6
Tuesday, February 27, 1979
Universitv Dailv Kansan
Sports computer kills telegraph
This column was named "Shorts and Longs" for a couple of reasons.
With a title like that, this column can consist of long stories or collections of short narratives.
But there is more to the logo than types and lengths of stories. The logo also refers to an early phase of sports communication—telegraphy with Morse Code. Back in the old days, such a device was used by America's ballparks, stadiums and gyms filing sports stories, he would often take his own Western Union telegraph key operator, who spoke English but hammered and tapped Morse with his own accent, or fist. He used a typewriter, called shorts and longs by the operators.
Like America's entire communication system, newspaper communication has grown to a terrific technological peak. And the American sports departments because of their unique need to staff an away game and a story as soon as possible before the ominous
NO LONGER IS the tap-tap-tap of the brass key heard in the smoky pressrooms in arena basements or attics across the country. More familiar is the influx of the VDTs, a scaled-down model to the unit handling this copy. There's also the whirring of spinning telecopiers, quickly growing extinct though, with the increase of personal computers that transmit a typewritten page of copy over regular telephone circuits to a receiving telecopier through a light scanner which actually reads the lines. Special paper pick up the story in the receiving machine, and you can see the copy on copy namer for a tube trip to the backshop.
The hand-carryed computer terminals have a small screen and keyboard, command keys and editing keys. They send stories on tape directly to the home office computer by phone at a speed of up to 1200 words a minute eliminate any revert.
Most professional writers use either telecopiers or VDTS and enjoy them. They
SHORTS and LONGS
SHORTS ar John P. Tharp
cann the machines save time in turning last night's game as today's sports news.
"YOU DON'T ALWAYS have to explain to some part-timer what you mean," says Ken Leiker, Topica Capital-Journal sports writer based in Kansas City. "It seems like there always a reason for it, but there's not much up in the paper. The accuracy is much better with a telexer."
Charlie Smith, a Wichita Eagle-Beacon sports writer also in Kansas City, doesn't want his portable machine he calls a combination of a typewriter and a telecopier. It has a keyboard, makes a hard copy, has a memory, and can be into the computer over the phone.
Smith has had it since December, and hasn't had any serious problems with it,
"On my first assignment with Wichita," Smith said, "I was covering the Sun Bowel and at the El Paso airport I watched my belt buckle pop. I felt a sense of being gifted with a pair of skis pushing against it.
"IT WAS STANDING up in its case, and came to a horseshoe curve in the belt, and the skis pushed it off onto the floor where it shattered."
simmons rememberes when Western Union still transmitted sports stories, not with brass keys though. Instead, WU used a microphone on a digraph office or directly to the newspaper.
"I remember fighting with five other guys in Chicago at a KU-Loyola basketball game trying to get the operator to send my story first," Smith says. "It was dog eat dog."
A VDT user, Randy York of the Lincoln (Neb.) Journal-Star, says his unit can send a two-page story in two minutes.
Bob Nelson, a Sports Comm Inc., dealer
from Kansas City, is the replacement for the telegraph operators. Nelson has a fleet of VDTs and telecopiers. He contracts with newspapers to transmit their writer's sports copy from the arenas and fields to the computer.
"THE MAIN PURPOSE of VDTS is the single keystroke system." Nelson says. "It eliminates the typewriter and any telecopier copy having to be retyped. The only problem sometimes is when they have trouble with their computer."
This is a specter to computer sports writers. If a story composed in the mind and not on paper is lost, it takes time and effort to resend it because of a computer failure.
Rick Gosselin, the United Press International sports bureau chief in Kansas City, uses a VDT in his office. At a game, however he dictates his story by phone to a desk man before the contest is over. He well know the perils of a computer shut-down.
"In the 1976 Olympics, I lost the same story on three different DVTs three straight times," Gosselin says. "By the fourth time I was sick, much down in my head, but it's frustrating."
GOSSELN DEFENDS the dictation method over the machine method.
"If you rely on a computer you're at's mercy," he said. "With dictation, there's no possible way you can lose the story, because you're giving it to another human being."
Leiker, who will probably end up having to use a VDT, says he'll miss using the typewriter, but his new Underwood portable that are as much of a tradition in the country's press rooms as a standard.
'Hawks begin tournament
"I just think the typewriter is part of the profession," Leiker says, "like the green lawn."
Smith envisions something worse, or better, depending on what conference is taking place.
Associate Sports Editor
By JOHN P. THARP
KU, the defending Big Eight champ,
hopes to regain its title by the post-
season game of chance.
