Hawks collect 33 in recruiting war
By JAY THOMAS
Kansan Sports Writer
Kansas reaped some of the rewards of a successful football season yesterday with the signing of 33 high school gridders to Big Eight letters of intent.
Included are eight members of the 11-man 1968 Kansas All-State team, selected by the Topeka Capital-Journal.
"I guess I've always wanted to come to Kansas," he said. "I visited several other schools but there was never really any doubt in my mind that I'd be here."
Notable among this group is Mike Cerne, Lawrence's talented two-way halfback. An All-American selection, the 185-pound Cerne was delighted at the prospect of going to KU.
Joining Cerne on this fall's freshman squad will be two of his Lawrence teammates, all-stater Geary King, a mobile 210-pound tackle-end, and George Schuler, a 218-pound tackle who doubles as a placekicker.
The Jayhawk coaching staff scoured Kansas City and came up with an orange basket full of prospects.
High on the list are Gary Palmer, a bruising 240-pound fullback-linebacker from Center; Hal Edwards, 215-pound center-tackle from Shawnee Mission East; and Bob Bruegging, 185-pound quarterback from Southwest. All three were all-state selections.
Also signing with KU were All-Missouri halfback Jerry Evans of Oak Park's state champion runner-up team; Pat Ryan, a quick tight end-linebacker from De La Salle; and Hank Bauer, Jr., halfback from Bishop Miege and son of the Oakland A's baseball manager.
Kansas nabbed three members of the Oklahoma all-state eleven-center Don Senter and tailback Tom Zachery from Tulsa Washington, and tailback-linebacker Tommy Woods of Tulsa's Nathan Hale high school.
Senter and Zachery led Washington to consecutive Oklahoma AAA state championships in their junior and senior campaigns.
Of the signees, 21 hail from Kansas high schools, six from Missouri, three from Oklahoma, and two from Nebraska.
Tuesday marked the first day Big Eight schools were allowed to get prep players on the dotted line. Under league rules, none of those grabbed today will be permitted to play for any other conference school.
The next and last big date on the recruiting war's calendar is May 21—when the national letters of intent are due. League coaches will be sweating it out until then, hoping that no gridder signed today decides to jump to another conference.
But for the most part, the big battles have already been fought. For Kansas, they appear to be won-at least for the most part.
Letters of intent signees
KANSAS
Kansas City—John Ballard (Shawnee Mission, South), 238, tackle; Hank Bauer Jr. (Bishop Miege), 180, halfback; Mike Burton (Washington), 170, split end-halfback; Hal Edwards (Shawnee Mission East), 215, center-tackle; Jim Schumm (Bishop Miege), 215, tackle.
Lawrence~Mike Cerne, 185,
halfback; Geary Kerry, 210,
offensive tackle-defensive end;
George Schuler, 218, tackle.
Topeka—Danny Gay (Topeka High), 210, offensive guard-linebacker; Don Perkins (Seaman), 225, tackle-linebacker.
Atchison—Reggie Ballew, 210,
fullback.
Wichita - Mickey  Cassley (North), 190, linebacker.
Humboldt—Bob Clements,
190, linebacker.
Bridgeport-Mike Douglas (Southeast of Salina), 210, quarterback.
Coffeyville—George Haynes, 180, end.
Columbus-Richard Jones,
170. quarterback.
Valley Center-Carl Searcy, 225, tackle.
Ottawa-David Lofgreen, 185,
guard-linebacker.
Hutchinson-John  Schroll,
200, quarterback.
Salina-Curt Gasper (Sacred Heart), 170, defensive halfback. Ulluesse-Bob Martin, 185.
Ulysses-Bob Martin, 185,
end.
MISSOURI
Kansas City—Bob Bruegging (Southwest), 185, quarterback; Jim Day (Center), 190, quarterback; Jerry Evans (Oak Park), 175, halfback; Joe Meyer (Lillis), 225, end; Gery Palmer (Center), 240, fullback; Pat Ryan (De La Salle), 185, tight end-linebacker.
