Photo by Rick Pendergrass
Clutch Donswagen-a preying mantis
By RICK PENDERGRASS Kansan Sports Special
If you happen to be tooling down the street and see what looks like a Volswagen except for its plexiglas roof and huge tires on chrome wheels, don't challenge it to a race—you'll get eaten alive.
OK, maybe you and your GTO or SS396 can take a Volkswagen through a quarter any day—in reverse. Just don't get into a road race with this one. It takes the curves so well that the owner, Don Gerber, Atchison sophomore, is afraid he's going to run over his rear bumper one of these days.
Gerber, along with much help from Empi has built what was once a stock 1962 VW into a predatory monster.
As with most unusual or unique cars, this one has an interesting background. It has had several different engines, and has been rolled at least twice.
As a matter of fact, the plexiglas roof is a by-product of the last time Gerber rolled it. It seems it landed on its topside, and the damage being so great, he decided it would be simpler to install plexiglas in the hole than to try to repair it.
At the time, Gerber was working for the local VW dealer
Valley playoff set at Wichita
KANSAS CITY, Mo. (UPI) If Drake and Louisville tie for the Missouri Valley basketball championship a one-game play off-to determine the conference's NCAA representative—will be held at Wichita State University Monday night.
Drake and Louisville currently are deadlocked for the Valley lead with 12-3 records and one league game remaining each.
Drake plays at St. Louis and Louisville invades Bradley, both Thursday night. If both win or if both lose, a playoff will be necessary.
Tulsa, which won its first 10 Valley starts, was eliminated from the title picture when Wichita State handed the Hurricane a 95-87 overtime loss Monday night. Tulsa finished 11-5, losing five of its last six games.
Norvall Neve, Valley commissioner, said if a playoff game was necessary it would begin at 8 p.m.
which made it possible for him to do the job for about $20.
Gerber said last summer he was offered a Porsche 911 engine sporting something like 200 horsepower for a mere $1,000 (which is reasonable for such an engine).
Gerber wanted to see how the engine would perform in his VW, and since the Porsche mill almost slips right into a VW compartment, he tried it out for a day.
8 KANSAN Mar. 6
1969
Well, as he put it, "When I let off that clutch, man, all I could see was sky!" He was speaking of the wheelstand that almost took that rear bumper off.
Right now, the car is beefed up with a new VW 1200cc engine, stock except for bored jets on the carburetor, a dry air cleaner, and a free exhaust system (an Empi header kit rigged to his own mufflers).
He has installed a heavy duty, fully synchronized transmission—the same transmission that was able to hold the Porsche engine.
Stock VWs have independent suspension which make the wheels tend to tuck under strain. Since Gerber uses an engine much more powerful than the standard, and since the tires are so wide, he has installed a camber compensator in the rear suspension to prevent tucking, and give better handling.
Gerber is building an engine now which he hopes to put in by summer, a 1600cc VW block with dual port heads allowing for four carburetors.
The expenses on the car have run to about $3,000 so far, and Gerber says there is more to come. So, as he puts it, "Any bug lovers wishing to contribute to the cause . . ."
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Baseball's whiz kids still face soph jinx
SCHLUMBERGER WELL SERVICES
NEW YORK (UPI) Baseball's whiz kids may be smarter these days but they still have their troubles with the time-tested "sophomore jinx."
No one really believes in the sophomore jinx except certain sadistic statisticians who get their kicks keeping track of such things—and perhaps a few of its victims.
Another new bunch, led by Johnny Bench of the Cincinnati Reds and Jerry Koosman of the New York Mets, now is facing up to the ancient hex and who knows what evil lurks ahead?
But it's a fact that only four of the 12 hottest rookies of 1967 turned in superior performances as 1968 sophomores. The jinx reduced six to inferior records. Two staved about even.
That means a 50-50 standoff, better than average.
Tom Seaver of the Mets—1967 rookie of the year in the National League with a 16-13 record-survived the jinx with 16-12 as a soph. But Dick Hughes of the St. Louis Cardinals and Gary Nolan of the Reds, Seaver's top rivals, both had arm miseries and failed to come up to their rookie records.
Rod Carew of the Minnesota Twins, runaway winner of rookie honors in the AL two years ago, tailed off in batting the second time around while his only rival in the balloting, Reggie Smith of Boston, boosted his average as a soph last year.
Lee May of the Reds, Mike Andrews of Boston and Rick Monday of the Oakland Athletics sailed through the jinx
year in high style with improved performances, but the victims also included Ramon Webster of the Athletics, Tom Phoebus of Baltimore and Rich Nye of the Cubs who achieved less the second year than as rookies.
Now that's all over for them and the new bunch comes in.
Bench, Koosman and Stan Bahnsen of the New York Yankees are the prime targets as baseball's brightest rookie stars in 1968.
Bench batted .275, swatted 15 home runs and drove in 82. His work behind the plate in 154 games drew high marks.
Bench, first catcher to win the NL rookie award in its 20 years of existence, nosed out Koosman by the closest margin in history— $10\frac{1}{2}$ to $9\frac{1}{2}$ votes of a special committee.
Koosman, a lefty pitcher, went for a 19-12 record and considering he had the Mets as teammates the feat roughly parallels a 25-game season for anyone else toiling for a contender.
Among others who'll be battling the hex this year are Ron Reed of the Atlanta Braves, Gary Holman and Del Unser of Washington, Bobby Bonds of San Francisco, Hector Torres of Houston and Dock Ellis of Pittsburgh.
There are plenty more, of course, and while they don't really believe in it you can bet they'll breathe a lot easier when this sophomore year is over.
Even when the jinx is having an "off year" it still bats around 500.