16THE UNIVERSITY DAILY KANSAN
SPORTS
WEDNESDAY, JUNE 7, 2006
COLUMN
World Cup has the power to convert
You've seen the commercials. Shoeless children in war-torn countries playing in a barren field. Fans packing a pub, eyes fixed on a television with the team's colors emblazoned on their faces. U2 songs playing in the background.
It's the World Cup.
playing in the back This isn't March Madness or the Super Bowl that's got the world in a frenzy.
BY FRED A. DAVIS III
fdavis@kansan.com
KANSAN STAFT WRITER
Soccer as it's known here in the states, or futbol to the rest of the world, is ready to take center stage for a month when the world's greatest sporting event begins on Friday.
Now, I have to be honest, I'm not a big soccer fan.
not a big soccer fan.
I've never really followed the sport and never understood what could possess a person to run around - kicking a ball - for 90 plus minutes. The games are low scoring and a player can't use his hands. That was all I needed to make a judgment.
But if you look closely at soccer.
that's the beauty of the sport. it's not supposed to be high scoring, it takes a real athlete to run around kicking a ball for 90 plus minutes and the things that some of those guys do with the soccer球 is akin to what Pistol Pete did with a basketball-breathtaking.
People in this part of the country love their hoops and football, and some, well, some even like baseball. Soccer is great for kids and moms, but at the major league
level, it's still got a way to go before it can even sniff what the big boys - NFL, NBA and MLB - are doing.
But that's here in the states. The rest of the world stops when soccer is playing. It's very much like March Madness is here, except, it's the WORLD that calls in sick, not just us.
So, needing some clarity about this World Cup thing aside from what I've been hearing on the tube and reading in magazines, I spoke with someone who has actually coached in a World Cup, Kansas City Wizards coach Bob Gansler.
Despite getting on me early in our conversation as to why KU has no nen's soccer team - "that wasn't my decision," I said - Gansler spoke candidly about soccer's increasing popularity in the states and why we should all watch the World Cup.
should all watch the World "It's the ultimate competition. It's the world's game. You've got the stage and the participants." Gansler said. "It takes one city to host the Olympics, it takes a country to host
This year's World Cup is hosted by Germany.
Gansler, who's been in this country nearly all his life by way of Hungary - though he was raised in a German village and speaks German - said that given the relatively short time that soccer has been played in this country, the sport has evolved immensely.
has involved military training.
“This sport used to be called a foreigner's game. It's not a foreigner's game anymore." Gansler said.
He points out the recent success and improvement of the United States national team - who he coached to the 1990 World Cup in Italy, the first World Cup appearance by an American squad in 40 years.
by an internship supervisor
"2002 made people notice",
Gansler said, referring to the surprise quarterfinal run the U.S. team made.
"Was it out of the ground? No. It just showed that the game is here to stay," he said. Concerning this year's team, which has a top-five world ranking, Gansler is suspect.
"Rankings are a subjective thing...it's a fact, we're in the top 20 or dozen, and that's a very special thing." Gansler said.
And the U.S.'s World Cup chances?
"The guys could play better this year than they did in '02 and still not make it out of the first round," he said.
About his own World Cup experience 16 years ago. Gansler summed it up nicely -
"It's goose bumps running up and down your spine."
and warm your spine
So there you have it boys and girls, the ultimate competition, a spectacle featuring the World's greatest athletes, guys with names like Ronaldoinho, Ronaldo and Geraldo - okay, so he's not playing - and an entire planet that goes bonkers for thirty days about a sporting event.
It's World Cup time baby. Bono will be watching, will you?
Davis is a Topeka senior in english and journalism.
ATHLETICS DEPARTMENT
Falkenstien's football successor named
BY JACK WEINSTEIN
jweinstein@kansan.com
KANSAN STAFF WRITER
Lawrence
David Lawrence will succeed Max Falkenstien as the commentator for football on the Jayhawk Radio Network starting next season. Falkenstien retired after
broadcasting Kansas football and basketball games for the past 60 years.
It might seem like a tough task to find a successor for a man that has broadcast more than 2,000 games, including some of the greatest moments in KU sports history, Associate Athletics Director Jim Marchiony said that wasn't the case.
my said that wasn't the "it was an easy decision," Marchiony said. "There weren't a lot of negotiations and lengthy discussions between ESPN Plus and KU Athletics about who would succeed Max."
