Inside Sports
THE UNIVERSITY DAILY KANSAN
Wednesday September 8,1999
Sports
Section:
Amy Myatt was an unlikely star in this weekend's tournament wins in West Virginia.
B
Pro Hockey
SEE PAGE 3B
The St. Louis Blues were sold yesterday to Missouri booster Bill Laurie.
Page 1
SEE PAGE 4B
Pro Football
Chiefs coach Gunther Cunningham announced that Kimble Anders will be the starting running back.
SEE PAGE 8B
WWW.KANSAN.COM
Contact the Kansan
Sports Desk: (785) 864-4810
Sports Fax: (785) 864-0391
Sports e-mail: sportsekansan.com
MegaVision clears up plays
The new MegaVision board in Memorial Stadium will make its game debut September 11 when the Jayhawks play California State-Northridge. Its screen is made of almost one million LEDs, which provide a clearer picture than a JumboTron. Photo by Jay Shepard/KANSAN
New technology increases views for 'Hawk fans
By Mike Miller
sports@kanson.com
Kansas sportwriter
Kansas football fans and players now have the thing that was missing from last season — no, not a winning record— replay.
The new MegaVision board isn't the biggest, but it is the brightest addition to Memorial Stadium, part of the $12 million of renovations to the stadium this year. Almost one million lights comprise the Light Emitting Diode (LED) board, the biggest and one of the newest of its kind.
The screen is an LED, which provides a higher resolution than the Sony JumboTron board at Kauffman Stadium in Kansas City, Mo. It is one of five screens in use among colleges — Florida State, Virginia, Oregon and Louisville are the others — and is the biggest of the big screens. This is something its operator, Mike Lickert, is especially proud of.
"Until Arizona and Arizona State complete theirs later this fall, ours is the biggest, so it should be a great addition to the stadium," he said.
Lickert said that was because Sony had the market for large video boards first. And he pointed out that the resolution should more than make up for any size difference.
The board is 24 feet wide and 32 feet long, smaller but clearer than the board at Kauffman. The JumboTron may be the board that people are familiar with,but
"Ours is better than a Sony JumboTron,
so that's all I care about," Lickert said.
The clarity is improved because of the LED technology, which gives way to the cliché, "There's not a bad seat in the house." And there's not. Whatever is one the board can be seen clearly whether a person is standing in front of the board on the track, or sitting in a seat in the corner of the stadium.
"With the CRT (cathode ray tube) you would only be able to see color shifting if you stood on the sides of the board. If the sun was shinning on your board it didn't matter where you were, you couldn't see the board," Lickert said.
"It doesn't matter now. You can sit anywhere."
And the sound has improved as well.
And the sound has improved as well. Part of the $3 million board — which includes the board and the buttress that holds it — includes 24 speaker clusters, which are loud enough to be heard at the Community Mercantile, Ninth and Mississippi streets — more than two city blocks away.
But the most important part of the board is the replay aspect. Lickert said that most plays would be replayed once, good plays would get more than one replay — and the replays will not be limited to just Kansas plays.
"When we were trying out the sound earlier, the people in the neighborhood told us they could hear it pretty well," he said.
The speakers range in size from a normal house speaker, to horn-shaped speakers that are four feet wide, five feet tall and more than seven feet deep — stadium shaking sound.
"We're gonna show what happens during the game. if it happened and it was a good play, we'll show it," he said.
And that might attract Lakin Griffin to Kansas' game Saturday.
"I think it's pretty cool," said Griffin, Lawrence freshman. "I might have to buy tickets for the games now."
Midfielder 'Zippy' leads soccer team with heart
Kansan sportswriter
By Chris Wristen
Many see her as a short girl with pink hair and a pierced nose, but what they fail to realize is that she's more than a woman of small stature. Melissa Downing has a big heart.
Add her sense of humor and the Kansas women's soccer team has quite a character, one whom they lovingly refer to as "Zippy".
"I'm just a goof, just a complete idiot," Downing, a senior midfielder, with a laugh. "I find humor in almost everything. You have to laugh at yourself because life is too short to be taken too seriously."
It's that laid-back attitude that won her teammates and
Melissa Downing, senior midfielder, is known as "Zippy" to her teammates. This is her first year playing on the Kansas soccer team after transferring from Texas Christian University. Photo by Roger Nomer/KANSAN
kind of rubs off on the other girls. If things aren't going well, she's always upbeat and
"Zippy is always upbeat," coach Mark Francis said. "That
coaches from the beginning.
lively and keeps things up."
She's happy to be at Kansas. The Southlake, Texas, native began her career at Texas Christian University, where she scored five goals during her freshman and sophomore seasons and helped her team earn a trip to the Western Athletic Conference tournament.
"I liked my school, but it was way too preppie," Downing said. "I couldn't really see myself there with my pink hair and all."
Although she liked playing in her home state, Downing was not comfortable with her environment.
Downing visited Kansas and found refuge. She discovered a team she loved and a campus that would accept her style.
"I came here and visited a couple times and saw how much fun the team was and
how cool they were." Downing said. "They were so friendly to me. They didn't even know me, and they were so nice to me, so I just wanted to be here and be a part of it."
Downing became a part of the team by using her personality to assume the role of emotional leader.
"I think my attitude is pretty good," Downing said. "I don't ever want to say anything on the field unless it's positive because negative doesn't help."
She's proven to be a spark plug for the Jayhawk offense, netting two goals so far this season, including one in Sunday's 3-0 shutout of Weber State.
