BIG 12 SPOILER
In the first game played by a Big 12 Conference member, **TEXAS AAM** was upset by Brigham Young University 41-37 on Saturday in the Pigskin Classic, the opening game of the college football season.
UNIVERSITY DAILY KANSAN SPORTS
A&M,ranked No.13 in The Asso-
aided Press presenion poll, allowed 363 passing yards by BYU quarterback Steve Sarkisian in the game. The loss was the first in eight season openers for A&M coach R.C. Slocum.
Story on Page 8B
KANSAS FOOTBALL PRESEASON UPDATE
Senior linebacker RONNIE WARD was one of 65 candidates named to the watch list for Butkus Award. The award is given each season to the nation's outstanding collegiate linebacker. Ward, who was recently named co-captain of the team, missed the 1995 season due to a shoulder injury. The Butkus Award winner will be announced December 14.
BASKETBALL UPDATE
The men's basketball team has received an oral commitment from ERIC CHENOWITH, of the top-rated players in the country. Chenowith, a 7-foot center from Orange, Calif., averaged 17 points and 11 rebounds at Villa Park High School last season. He chose Kansas Instead of Duke, Arizona, UCLA, Notre Dame, Indiana and Utah. "I like the his-
MONDAY, AUGUST 26, 1996
any of the big men at the school," Chenowith said. "The alumni are pretty supportive. And Lawrence seemed like a pretty good place."
SECTION B
Athletic department gets a new associate director
Amy Perko, NCAA staff member since 1990, was named associate athletics director and senior woman administrator at the University of Kansas on Friday.
Perko joins the KU Athletic Department staff after serving as an NCAA enforcement representative since 1992. She also worked for two years as a legislative assistant with the NCA.
"I am really pleased and excited about having Amy join our staff," said Bob Frederick, Kansas athletic director. "She is a bright and talented individual who will do a superb job in this important position. Amy Perko represents everything we hope happens to our student athletes."
Perko attended Wake Forest where she was a two-time GET Academic All-American and an NCAA postgraduate scholarship winner, as well as an All-ACC basketball player.
Perko replaces Betsy Stephenson, who resigned to become senior woman administrator at UCLA.
MIAMI — Joe Robbie Stadium, the home of the NFL's Miami Dolphins and MLB's Florida Martins, is undergoing a name change.
According to a published report, the stadium will soon be known as Pro Player Park.
Say it ain't so — Joe Robbie replaced with corporate name
Francisco, formerly
known as Candlestick Park. New arenas come ready-made with sponsors, many of them airlines, such as Pacific Airlines.
The switch follows a nationwide trend to attach sponsor names to venues, such as 3Com Park in San Francisco.
Phoenix's America West Arena or Chicago's United Center.
Stadium president Bob Kramm said that the deal to rename it was near completion with only a few details to be worked out.
"We know it's a good organizational fit." he said.
Pro Player is a New Hampshire- based division of Fruit of the Loom that manufactures licensed sports apparel.
Team and stadium owner Wayne Huizenga stands to make millions, but could take a public relations hit by removing the late Joe Robbie's name — the man who brought pro football to Miami.
Russian Olympian stabbed by watermelon peddlers
MOSCOW — Russian Olympic champion Alexander Popov, considered the world's fastest swimmer, was stabbed in the stomach by watermelon vendors in Moscow, police said yesterday.
Mason says it's Johner
Popop, who won two gold and two silver medals at the Olympics in Atlanta, underwent surgery at a Moscow hospital. Doctors said he was conscious despite his injury, the ITAR-Tass news agency reported.
Prime Minister Viktor Chemomyrid said he was outraged by the attack and ordered an investigation, ITAR-Tass reported.
The 25-year-old swimmer was walking a young woman home Saturday night when he got into an argument with watermelon vendors.
Alexander Shechuk, duty officer at Moscow's interior department, said Popov received a knife wound in his torso.
Gennady Alyoshin, president of the Russian Swimming Federation, told ITAR-Tass that the knife penetrated Popov's stomach, *grazing his lungs and kidney*.
The Associated Press
By Dan Gelston
Kansan sportswriter
when he was five-for-nine for 46 yards with no touchdowns or interceptions in four games. He was in all 11 games last year but as a special teams holder.
"My first year I came in just thinking I was going to redshirt," he said. "With the situation we had last
He's unproven, untested, was injured during spring practice and probably will start the Kansas season opener Thursday against Ball State.
With Rutz still trying to come
And he's not Ben Rutz.
back from a torn anterior cruciate ligament in his right knee, the starting quarterback for Thursday's game will be Matt Johner.
At least for now, that is. Kansas coach Glen Mason said yesterday, and has been saying for the past week or so, that Johner would start.
out Rutz, saying that he keeps looking good in practice and is getting better.
But he also has not officially ruled
But for now, the man who will lead the Jayhawk offense is junior Matt Johner.
Johner has had three years to learn the Jayhawk offense. He red-shirted his freshman year in 1993 and was the No. 3 quarterback in 1994 and 1995.
While Johner may be a relative unknown to Jayhawk fans, he's a veteran of the Kansas offense.
And he's ready to play.
However, Johner has seen his only quarterback action in 1994,
"I've been waiting for this chance for a while," Johner said. "I'm really anxious to play."
See FOOTBALL, Page 4B
Kansas iunies setter Tiffanv Sennet, and middle blocker Maggie Mohrfeld will be the captains on the Javhawks volleyball squad this fall.
Kansas rides beach wave
By Adam Herschman Kansan sportswriter
Beach volleyball has arrived - dudes.
