8B the university daily kansan
sports
friday, february 6, 2004
Retirement rumors surround Lewis
The Associated Press
LONDON — Looks like Lennox Lewis is ready to do what no heavyweight champion has done in nearly half a century: leave boxing for good with a championship belt around his waist.
The 38-year-old Lewis will hold a news conference today amid reports he will retire rather than risk his World Boxing Council title in a rematch against Vitali Klitschko.
Secretive to the end, Lewis was keeping his decision to himself. His trainer, Emanuel Steward, did not return calls. But Lewis has made no effort to meet a March 1 deadline set by the WBC to set up a fight with Klitschko, and the consensus among the boxing fraternity is that he will retire.
Lewis hasn't even told HBO what he plans to do. The television network paid him tens of millions to fight and has been waiting for months for him to
commit one way or another to a
second Kiltschko fight.
"We have had no contact with Lennox or his representatives," HBO Sports president Ross Greenburg said. "We're standing by."
Assuming Lewis does end his 14-year career, he will become the first reigning heavyweight champion to quit since Rocky Marciano in 1956. Muhammad Ali retired with the WBA title in 1978, but came back to lose fights to Larry Holmes and Trevor Berbick.
Lewis would leave a legacy of big wins against Mike Tyson and Evander Holyfield, but also a reputation for aloofness that never allowed him to connect with boxing fans outside of Britain and Canada, where he grew up.
A heavyweight who stood 6-foot-5 but had the boxing skills of a smaller man, Lewis won an Olympic gold medal for Canada and went on to win the heavyweight title three times.
Lewis, though, fought infrequently in recent years, winning a huge fight with Tyson in June 2002, and stopping Kiltschko on cuts last June in Los Angeles.
Lewis looked ragged against Klitschko. The champion took some big shots to the head and trailed on all three scorecards before the ring doctor ordered the fight stopped at the end of the sixth round because Klitschko was bleeding badly.
If Lewis retires, Klitschko would meet No. 2 contender Corrie Sanders for the WBC title.
Steward said recently he wanted Lewis to beat Klitschko one more time but would understand if he didn't want the fight.
"If you hesitate about making up your mind, that is not good," Steward said. "If he feels he can go back to the training it is going to take, and the grind it is going to take, he should do it."
If he wants to go back up the mountain for this one final war, yes, but if he doesn't, my suggestion is just to leave and rest on your laurels."
Despite an impressive record (41-2-1) and the victories against Tyson and Holyfield, Lewis' performances tended to be plodding rather than inspiring.
His two knockout losses — to Oliver McCall and Hasim Rahman — were huge upsets, but he went on to beat both in rematches.
His one draw came against Holyfield in a fight most observers felt Lewis won. He later beat Holyfield on points to become undisputed world champion.
Former manager Frank Maloney, who guided Lewis through most of his career, said the loss to Rahman in South Africa in April 2001 was a sign he was losing his spark.
"I'm surprised he's gone on this long," Maloney said. "He should have gone after the Tyson fight because there was nothing else for him to prove then."
The Associated Press
'Playmakers' canned
ESPN was proud of Playmakers which showed the network could produce a viable sports drama.
But the show, which focused on a fictional team and featured plots that included drug use, marital infidelity, racism and homophobia, angered the NFL. In the end, the network decided it was better to cancel the show on Wednesday after one season than antagonize a longtime, and lucrative, partner.
ESPN is paying the NFL $4.8 billion over eight seasons for the rights to Sunday night games.
Still, ESPN executive vice president of programming and production Mark Shapiro said the NFL did not pressure the network to cancel the show. "Nobody charts our programming future but us," he said.
NFL commissioner Paul Tagliabue had expressed concerns that Playmakers was one-dimensional and perpetuated racial stereotypes.
The network's partnership with the NFL continues Sunday night, when ESPN will televise the Pro Bowl.
"Now we can all move on," NFL spokesman Greg Aiello said.
Playmakers drew praise from some critics, and its 11 episodes were watched by an average of 2 million people each Tuesday night, five times the ratings the network drew for that time slot the previous year. ESPN had aired a variety of shows in the time slot, including NFL Films, original programming like Sports Reporters II and even a college football game between Miami and Marshall.
Along with the praise, Playmakers drew criticism from players. Tampa Bay defensive tackle Warren Sapp refused to do interviews with ESPN, although he subsequently did several.