"She really came through for us this weekend when we weren't playing well," Francis said.
See TEXAS on page 2B
Bradford set to be loud and proud as senior Jayhawk
He was tall and skinny. Fans said he looked like the character J.J. from Good Times. Bradford, now called Nick, is a polished senior poised to lead.
Three years ago, a freshman by the name of Nicky Bradford arrived at Kansas.
By Matt Tait
sports@kansan.com
Kansan sportswriter
Where did the time go? Bradford said that it went way too quickly.
that it went way too far." It "seems like a long time since I played with Jacque (Vaughn), Scott (Pollard) and B.J. (Williams)." Bradford said. "But at the same time it seems like yesterday we were playing Arizona in the Sweet 16 of the NCAA Tournament."
As Bradford sat down to sum up his career thus far, he spoke of his freshman year and how it was full of a lot of learning. He spoke of his sophomore
As he prepares for this, his senior season, Bradford is running extra sprints, readying his mind for the mental toll the season can take and preparing to be a leader. During the course of his three years at Kansas, Bradford has been in the company of some outstanding senior classes — something he has not ignored.
"It's been a gradual thing." Bradford said. "In this system, you know your role, and it increases gradually each year."
year in which he played more, but still waited. And he spoke of last season where he inherited a more important role, both as a player and a leader.
"The thing I learned most from those classes was the work ethic," he said. "As a senior know you've got to work hard, if you don't, you can't expect everyone else to."
Those classes included the leadership
of Vaughn, Pollard, Williams and Jerod Haase his freshman year. Followed by Baldwin Fulton Pillars.
Rae Lafend, Bri
Thomas and C.B.
McGranth two years
ago, and T.J. Pugh
and Ryan Robertson
last year. This year,
Bradford will inherit
the leadership role,
a role he anticipates
sharing with junior
center Eric
Chenowith.
"I'm going to try to get on Eric's nerves to push him, because he's a big factor for us," Bradford said.
Bradford: will inherit a leadership role on the men's basketball team.
Has Chenowith pushed back?
Has Chenowith pushed back? "Most definitely," Bradford said. "He's trying to make sure I'm doing the extra stuff."
Bradford has been a notorious vocal leader throughout his career, always talking, always motivating. Chenwith said that Bradford's leadership would help the team.
"At the end of last year we (the team) hinted as to who would need to step up," Chenowith said. "I think me and Nick can be good leaders, and I think Coach is confident we can lead the team."
And while history has proven that loud leaders make good leaders, Bradford is aware that his jawing can wear on people.
Vocal leadership is something Bradford prides himself on.
"I'm an emotional player, I like to be vocal," he said.
"I bet guys get tired of me talking, because I'm always doing it," he said. "Whether it's talking trash or getting us motivated, I'm doing it 24-7."
Hypocrisy evident with alcohol policy
But while the new MegaVision will be showing highlights, it is what will be going on in the new luxury boxes that I want all to think about.
The first home football game takes place at 6 p.m. this Saturday. New innovations at Memorial Stadium will be unveiled. Possibly the most exciting thing at Memorial since Baby Jay was mysteriously hatched at midfield in 1971.
Oh, one other thing. They have the right to sip on a beer during a football game, and you do not.
As you and I sit on the hard steel benches at Memorial Stadium watching the Jayhawks beat up on Division I-AA California State-Northridge, there will people living the good life in the "scholarship" suites. The difference between them and you — you paid $10 for your ticket and they paid up to $50,000 for theirs.
This is what dumbfounds me. Here, at the University of Kansas, where us young, impressionable students are supposed to learn the ways of the world, the University.
The University has adopted this zero-tolerance, don't-even-think-about-alcohol policy on campus. But then comes the other side
world, the university is openly being hypocritical. The University is making it a case of the have's and the have-not's. They are permitting alcohol to only a fraction of fans in attendance.
Seth
Jones
sports columnist
sports @kansas.com
of their mouth which tells us that as long as you've got the greenbacks, you can go ahead and have a drink or two. Just please tip your bartender, in this case the University, very well.
Student Senate has passed a resolution that condemns the University for allowing alcohol to be served in the James Naismith Society Room adjacent to Allen Fieldhouse and in the scholarship suites at Memorial Stadium. In the words of Partha Mazumdar, Pittsburgh graduate senator, "It is not the alcohol we desire, it is the hypocrisy we deplore."
I figured I'd better have a chat with some of these Senate types and see what their resolution was all about. I think Senate has made resolutions that have been rather senseless before. Like the time they made a resolution condemning tuna salad sandwiches. Alright, so that never happened. But I still wanted to see what they were going to do with their resolution.
I had a conversation with Korb Maxwell, student body president. Korb and I go way back, and he wasn't afraid of breaking it down for me.
"We went to the Chancellor with this, and he admitted to me that it was hypocritical. It sort of kills your argument when you both agree on the point," he said. "I'm pretty much powerless. Do we want to do something about it? I feel like I've done everything we can for now. I'm just sitting here waiting, trying to think of what to do next."
So Student Senate is against it. Your friendly neighborhood columnist Jonesey is against it. My question is, are you, dear reader, against it?
Maybe I'm making an issue out of a non-issue here. Is it okay with you that the rich get drinks while the rest get diet soda?
Do me a favor and help me conduct a poll here. The question: Does the alcohol policy bother you? E-mail me at sports@kansan.com, yell at me on campus, contact me via the psychic friends hotline for all I care. But I'd like to know what my readers think about this one.
Jones is a Mulvane senior in journalism.