florida con ching
nseh."
enhaw
WWW.KANSAN.COM
WEDNESDAY, AUGUST 27, 2008
VOLUME 120 ISSUE 6
WOMEN OF DISTINCTION
Calendar available for pickup on campus
The 2008-09 edition of the KU Women of Distinction calendar is now available to students and the general public. The calendar is free of charge and features accomplished students, faculty and alumna from the past year.
FULL STORY PAGE 6A
CLAS
College revises grading policy to plus/minus system for fall
KICKIN' OFF
The College of Liberal Arts & Sciences is implementing a new optional plus/minus (+/-) grading system this fall. The chairman of the committee that approved the policy said it improved grading accuracy and was already in use by all other undergraduate colleges in the University.
FULL STORY PAGE 3A
CAMPUS
FULL STORY PAGE 2A
After sensitive documents were found improperly discarded behind Snow Hall in 2007, University administrators implemented policies to standardize the disposal of personal student information.
University updates its policies on info disposal
CAMPUS
The University Senate's task force has started to narrow its options on what kind of evaluation will be implemented for seniors at the beginning of next year to evaluate the teaching skills of faculty members. Instead of the hour-long interviews conducted by three faculty members of random senior class members, the University is considering choosing certain students to put together a portfolio of their work at the University.
Effectiveness of evaluations to be determined
FULL STORY PAGE 3A
Jerry Wang/KANSAN
Mike Phelps of Jayhawk Guttering winds up to throw a runner out at first base. His team finished first in the Kaw Valley Kickball League tournament. The tournament featured 28 teams from the Lawrence area.
Kickball league names champs
Students, residents end summer season with championship game highlighted by comeback
BY ANDY GREENHAW
agreenhaw@kansan.com
Beer, base-running and big balls — that's what students saw Sunday night if they attended the Kaw Valley Kickball Championship at Hobbs Field, where Jayhawk Guttering made a ninth-inning comeback to defeat Sun Creations 13-11.
Kaw Valley Kickball is an underground, summer kickball league made up of KU students and Lawrence locals. Teams meet every Sunday during the summer at fields all over Lawrence to drink beer and play kick ball. Sunday night marked the end of the summer playoffs, which began Aug. 17.
Sunday's championship game went back and forth all night, beginning with Jayhawk Guttering taking an early 7-2 lead. Sun Creations tied the game at 7-7 in the bottom of the sixth. They later kicked
in four more runs, bringing the score to 11-7 by the end of the eighth inning. Down four runs with two outs, Jayhawk Guttering made a last-inning comeback to take the lead as they scored six runs in less than six minutes with an inside-the-park homerun that put them in the lead. Jayhawk Guttering prevented Sun Creations from scoring in the bottom of the ninth, sealing its victory.
Jayhawk Guttering stormed the field throwing up high fives and pouring beers on one another moments after the third out was called. Cort Rolfingsmeier, who kicked the inside-the-park home run, was named the MVP for Jayhawk Guttering.
"It feels great. I want to thank the Lord, my mom and say hi to her — hell yeah," he shouted as he hugged his mom after chugging beer from the championship trophy.
Paul Peach, a KU alumnus, said he'd almost lost hope as his team entered the ninth inning, down four runs with two outs.
"I thought we were cooked, to be honest with you," Peach said. "Then we came back and it all happened so fast; I thought we were cooked."
The game kicked off after the third-base
umpire, dressed in a Winnie the Pooh costume, kicked a pregame line drive into the outfield and circled the bases while chugging a Fabst Blue Ribbon beer in front of hundreds of cheering fans. Pooh, a man in a burger costume and a man in a chicken costume circled the bases again during the
seventh-inning stretch as the crowd sang "Take Me Out to the Ball Game."
What might seem like ridiculousness to an outsider is just another game to the regulars of the sport, which is infa-
sides — just like baseball.
The pitcher rolls a big, rubber ball to the kicker, who tries to put the ball in play. Once the ball is in play, the kicker runs around the bases and tries to score at home plate. The defense makes outs by either catching a ball that's been kicked, throwing a runner out at a base or simply throwing the ball at a runner who's not on base. Three outs and the teams switch
mous for its crazy costumes, wide-scale binge drinking and loyal fans. The game is played similarly to how students might have played it in their fourth-grade physical education classes — if those classes were made up of people in their 20s who smoked cigarettes and drank beer.
@ KANSAN.COM
The league was launched in 2002 and now features 28 teams. Curtis McCoy, member of the Kaw Valley Kickball League council, said the league was all about having fun.
Watch kickball highlights at www kansan.com/videos
"Sometimes it's about going out and trying to win, and sometimes it's about just getting drunk and getting injured," McCoy said. He said a lot of the injuries included pulled hummus strings, bro
ken fingers, broken toes and dislocated shoulders from diving for balls.
"When you get a lot of people who are out of shape and smoke a lot and try to play kickball, there tends to be a lot of injuries," he said after his team, Rangelife Records, lost in the second round on Sunday, Aug. 17.
Abby Dotson, fifth-year graduate student who played for Astrokitty, said she injured herself one or multiple times every game. She said her injuries usually included scrapes and cuts from sliding, which forced her to get a tetanus shot last
SEE KICKBALL ON PAGE 6A
Jerry Wang/KANSAN
Brit Nieder of Jayhawk Guttering, far left, makes an attempt to kick a bump pitch at the plate. Mike Harder, left, gets intense on the sidelines as his team falls behind midway through the game. Jayhawk Guttering made a last-inning comeback, scoring six runs in less than six minutes.
index
Classifieds...5B
Crossword...4A
Horoscopes...4A
Jerry Wang/KANSAN
Opinion...5A
Sports...1B
Sudoku...4A
All contents, unless stated otherwise; © 2008 The University Daily Kansan
KIWANUKA MOVES TO DE
Scramble to replace injured Giant Umenyiora ends. SPORTS | 3B
ASSOCIATED PRESS
THURSDAY
92 66
FRIDAY
Scattered T-Storms
86 61
weather.com