OKLAHOMA
Tulsa·Don Senter (Washington), 180, center; Tommy Woods (Nathan Hale), 193, tailback-linebacker; Tom Zachery (Washington), 170, tailback.
Bartlesville-Gary Adams (College High), 175, safety.
NEBRASKA
Omaha-Ben DiBiase (Creighton Prep), 205, guard; Andy Sibbernsen (Creighton Prep), 225, tackle.
Chisox innovate for 1969
CHICAGO (UPI) — The Chicago White Sox are going all out this year to realign the dimension of Comiskey Park so as to aid Sox batters into lifting the club from its lowly second division of a year ago that attracted only 538,323 fans.
Some of the new innovations at the park will include:
- A new restaurant beneath the grandstand, where dinner and cocktails will be served.
pitchometer, which times the 20 seconds allowed between pitches, to the bleacher wall.
- An additional $100,000 to be spent in additional lighting both inside the park and outside in the parking lots and adjacent alleys and streets.
- A change in the scoreboard that would allow the results of two more games, and shift the
Feb. 12
1969 KANSAN 7
- A new fence which will be erected inside the outfield walls to cut the foul line distances to 335 feet, with the power alleys cut to 370 feet, and 400 feet in dead center.
And if those innovations don't get the Sox off on a winning streak, the management will provide a group of 15 neatly uniformed young ladies who will be known as the "Soxettes" to make their marks.
Mike Cerne
Nixon hosts Davis team
WASHINGTON （UPI）
President Nixon gave a White House lunch Tuesday for six members of the U.S. Davis Cup team which recently won the symbol of international tennis supremacy from Australia.
Oswalt placed second to Whitley at that meet but won the Oklahoma City Invitational with a career high of 24' 6" Jessie as a junior college transfer in first varsity performance, nabbed last weekend's Michigan State Relays title with a 23' 91/4" leap.
Events get underway at 5:30 with the long jump, pitting KU's Stan Whitley and Ron Jessie against the Cowboys' Hal Oswalt. Whitley won the Champions meet in Houston two weeks ago with a Kansas Indoor best of 25' 4¼".
Nixon and the team admired the big silver trophy set up in the state dining room of the white house's east wing. Then they went into a smaller adjacent dining room for lunch.
Meeting with the president were players Arthur Ashe of Richmond, Va., Charles Pasarell of Puerto Rico, Stan Smith of Pasadena, Calif., James Osborne of Honolulu and Clark Graebner of New York, along with Coach Dennis Ralston, Team Captain Donald L. Dell, Robert J. Kellher, president of the U.S. Lawn Tennis Association, and Gene O'Connor, team trainer.
Salukis, OSU here tonight in triangular
Oklahoma State and Southern Illinois thinclads visit Allen Field House tonight for a triangular meet that promises to offer some interesting head-to-head confrontations.
The feature running event has Jayhawk Olympian Jim Ryun going against SIU's Allan Robinson in a star-studded two-mile, Robinson, a freshman from Sydney, Australia, is unbeaten at that distance and owns a season's best of 8:57.2.
Another Saluki, '64 Olympian Oscar Moore, will run either the mile or two-mile. Moore, just recovering from an aggravated Achilles tendon, has done a 4:13.8 indoor mile this season and has been pressing Robinson in the two-mile with an 8:59.4.
A prominent Big Eight performer, OSU pole vaulter Larry Kurtz, will be trying to improve upon his conference indoor record of 16' 6" set earlier this year.
MU outshoots NU
COLUMBIA, Mo. (UPI)
Missouri's balanced attack produced 54 per cent field goal accuracy for a 79-60 Big Eight Conference basketball triumph over Nebraska last night.
The Tigers also dominated the boards with 32 rebounds to 19 for Nebraska.