Inside Sports
THE UNIVERSITY DAILY KANSAN
Sports
The Texas Longhorns men's basketball will faces changes under its new coach, Rick Barnes.
See page 3B
Wednesday
November 4, 1998
Section:
B
Page 1
Soccer
SEE PAGE 4B
Kansan columnist Sam Pierron explains why Kansas does not have a varsity men's soccer team.
Pro Baseball
Yankee's manager Joe Torre was selected as the Associated Press coach of the year.
SEE PAGE 5B
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Track star runs with legendary past racers
By Cal Butchor Special to the Kansan
John Lawson has both a place of honor and a place of fear on the cross country course at Rim Rock Farm, the Kansas home course and the site of the 1998 NCAA Divisions I and II Cross Championships.
As the runners approach the final turn before the finish line, Lawson's silhouette graces the skyline and appears to join the race. But it is also the grueling "John Lawson Hill" that awaits runners coming out of the Oak Holler covered bridge.
Coach Bob Timmons has installed seven life-sized silhouettes of Lawson and other Kansas greats around the
course. Timmons' first year coaching at Kansas was Lawson's last, and it brought both a national championship.
Lawson's final year at KU was near-perfect. In the fall, he finished regular cross country season without a loss, then captured both the Big Eight Conference Title, and the
NCAA National Championship to complete an undefeated season.
"John was a quiet leader," said Schwartz. "You never really got a sense of his intensity and competitiveness. He had a lot of pride. We all did. We felt we had a lot to live up to."
During the indoor track and field season, Lawson and current Kansas coach Gary Schwartz were co-captains of the 1986 NCAA Indoor National Championship team.
Lawson won indoor conference championships in both the mile (404.8) and the two-mile (90.85) and placed second at nationals in the two-mile.
Outdoors, Lawson placed second in the three-mile run at the national meet for the second consecutive year. His 1965 mark of 14:09.6 was a Big Eight Conference record.
For the two co-captains, it was quite a time to be a Jayhawk. Kansas was in the midst of an outdoor conference winning streak that saw 22 team titles in 25 years. The NCAA held the first indoor national meet in 1965 and KU would win three of the first six team championships. Other teams were very aware of the KU traditions and feared competing against the Jayhawks.
Schwartz said that it was a good feeling to come into a meet situation and overhear a competitor say, "Oh no! They're here." He added that the great Kansas tradition did put some extra pressure on the team to perform well.
Lawson especially had to live up to the success of legends like Glenn Cunningham and Wes Santee. He was also running at the same time former Jayhawk Billy Mills was celebrating his Olympic glory. The pressure to succeed was enormous, but didn't faze him.
In 1964, Lawson set the tone for his Kansas career by winning the Big Eight Indoor Championship in the twomile with a time of 9:14.4. It was the first time he had ever competed in that event as a varsity athlete.
He went on to win a total of five conference championships, one individual national championship, and was a member of one team championship.
Lawson, who grew up in Overland Park and attended Wvandotte High School, is a member of the University of Kansas Athletics Hall of Fame and will be attending the KU Track and Cross Country Reunion to be held November 21-23, in conjunction with the NCAA National Championships.
Forward Jaclyn Johnson gets off a shot against Athletes in Action in a game last season. The Jayhawks will play their first exhibition game against Myjova Slovakia Republic tonight. Photo by Kansan Staff
Kansas women's basketball reloads for upcoming season
All starters to return with five newcomers
By Sam Mellinger
Kansan sportswriter
Game day is here for the Kansas women's basketball team.
The Jayhawks will take on Myjava Slovakia Republic in an exhibition game at 7 tonight in Allen Field House, marking the beginning of one of the most highly anticipated seasons in the program's history. Kansas returns all five starters from last season, which ended with a 23-9 record and a trip to the Sweet 16 of the NCAA Tournament.
"Everybody's come back with a new confidence," said sophomore Jaclyn Johnson. "We're saying 'Hey, we went that far last year when nobody expected it, now we can go even farther.'"
Myjiva lost 91-71 to Washburn on Monday night in the first of 10 exhibition games the team will play by Nov. 14.
The game won't count toward
Kansas' record because the game is an exhibition.
"It's a game so we can get a feel for each other," Johnson said. "It's just a test. It doesn't really mean anything."
It does give the team a chance to play live com-
play five competition.
"It just helps us to play different players." coach Marian Washington said. "We've been play ing against each other for so long. It'll be good to go against some d i f e r e n t faces."
