Thursday, April 18. 1963 University Daily Kansan
Athletic Success Result of Coaching
(The second of a three part series.)
By Russ Corbitt
Much of the credit for KU's successful athletic history must be attributed to competent leadership. Many of the men who have led the Jayhawks to a position of national recognition and prestige are still present on the KU sports scene continuing their efforts.
Heading this list, of course, is Athletic Director A. C. Lonborg, who has held the position for the last 14 years.
LONBORG'S REGIME has not only led to success on the field, but also to improvements in the athletic department's physical plant.
Thirty-five Big Eight championships and four NCAA titles attest to Lonborg's successful leadership during this period. KU has also won six runnerup honors in NCAA competition under Lonborg.
Of course the major achievement along this line was the erection of Allen Field House. This mammoth structure has provided facilities for basketball, track, and baseball, football and tennis practice.
Improvements on the indoor and outdoor tracks, installation of a scoreboard for the baseball field, construction of a football parking lot (Zone X), and installation of a new electric scoreboard at the stadium are other achievements of the Lonborg regime.
OTHER MEMBERS of the administrative staff include Earl Falkenstein, athletic business manager; Denzel Gibbens, ticket manager; and Monte Johnson, director of promotions and public relations.
Falkenstien has three full-time employees under him in the business department. Also the athletic department maintains a full-time staff of six secretaries. Part-time secretarial help is obtained when it is needed.
The two men who probably do the most to spread the good name of KU athletics are Monte Johnson, director of promotions and Don Pierce, sport publicity director.
JOHNSON BECAME public relations director in June, 1961, when the position was officially created. Previous to that time, assistant
"About one-half my time is spent on ticket promotion." Johnson said, "and the other half is devoted to advertising, publishing schedules and programs, and working personally with the athletes."
coaches had handled the duties during their spare time.
"I MADE between 400 and 500 phone calls regarding season tickets last year," Johnson said. "Most of them were around the immediate area of Lawrence, Kansas City, and Topeka."
Johnson said his main duty is to promote sales of season tickets.
Johnson is also in charge of helping athletes who are having academic troubles. He sends out grade report forms to the teachers of all the athletes at the three-week, six-week, nine-week and twelve-week periods. These forms ask the teacher for the athlete's grade in the course at the time, his class attitude and the number of times he has missed the class.
An athlete-tutoring service is available to those athletes who desire special instruction in certain courses.
"THIS IS NOT only for athletes who are having trouble." Johnson said. "Some athletes who are between a 'B' and 'C' in a course may like a little help so they can get a higher grade."
Johnson phones the particular departments of the University to see what teachers are available for tutoring service, and then gives a tutor's name to the athlete. It is usually up to the athlete to make the appointments. No figures were available on the cost of the service, but Johnson said he thought it is probably a little less than in other Big Eight schools.
Johnson also arranges for proctors for the study halls held in Bailey Hall Monday through Thursday evenings. The proctors are usually faculty members or past athletes who are doing graduate work at the University.
DON PIERCE, now with 24 years of sportswriting experience, worked on five newspapers before coming to KU in 1945.
One of his chief duties here is to send out athletic publicity releases to area and Big Eight newspapers. Most of these are news and advance stories on events, but several of them are individual reports on athletes which often are obtained through interviews.
Pierce's other duties include managing the press box, mailing tickets to radio and press representatives who will be covering the events, assigning them seats in the press box, compiling up-to-date statistics on all sports, maintaining a list of past records, and answering correspondence pertaining to KU athletics.
Mitchell's original five-year contract was torn up after his fourth season in favor of a "lifetime pact," which Mitchell calls "one of the best, if not the best, contract a coach and his staff ever had."
FOOTBALL COACH Jack Mitchell has guided the KU team for the last five years, compiling a record of 29 wins, 18 losses, and 4 ties.
Mitchell spent his first two years of head coaching to Wichita University, and then moved to the University of Arkansas for three seasons before coming to KU.
MITCHELL, who has compiled a
head coaching record of 60-35-6, has a staff of six assistant coaches at KU
Dick Harp, KU basketball head coach, has filled this capacity for seven seasons. He took over the head chores from Dr. F. C. Allen in 1957.
Harp holds what is believed to be an unequalled distinction of reaching the NCAA finals as a player, assistant coach, and head coach.
HE WAS co-captain of Dr. Allen's 1940 NCAA finalist team, assistant to Allen when the team won the title in 1952, and took his own team to the finals in 1957, only to lose a triple overtime match to North Carolina.
Harp's charges have won one Big Eight championship and shared another, and have compiled an overall record during the seven seasons of 108 wins and 70 losses.
Coach Bill Easton has been at the helm of the KU track teams for 15 years, and has recently led his teams to consecutive NCAA finishes of third, second, fourth, second, first, and first.
EASTON IS only the second coach in history to develop NCAA championship teams in both cross-country and track and field. His former coach, the late Billy Hayes at Indiana, was the only other coach to achieve this feat.
KU, Illinois, and Southern California are the only schools who have captured two consecutive NCAA track and field titles.
Of course, one of the prime requisites for a successful athletic program is securing top-notch athletes.
THE COACHES of the various sports go about recruiting high school athletes in similar ways. They subscribe to a large number of newspapers who sport columns give them leads on promising young athletes
Contacts are then made through the mail, through alumni living in the area, and through personal contact by the coaches during the summer. Files are kept throughout the season on these boys and their accomplishments.
The KU coaches also send out post cards to Kansas high school coaches asking for names of their top athletes.
"WE CHECK a man on three main points," Coach Easton said, "academic ability, deportment, and athletic ability."
Tomorrow—"Athletics as a Business"
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