Lawrence said he knew that the promotion would be a possibility after Max retired. "I had been around and on the sidelines," he said. "I knew it could happened, but I didn't take anything for granted. When I found out I, I was very excited. It's something I've wanted to do for a long time."
Falkenstien said he was happy with the decision to hire Lawrence as the person to carry on the job that he started.
He did great. He said Lawrence, a KU graduate and former offensive lineman and tight
"He'll do great," he said.
end for the Jayhawks, moves from the sidelines, where he has spent the past 12 years as the sideline reporter, to the broadcast booth to team up with Bob Davis. Davis has handled the play-by-play duties for football and basketball for the past 22 years. This is Lawrence's second stint in the booth. He was the analyst in 1982, the year after his graduation. At the time, he was torn between wanting a career in broadcasting and coaching.Moving to the booth at that time was a natural fit. Lawrence was already traveling with the team as a graduate assistant for former coach Don Fambrough.
The end of that season proved to be a turning point for Lawrence. The Jayhawks finished 2-7-2 and Fambrough was fired. Lawrence had wanted to coach with Fambrough and left the University of Kansas after that season.
"I was really disheartened with the University after Coach Fambrough's firing." Lawrence said. "So I left to coach high school."
So high to coach high school
Lawrence returned to the University for a year as an assistant to then Coach Mike Gottfried in 1984. The next year Lawrence started his teaching career at South Junior High in Lawrence.
He also got his first head coaching job that year, a post he would hold at South Junior High for the next 17 years.
In 1988, Lawrence returned to broadcasting as the analyst for KU football on Sunflower Broadband channel 6. He joined the Jayhawk Radio Network in 1994, forcing him to leave his duties with the channel 6 broadcast.
Lawrence hosted a weekly sports talk show on KLWN for 10 years that he gave up in 2000. He stopped coaching at South Junior High in
Nate Bukaty, a 1998 graduate of the School of Journalism at KU, will replace Lawrence as the sideline reporter for football broadcasts. Bukaty, the women's basketball play-by-play announcer for the past five seasons, will also host the pre-game "Crimson and Blue Line" show and the "Jayhawk Locker Room" show, duties formerly held by Lawrence.
The commentator for basketball has not been named yet, but an announcement could come in the next month, according to Falkenstien.
Bukaty has worked in radio and television in the metro area for the past seven years and his current duties include the pre and postgame coverage for Kansas City Royals Radio Network.
Weekly Specials @ Kansan.com
Thu Fri Sat Sun Mon Tues Wed
Aberdeen Apartments & Townhomes
$500 FREE RENT
OPEN HOUSE:
M-F 9-6
Sat 11-3
Sun 12-3
$500 FREE RENT
OPEN HOUSE:
M-F 9-6
Sat 11-3
Sun 12-3
$500 FREE RENT
OPEN HOUSE:
M-F 9-6
Sat 11-3
Sun 12-3
$500 FREE RENT
OPEN HOUSE:
M-F 9-6
Sat 11-3
Sun 12-3
$500 FREE RENT
OPEN HOUSE:
M-F 9-6
Sat 11-3
Sun 12-3
$500 FREE RENT
OPEN HOUSE:
M-F 9-6
Sat 11-3
Sun 12-3
lunch-Chicken Finger Wrap dinner-Wings $1.50 Single Wells $2 Wheat Draws
lunch-Chicken Fried Steak dinner-HALF PRICE APPITZERS
4-6PM $2.50 Single Crown, Absolut, Mallbu drinks $3 Guinness Drinks
lunch-California Turkey Sandwich dinner-Steak Entree $2.50 Domestic Bottles $2 Single Jack, Captain, Smirnoff Drinks
lunch & dinner-wings $3 Double Bloody Mary's $7/11 2/3 DOMESTIC TOWERS
lunch-Buffalo Chicken Salad dinner-Chicken Finger Basket $2.50 Aluminum Bud & Bud Light Bottles $2.75 Import bottles
lunch-Hot Ham & Cheese dinner-HALF PRICE BURGERS $2 Domestic Pints
lunch-BBQ Sandwich dinner-75c Hard Shell Tacos 88c Soft Shell $2.50 Quero Margaritas & Mexican Beers