The game also will give Washington an idea of how the team is grasping the new motion offense installed this season. Washington hopes the offense will give her
Washington: Looking forward to exhibition play.
See WOMEN'S on page 3B
The Starting Lineup
KANSAS
JAYHAWKS
Exhibition Game
G JENNIFER JACKSON 5-10 SOPH.
G SUZI RAYMANT 5-11 SR.
F JACLYN JOHNSON 6-1 SOPH.
F LYNN PRICE 6-2 JR.
C NAKIA SANFORD 6-3 SRF.
Myjava Slovakia
REPUBLIC
Exhibition Game
Allen Field House • Lawrence Radio: KLWN. 1320 AM
Kvle Ramsey/KANSAN
Soccer coach resigns
By Brad Hallier
Kansan sportswriter
Kansas soccer coach Dan Magner resigned yesterday afternoon, two days after a 1-0 loss at Wyoming that ended his second season as coach.
"I've enjoyed my association with the University of Kansas and working with the student athletes," he said. "I have decided that it would be in my best interest to pursue other opportunities in coaching."
None of the players were available for comment.
Amy Perko, associate athletics direc
tor, said a search committee, which in the past has been composed of athletics administrators, coaches and a member of the University of Kansas Athletic Corporation, would be formed soon to find another coach.
("Assistant coaches) Kevin Blokker and Ellen Obleman will remain on the staff," Perko said. "We will
Magner: Resigned as Kansas soccer coach yesterday.
meet with them tomorrow to determine responsibilities to be done in the interim period, and they will continue to work with the student athletes."
Magner was hired as the second coach in Kansas soccer history on March 1, 1997, after serving as the assistant women's soccer coach at Wake Forest. He also served as women's soccer coach at Lafayette College in Pennsylvania for three years and Wheaton College for two years.
In his two seasons at Kansas, Magner had a 12-25-2 record.
In his coaching debut, he won 1-0 at Illinois State on August 29, 1997. He proceeded to lead the Jayhawks to a 7-12-1 overall record and 2-8 in the Big 12 Conference.
His second season started out with back-to-back losses at Florida International and Miami in Florida. He guided Kansas to wins in five of its next seven games, including a 1-0 upset win against Missouri.
But a 5-0 thrashing of Western Illinois on September 27, which raised the Jayhawks record to 5-4, would be his final victory as Kansas coach.
Kansas scored two goals in its final nine games, going 0-8-1 in that stretch. It finished 5-13-1 overall and 1-8-1 in the Big 12.
"I appreciate all the good things that Dan did as soccer coach here," said Bob Frederick, athletics director. "I wish him the best of luck."
Wegner's concussions knock Alexander into starting position
Bv Jedi M. Smith
Kansan sportswriter
Jay Alexander finally has the starting quarterback position, but not necessarily in the way he originally had honed.
Because the original starting quarterback, Zac Wegner, has had two concussions in as many weeks. Alexander has
taken the position for the final three weeks of the season.
He would have preferred to earn the position outright rather than have Wegner injured.
"The ideal way was to outright beat him out," Alexander said. "You don't want to see him get him and get the job like that. I'm there, though, so I have to step and take the role of starting quarterback."
Alexander replaced Wegner during the Colorado and Kansas State games. He led the Jayhawks to a 33-17 victory against Colorado and suffered a 54-6 shellacking by the Kansas State Wildcats a week later.
Alexander has completed 21 of 39 passes for the season and has thrown three interceptions, two of those against Kansas State. He also has 230 yards total offense and one touchdown pass.
The Kansas coaches have total confli
For someone who didn't play organized football last year, it is exciting being in a starting position for a Division I football team. Alexander went to Garden City Community College and attended Indepen
Wegner: Will not play final three weeks of season.
dence in him.
"Jay'll do fine," coach Terry Allen said. "Jay's a competitor."
dence Community College during his first two years of college, but he didn't play football at either.
"Right out of high school I was hoping to go to a D-I school and start somewhere," Alexander said. "But I really never thought that two years from then I'd be where I'm at."
He never imagined two years ago that he would be in this position.
Having Alexander in the starting position leaves the Kansas football team with one dilemma — what to do if he goes down, too.
A
Freshman Jonas Weatherbie is next in line for the quarterback position, and behind him freshmen Jake Letourneau and Henri Childs.
For now, though, it is all Alexander.