From Gabrielle Reece's Nike ads to its first year as an Olympic sport, beach volleyball has set itself up for a bright
future. One indication of the sport's popularity was that NBC gave beach volleyball a better time slot than that of indoor volleyball, which was mostly shown against late-night talk shows.
Members of the Kansas volleyball team, including coach Karen Schonewise, have taken a liking to this
two-on-two outdoor contest.
"I think it's just done great things for the sport overall in terms of its on TV a lot more," Schonewise said. "People are just a little more familiar with the sport in terms of watching it."
See VOLLEYBALL, Page 4B
New coach for men's tennis is a familiar face
Riley set to lead team through another winning season of play
By Tommy Gallagher Kansan sportswriter
Coming off its third consecutive, and final, Big Eight Conference title, it would seem that the last thing the Kansas men's tennis team needed was a change.
This off-season, the Jayhawk men received a major change when coach Michael Center resigned to accept a position in private business. His successor, Mark Riley, served as an assistant coach for the men's and women's teams in 1993 under Center.
After that season, Riley was named head coach at Drake University and coached there for three years. In that time, he accumulated a 47-26 record, including a 16-6 overall record and a 9-4 mark in the Missouri Valley Conference last year.
"Coaching at Drake gave me the opportunity to be responsible for a whole program, not just parts of the whole," Riley said. "But even more important was my experience at KU, to allow me to step into this job and know how the program works."
Riley graduated from Kalamazoo College in 1982 with a bachelor's degree in economics. While he was there, Riley earned All-America honors in both singles and doubles competition.
What soon followed was a professional career from 1985 to 1989, in which he was world-ranked in singles and doubles while competing on the United States and European Tours.
After his professional career, Riley worked as director of tennis for the Washington Tennis Foundation from 1990 to 1992. He also doubled during that time as a head coach for the United States Tennis Association, located in Washington.
From there, Riley served as an assistant coach for the men's and women's teams for a year at the University of Pennsylvania before he came to KU in 1993.
"For now, I just want to get settled in," Riley said. "I want to get to know the guys and have them place their trust in me, to help give the team a chance to develop."
Although Riley believes the system Center had worked well, he said he thought that there was room for improvement in the way the program was run.
"I don't want to do too much too soon," Riley said.
“There won't be any surprises for the team in the way things are run, but I do think there are some areas where we can improve the system and improve our results.”
Two players who know Riley from his earlier days at Kansas in 1993 include juniors Scott Marshall and Trent Tucker, both of whom Riley anxiously anticipates coaching again. With a talented roster and Riley's enthusiasm entering the season, there's no reason to believe that a new head won't further the winning ways of the tennis team as it enters its inaugural Big 12 Conference season.
Kickoffs and pennant races brighten fall scene
Ah, fall. It's my favorite time of the year. That is, it's my favorite sports time of the year. College football started this weekend and the pros kick off in just a few days. The baseball pennant races are heating up. We have a few more months before being bombarded by basketball, and hockey is just a cold memory.
With the NFL opener scheduled for Sunday, everyone's already making their Super Bowl picks. I have to admit, I don't know who is going to be living it up in the French Quarter on Jan. 26, but I do know who's not going to be there. Sorry, Chiefs fans, the only Kansas City representative in New Orleans that week will be Jason Whitlock.
So what's happening this last week of August?
I also know, and it breaks my heart to say this, but San Francisco
won't be there,
either. The glory
days are finished and even
Mr. Walsh on the sideline won't
change that.
But don't think I'm just giving the NFC to those pesky Cowboys. Take a look around and you'll notice the luster has faded from the so-called America's Team. People are falling off the bandwagon left and right. That wouldn't just have anything to do with Michael Irvin and his off-season problems, would it?
ASSOCIATE
SPORTS
EDITOR
Sticking with this professional sports theme, what's with Major
League Baseball? Is anyone surprised there still isn't a labor agreement? Does anyone still care after two years of seeing Donald Fehr everywhere? Apparently the only "stumbling block" is whether players get service time for the 75 regular-season days missed during the strike.
OK. Does this only seem strange to me? Why should they get service time for not playing? If memory serves, the players were the ones who walked out. And why is service time such a big deal? Because some players could become free-agent eligible with those missed days. In short, money. Big surprise.
On a more positive note, it looks as if Brett Butler will play again — this season. Maybe as soon as the second week of September. That could be exactly what baseball needs. With nothing as big as Cal
As a St. Louis native, I'm required by law to root insanely for the
Ripken's streak this season, the fans are looking for that one special story to care about. Besides, with the loss of Kirby Puckett and the impending retirements of Andre Dawson and Ozzie Smith, the game needs some good news.
One last baseball note — how about those pennant races? I mean, who ever thought the closest — and most interesting — races would be in the National League West and Central? The West is interesting simply because the Dodgers, with their talent, should be running away with the division, but the Padres won't let them. In the Central, the Astros and the Cardinals have been consistently trading the top spot all season, and that will probably continue to be the trend for the next month.
Cards until they disappoint me in the final week of the season. But because they haven't been even this close to the postseason in more years than I'd like to admit, I have and will continue to enjoy the ride.
To wrap this up, I'd like to comment on a campus sport — Kansas football. I, like many others, I'm sure, was overwhelmed by last season's 10-2 record and convincing Aloha Bowl victory. However, I am aware that the chances of repeating those achievements are somewhat slim. So I have just two hopes for this season. One, that the Jayhawks beat Kansas State here in Lawrence on Nov. 9. And two, a bowl bid somewhere in the continental United States would be nice. If not, that Haka Bowl in New Zealand sounds like fun.
V