The first spin starts when Iowa State FOU in KU to a 7:35 game in Allen Field House tonight. Student tickets, $2 each, sell until game time at the field house.
"We're taking Iowa State very seriously," KU coach Ted Owens said yesterday. "They're probably playing their best ball all year right now."
"We're not going to take it lightly, because we know they're capable of beating us."
Tonight's starters, Owens should, be the same as in last Saturday's Colorado game—Darnell Valentine, who was on a three-game stretch and Paul Mokeski. Valentine hasn't scrimmaged since Colorado, and still nursing a tender ankle. But the team's offense needs to work.
"THIS FIRST round carries the weight," Valentine said of the first playoff game. "Whoever loses could have a long summer.
Lynn Nance, ISU coach, is the man who planned the upset in Ames. He said
that Allen Field House was a tough place to play in, especially right now.
"We're going to have to struggle and play our game," he said.
Probable starters for ISU are Charles Harris and Nej, Nass, guards; All-Big Eight Andrew Parker and Robert Estes, forwards; and Dean Uhoff, center. Parker, who leads the league in scoring with a 22-point average, and Uuhoff, who leads the team in rebounding with 10.5-rebound average, are the Cyclone's biggest threats.
But it was Harris who surprised KU in Ames. He hit 18 points, a dozen of them in the first half. Parker led all scorers in scoring and scored by shoff for rebounding with wins on 6.
"In 10 years, they might have a machine that will watch the games and write the stories," Smith dreams. "Then I won't have to do it."
"I'm concentrating on my rebound," Mokeski said. "If they get momentum, I'm going to have to try and punish them inside."
If that happens, fans should enjoy a match between the two top rebounders in the Big Eight.
But Bob Hentzen, sports editor at the Capital Journal, who has seen the telegraph key, the teletype, the tecopier and the VDTs, refuses to believe that machines will eventually replace the league of sports writers.
The winner of tonight's game will advance to round two, for a 7:05 game Friday night in Kemper Arena in Kansas City. The winner of tonight's Missouri-Missouri State game.
“There’s always going to be a place for a man at this,” Henzen says, enjoying one of the many sunsets.
"Newspaper readers need a man to get mad at—not a machine."
All-Conference team includes Valentine
Darnell Valentine, KU's star guard, has been named to the United Press International's All-Big Eight Conference football team for the second year in a row.
Joining Valentine on the squab is another sophomore, Rolando Blackman from Kansas State, and three seniors. The seniors are John McCallough, Oklahoma; Emmet Lewis, Colorado; and Andrew Parker, Iowa State.
Getting an honorable mention selection was Paul Mokeski, KU's senior center.
The players were selected by a 24-member voting panel made up of three ballotlers from each of the eight conference presidents, the member listed eight names on their ballots.
McCullough was the only unanimous selection. Valentine, Blackman and Lewis were all one vote short of unanimous selections.
Spirited sub
KU forward Pat Mason, who came off the bench to score 15 points in
KU forward Pat Mason, who came off the bench to score 15 points in
Staff photo by TRISH LEWIS
'Cats win in 2 overtimes
things go KU's way. However, the Wildcats had the last cheer, as they pulled the game out in two overtimes.
Bv NANCY DRESSLER
Snorts Editor
Lynette Woodsum summed it up pretty well last night in a despondent Kansas town.
"You score 1,000 points and you're short by one," the KU All-American said after the Jayhawks dropped a heartbreaking 82-73 loss to Indiana in 921, before two games in Iraq at Foster House.
Woodard notched her 1,000th point this season and teammate Adrian Mitchell scored her 2,000 career point in the game, which looked like a Kansas victory until the Wildcats stole the thunder on a last-second jump shot by LeAnn Wilcox.
Wilcox's basket, which came from the key with -10 second left in the second overtime, capped a K-State surge that had creased a 10-3 lead. The second half to set up the dramatic finish.
"ONCE IT WAS up, I thought it was going
." Willcox, who led K-State players with 29 points.
Wilcox scored six of her points as part of the closx furry by the Wildcats in the first round.
Wildcat coach Judy Akers said varied defence, and a cautious KU team were the keys.
"WE HAD A 10-point lead and then we
Missed KU shots plus missed free throws-five of seven in the closing minutes—were reasons for the loss, according to KU coach Marian Washington.
"We went to player defense for two minutes. Then we went to a full-court zone."
"I felt what gave us momentum was that kansas was protecting its load. So we tried to
suddenly went cold on the free throw line," Washington said. "We started coming down the floor and turning the ball over. We got up with the shots a little quick."