By the end of the season, however, there were reports that players approached the network to inquire about roles on the show.
KU fans seated in the student section of Allen Fieldhouse wave their arms during a recent basketball game.
WHEATIES: Director encourages students to sing
CONTINUED FROM 1B
Matt Leavitt, Andover junior,
said he could fully support the
effort as a fan.
"It's lacking," Leavitt said. "It's been a tradition forever. I remember hearing it when Jacque Vaughn was playing."
Stedham said the "Wheaties" song tradition began in 1971 with a TV commercial featuring all-pro basketball player Willis Reed. In the commercial, Reed is playing
poorly until he eats his Wheaties and gets better.
The commercial used a jingle and someone suggested to then-KU band director Jim Barnes that he should turn the jingle into a song for the band.
He did, and the tradition began.
General Mills, maker of Wheaties, heard about it and sent 10,000 boxes of Wheaties to the Final Four that year for fans to "wave the wheat."
The tradition has been around ever since and might be around longer if KU fans prime their singing voices for future games.
Andrea Hughey, Overland Park senior, said she thought the plan would work.
"KU's so rich in tradition, students would do anything to keep change from happening,"she said.
— Edited by Nikki Nugent
CAMPING: Rules posted to clear up confusion
CONTINUED FROM 1B
blame the system. Kevin Mechtley, Topeka sophomore, and member of the group Buddy Hawks, said that there had been favoritism toward certain groups, including the Phog Phanatics, in the past and that a new system should be instituted to leave no questions about fairness.
"Sitting there and seeing how little trust people have, it's clear that there should be some third party involved," Mechtley said.
system was run efficiently.
This is how the system works now: Campers arrive at 6 a.m. the day after a home basketball game to submit their group's name into a lottery. The lottery determines the order the camping groups are allowed to enter the seats at Allen Fieldhouse.
The lottery can be run by anyone or any combination of groups. Joe Clausing, Wichita graduate student, said that the
After the lottery, a member from each group is required to be present at 6 each weekday morning leading up to the game for roll call. The time is moved back to 8 a.m. on weekends. If any group is not represented at roll call, the group gets scratched from the order and pushed to the end of the line. The minimum number of members in a group is five and the maximum is 30. For every five members of a group, one numbered poker chip may be drawn. The lowest number is the one used to determine where the group stands in the order.
Clausing, a member of Super K's Cronies, another camping group, said the Phog Phanatics' success was because the group always had a maximum number of picks in the lottery.
"Yeah, they got lucky and they've been doing it." Clausing said.
Clausing's fellow group member, Adam Lohoefener, said that he ran the lottery and instituted the poker chip system because he had experience doing it. The Oberlin senior said that it was an honor system.
"People are just less trusting now," Lohoefener said. "When I was a freshman, I thought the Phog Phanatics were cheating, too."
Phog Phanatic Chris Kaufman, Denver junior, agreed that the system was a tribute to the student fan and that it was run effectively. He denied that the Phog Phanatics were cheating, but said that the system could be improved to remove the doubt.
"The potential for cheating is increased when students run it," Kaufman said. "We have to trust each other, we're all here for the same reason."
Some angry campers have tried to get the University of Kansas involved in the system. Richard Johnson, dean of students, said that he had been confronted by two concerned students, but that the only way the administration would step in to help was in a "non-partisan spectator" role.
"I'd rather see the students govern themselves on the matter." Johnson said.
Johnson said that the problem that some campers were having was attributed to confusion about policy. Not knowing the rules and regulations made the process difficult to understand. Johnson said.
Rules were posted for the first time before the camping for tomorrow's game started. With the rules posted, many campers said that the lottery for the Texas Tech game was the smoothest of the season.
At other universities with large basketball programs, such as Duke University, the camping system is student-run, but the regulations are strict. At Kansas, the rules posted at the Fieldhouse are "not official rules, but more of general guidelines on how things run, and have been passed down from one year to another," according to the rule sheet.
Camping group leaders will have a meeting with Johnson at the end of the year to determine what, if any, policy changes will be made for the upcoming season. K.C. Miller, Dallas freshman, and member of the group Reno 911, said changes were welcome.
"There definitely needs to be an established leader." Miller said.
Kaufman, the Phog Phanatic, agreed, but said students should stay in charge.
"There's always room for improvement," Kaufman said. "But there's no need for the University to take control."
— Edited by Michelle Rodick