THE UNIVERSITY DAILY KANSAN SPORTS
SOCCER | 7A
KANSAS
32
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Academics comes first for soccer
WEDNESDAY, NOVEMBER 17,2010
Seven Kansas soccer players received All-Academic accolades this year. Coach Mark Francis places a high priority on his team succeeding first in the classroom and second on the field.
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PAGE 10A
A DIFFERENT KIND OF TOUGH
Cancer can't hold D.J. Marshall
The defensive end is on the practice field and cancer-free
BY MAX VOSBURGH mvosburgh@kansan.com
It was the summer of 2009 when D.J. Marshall began to notice a lump growing on the side of his neck. Everyone around him told him that it was probably just a sports-related injury. After all, Marshall was an athletic kid playing defensive end on a team that had just won the Insight Bowl.
on a team that had just won the Insight Marshall redshirted the year Kansas won the Insight Bowl. He was eager to finally play his first season at Kansas. Unfortunately, he only made it through one game.
During the 2009 season, he began to notice his weight dropping. He played at 240 pounds but all of a sudden found himself weighing as low as 215 pounds. Then other strange symptoms began to appear: He was getting bad night sweats and he noticed the lump on his neck getting bigger.
the lump on his neck getting bigger. He was sent to Lawrence Memorial Hospital where doctors took a biopsy. Soon after he received a call that would change his life forever.
"It was the next day and I was driving at the intersection of 23rd and Iowa, driving back towards campus" Marshall said. "It was the doctor and he said it's lymphoma. It didn't bother me at first because I wasn't exactly sure what lymphoma was. He was basically like, 'It's cancer and if we don't get it checked out real soon, it could be fatal'"
The magnitude of what was just told to him on the phone didn't really hit him until he got back to campus and talked to all the coaches. They tried to comfort him and let him
know everything would be all right. Then, they apologized for the way they had been acting toward him.
him.
"They were sorry for pushing me so hard because during the year I was the worst college scholarship athlete we had," he said.
athlete we had, he said. The coaches were hard on Marshall that season. His physical performance was down, his grades were suffering and the coaches thought it was because he had been going out and drinking and hanging out with girls. No one really had a clue what was really going on inside his body at the time.
After the phone call from his doctor and words of encouragement from his coaches, he finally broke down and cried. He knew life had now become less about football and more about surviving.
It was Liz Laboda at Lawrence Memorial Hospital who found the lymph. Marshall is lucky she found it when she did. It was nearly too late.
There are four stages of Hodgkin Lymphoma. Stage one is the least serious and stage four is the most serious. Letters are also included to describe the stage of cancer, mainly the letters A and B. Patients with symptoms such as fever, night sweats and weight loss are described with a B, those without with an A.
"I was 3-B, so I was on my way to be being fatal," he said. "If I would have come six montis later, it would have been non-Hodgkin's Lymphoma, which is terminal, so I could have died."
is terminal, so I should have 50 tumors throughout his body. He began chemotherapy at the beginning of the spring 2010 semester.
"They were telling me that since I was a college athlete and the youngest person in their treatment facility that they were going to give me the hardest treatment because they felt like I could deal with it," he said.
Marshall drove from Lawrence to Tulsa, Okla.
SEE MARSHALL ON PAGE 8A
COMMENTARY
Former track and cross country star Wes Santee leaves a legacy
Lloyd Koby saw many sides of Wes Santee as a teammate of his in high school and college at Kansas. But the only side he saw of Santee when they ran together was the bottom of Santee's heels as they kicked back and spurred him forward.
and spurred him. Like the Michael Johnson, or even Michael Jordan, of track and cross country in the 1950s, Santee was recognized as one his generation's best athletes by his early twenties, and should be regarded as so for the rest of history.
On Sunday, Koby's dear friend died at the age of 78, leaving behind a legacy of records in both Kansas track and field and the world. Koby ran the second leg of the 4x4 mile relay team with Santee that broke the NCAA collegiate record in 1953.
Koby said Santee had predicted, and even guaranteed, that the team would break the record that day. Koby and Santee were co-captains for the National Championship team in 1953, and as Koby had seen throughout his years with Santee, the man could fulfill any of the bold statements of what he was able to do.
"I can remember well when we set the collegiate four-mile relay record," Koby said, "and him coming in like an antecope running the last leg of the four-mile relay."
Once, after a session of heckling from his Acacia fraternity brothers, Santee said he could beat them all in a race from Tonganoxie along Highway 10 to their house.
BY NICOLAS ROESLER
proesler@kansan.com
He said each of the 28 house members could run half a mile, relay style, for the 14 miles, while he ran the entire length.
challenged to "i formed, on the spot, the judgment that this brash 20-year-old guy from Western Kansas had a unique persona that would require zero reliance on his world class running ability to rally people around him in his role as a leader," Quarrier said through an email.
Koby graduated from Ashland High School with Wes Santee and remained his friend through life. Although he was never able to beat Santee in a race, his respect for him never faltered. He said Santee would help his teammates out not only on the track, but also with class work and personal matters.
He beat them with plenty of time to spare.
His Acacia fraternity brother John Quarrier was one of brothers challenged to this race.
ters.
"He was just a great friend and gentleman," Koby said.
In his time at the University between 1950 and 1954, Santee was one of the world's top contenders in breaking the elusive barrier of the four-minute mile. Despite his claim that he could break the record mark, this was the one area where his mouth went further than his feet, barely. His fastest time recorded was 4:00.5.
Santee did set the world record in the 1,500 meters in 1954, when he was timed in 3 minutes, 42.8 seconds at the Compton Invitational. He also set the indoor mile world record twice and the indoor 1,500 meter world record once in 1955. He also competed in the 1952 Olympics in Helsinki, Finland in the 5,000 meters.
"He was always very confident," Koby said of Santee's personality throughout his life. "You might even say he had an ego as great as his running abilities were, maybe even a little greater."
"Simply stated, Wes ranks among the best of the best of our generation." Quarrier said.
After an illustrious career in college, Santee was deemed ineligible in 1956, which ended his track career. He then pursued a career with the Marines, and according to Koby, was a Marine till the end. Santee was inducted into the National Track & Field Hall of Fame in 2005.
ever at a Maine game.
Wes Santee is survived by two sons and a daughter. And will forever be remembered as one of the best athletes to ever compete for the University of Kansas.
Edited by Tim Dwyer
WOMEN'S BASKETBALL
Jayhawks on to game two
BY KATHLEEN GIER kgier@kansan.com
Kansas to host Texas A&M- Corpus Christi tonight at Allen
After defeating South Dakota on Sunday to start the season with a victory, the Kansas women's basketball team is ready to continue the season tonight. Tipoff is set for 8 p.m. when the Jayhawks face Texas A&M-Corpus Christi at home.
Sophomore point guard Angel Goodrich has a simple goal for this game.
"Coming out strong and getting a win," Goodrich said.
Freshman forward Tania Jackson led the Jayhawks in scoring with 13 points and attributed her success to her fellow post players: senior center Krysten Booagaard and sophomore forward Carolyn Davis. South Dakota double teamed Booagaard and Davis for most of the game, giving Jackson open looks.
"Being that Krysten and Carolyn are such big threats down low, I think they sagged off and that gave me the opportunity and advantage to get open because my post player didn't know I was a three-point threat," Jackson said.
Jackson hit 4-of-5 from the
SEE WOMEN'S ON PAGE 8A
Mike Gunnoe/KANSAN
Sophomore guard Angel Goodrich goes in for a layup in the second half Sunday. Kansas plays Texas A&M-Corpus Christi at 8 p.m. in Allen Fieldhouse.