Mitchell, who was given the game bail when she scored her 2,000th point on a layup with 8:41 left, credited the Wildcats for not giving up.
The senior forward had missed many shots early in the game as the 2,000-point player came up for it. A large banner draped over the railing of the field house balcony said, "A: You're two
"They've got a good team, they work hard," Mitchell said. "They wanted it just as bad as we did. It was a seesaw and they came out on top."
The deciding weight that put KU on the losing end was missed free throws.
Mitchell was one of several Kansas players who could haveiced the victory. She went to the chantry stripe with :01 left in the end, and the score tied at 11. She missed two free throws.
"I DIDN'T WANT to shoot the free throws," she said. But I was confident I'd made the cut, and I never shot.
Woodard, who had 43 points and 24 rebounds, also could have sealed it for KU. She went to the free throw line with 15 left in regulation play and the score at t7.
Up to then, she had gone 9 for 11, including a pair of charities with 11:30 left in regulation play that were her 1,000th and 1,001st points for this season.
But the first shot of the one-and-one didn't fall and K-State missed a shot to send it into
KU's Kathy Patterson had no better luck in the extra periods. She missed the first end of a one-and-one with :11 left in the second overtime.
Wilcox had brought K-State within one
point, 91-80, just seconds before teammate Jeanne Daniels committed her fifth personal foul. Patterson was sent to the line with a chance to save it for the Jawhaws.
BUT THE HEROICS belonged to Wilcox,
whose 1-foot swished at the buzzer.
The victory assures the Wildcats, who finish 4-0 in the Kansas state conference, a spot in the Association of Intercollegiate Athletics for Women regional tournament, March 8-10 in Minnesota, Minn. K-State's overall record is 19-8.
Kansas, now 28-6 and ranked 106th last week, has a good chance for an at-large bid
Washington said the team's attitude toward entering the regional as an at-large entry would determine whether KU accepts the bid.
While it waits for a bid, Kansas must prepare for its game Saturday at the University of Nevada-Las Vegas, which is undefeated.
The Kansas Union Bookstores
Vitamin E 400 I.U.
100 capsules REG. 4.99
Vitamin C 500mg
100 tablets REG.2.79
| | FG | FT | FE | REB | TP | PP |
| :--- | :--- | :--- | :--- | :--- | :--- | :--- |
| Mitchell | 15-7 | 17-7 | 18-7 | 24 | 33 | 39 |
| Woodard | 16-30 | 18-14 | 19 | 2 | 3 | 4 |
| Sanders | 0-1 | 0-1 | 0-1 | 5 | 2 | 2 |
| Jamison | 0-1 | 0-6 | 5 | 2 | 2 | 6 |
| Johnson | 0-2 | 0-4 | 5 | 2 | 0 | 6 |
| Patterson | 0-2 | 9-2 | 5 | 2 | 0 | 6 |
| Patterson | 0-3 | 9-2 | 5 | 2 | 0 | 6 |
| Knox | 0-4 | 9-2 | 5 | 2 | 3 | 4 |
| Knox | 0-4 | 9-2 | 5 | 2 | 3 | 4 |
| Knox | 35-43 | 21-58 | 60 | 6 | 91 | 91 |
Iron Tabs 325mg
100 tablets REG. 1.84
Foster 3-11 0-2 FT REB 6 FE PTP 19
Miller 3-11 0-2 G 6 5 10
Bugge 0-6 0-6 2 1 1 0
Wilhams 4-9 0-4 2 4 0
Williams 12-9 7-8 4 4 0
Price 1-3 0-4 0 2 2
Randall 9-11 0-4 14 1 22
Randall 13-11 0-4 14 1 22
Johnson 3-6 0-4 1 2 2
Johnson 0-2 0-2 1 2 2
Dutton 0-6 1-2 1 2 2
Dutton 15-83 12-12 42 30 12
Now you can make sure you're getting enough of the vitamins you need to keep you going. Take advantage of these great savings from Rexall — The Vitamin People.
One Tablet Daily With Iron REG. 2.97
Kansas State. 36 27 8 11—92
Kansas. 42 31 8 10—91
Just one of the many, many items we carry to SERVE YOU BETTER.
$2.99
$1.49
$1.99
$ .99
LEVEL 2 OF THE KANSAS UNION
WE ARE THE ONLY BOOKSTORE THAT SHARES ITS PROFITS WITH KIJ STUDENTS.
---
II
E
A to M
W T F
E
Fo
U II