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UNIVERSITY DAILY KANSAN
Monday, February 26, 1996
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"I came to Kansas because they made the mistake of leaving the door open just a little crack, giving me the chance to try out as a walk-on."
T. J. Whatley
Continued from Page 1A.
career as the all-time record holder in scoring and rebounding for Glen Rose, a school that routinely has 20-win seasons. He was all-state his junior and senior years, was twice most valuable basketball player and earned all-conference and all-county honors in football.
"He kind of put Glen Rose on the map when he made the team at Kansas," said Matt Lee, Whatley's coach at Glen Rose. "But when I first started coaching him, he was a pain in the butt. Couldn't tell him anything. You know how sophomores are."
T. J. Whatley watches the game at Missouri from the Kansas bench. Since Whatley joined the team, he has played 118 minutes in 59 of 127 games.
ball. Lee recommended against trying to get on at a big school like Kansas.
Lee said he talked at length with Whatley's parents about where Whatley should try to play basket-
"I wouldn't a gave him a chance in a blue moon," Lee said. "But if there was anybody more determined than T.J. was, I did not know who they were."
Lee said he felt like Whatley's chances were better at a smaller college.
"Here I told T.J.
T.J.'s Totals
all this, and he went on up to Kansas anyway, "he said.
Llee said he told his coaching staff,
"Come April 1, we're going to be watching the Final Four, and T.J.
will be there.'
Fan's Surrogate
Whatley's career statistics
Games Played: 59
Minutes Played: 118
Points: 51
Rebounds: 20
Field Goals Attempted: 60
Field Goals Made: 18
Three-Point Goals Attempted: 18
Three-Point Goals Made: 2
Free Throws Attempted: 23
Free Throws Made: 13
Assists: 2
Steals: 5
Whatley told his side of the story, sprawled across the recliner in his parents' rural Arkansas home.
"I'll be dogged if it didn't happen. And I was tickled to death, big time."
Whatley came to the Kansas as a walk-on player in 1992, knowing he would most likely never be offered a scholarship.
"I came to Kansas because they made the mistake of leaving the door open just a little crack, giving me the chance to try out as a walk-on," he said. "I'd had offers from some small colleges, but I wanted a chance to play in front of some big crowds. Some of those colleges had gyms that weren't much bigger than the Glen Rose gym. I didn't want that."
"Ive been watching him since he was a freshman, when he first walked on, and he is so awesome."
Whatley did not come to the hallowed halls of Phog Allen because he wanted to play where the inventor of the game, James Naismith, coached. He didn't know anything about Clyde Lovelette, Darnell Valentine, B.H. Born or any other legendary Kansas players. Contrary to benchwarmer mythology, Whatley was not a Jayhawk junkie before he came to Kansas. He said he was just a stubborn kid who wanted a shot at the big time.
The student section is used to chanting "We-want-What-ley" as the final minutes tick away. But they went into a frenzy when one of their favorite players checked in early to the Colorado game.
said Jennifer Ryan, Johnson freshman. "That was so great when he came in in the first half. Since he has tried so hard, it means more to us when he plays than when we win."
"It is kind of like a dream come true for a guy to walk-on at some place big-time like KU and play ball," said Justin Whittington, Johnson sophomore. "It's like something I could try. Not that I could ever get a scholarship or anything. But it means a lot to everybody out here, because he could have had a scholarship some-place else. But coming here and playing ball is much better, even if you're a walk-on. It's great the way the team supports him so much."
The electricity that Whatley sparked when he came in during the Colorado Valentine's Day massacre was still crackling through students who lingered after the game.
KU doesn't really have a set policy for walkons, Kansas assistant coach Neil Dougherty said.
Dougerty said that sometimes the scholarship
players would get tired of all the hard work and practice.
"When they see someone like T.J. working hard for the love of the game, it gets them going again," Dougherty said.
Whatley is not the first walk-on crowd pleaser in the Roy Williams era.
The student section used to chant for Lane Czaplinski, who is now box office manager at the Lied Center. Czaplinski was a junior varsity point guard for three years until the Big Eight Conference discontinued junior varsity programs.
In 1982, Czaplinki had given up on basketball for his senior year when Sean Tunstall was suspended from the varsity team. Assistant coach Mark Turgeon asked Czaplinki to join the team as a walk-on, primarily to help out in practice.
"What T.J. has done is phenomenal," Czapinski said. "I can't imagine walking on for three more years. The practices are so intense. You really get beat up."
Czaplinski said he was impressed but not surprised with Whatley's performance in the Colorado game.
"It takes a lot of skill to be ready to perform at any time, and it is a real credit to T.J. the way he played in the Colorado game," Czaplinski said.
Through the years Whatley has built a reputation as a student section favorite, and not just with the students at Allen Field House.
"One time we were at Colorado, and we were beating them pretty bad," Whatley said. "The Colorado student section started chanting for me to come in. We were laughing so hard that we couldn't play."
Whatley understands his bond with the fans and how it is based on the shared dream of coming into a game and getting the crowd cheering.
"I'm trying to represent the com-
if he is not practicing or sleeping, T.J. Whatley is usually studying at Spahn Engineering Library in Learned Hall.
mon man out there, and hopefully I'm doing a pretty good job," Whatley said.
Some fans were aware that Whately forsook a full athletic scholarship that would have paid for his education somewhere else.
"I think the best thing about T.J. is everybody likes to think, "That could be me, man," said Shalom Kellner, St. Francis sophomore. "I could be a walk-on, playing, and everybody cheering, too! I think it's cool that he chose to come here and do this when he could've had a scholarship somewhere else."
"T.J. is the first basketball player we've had in engineering for the 17 years since I've been here," said Tom Mulinazzi, associate dean of engineering and Whatley's academic adviser. "The spring semester is tough in engineering, and he's taking 14 hours."
Breaking Stereotypes
"I work the scorer's bench," Mulinazzi said. "He comes by and acknowledges me during the warm-ups, looks at me and waves. It makes me feel good. I felt really good at the Colorado game. Not so much that he knocked the ball away on the defensive end and scored on the offensive end, but what excited me was the way the fans came alive when he went into the game. I think that did a lot to perk up the team."
Mulinazzi has a unique perspective on Whatley at home games.
It is not surprising that a walk-on with a work ethic runs counter to stereotypes of athletes as academic underachievers. Whatley's academic adviser said he is carrying about a 2.5 GPA in a heavy engineering class load. He started as a biology major and changed to civil engineering.
Mulinazzi said the associations that Whatley was making as a player
could mean more than anything he could have found anywhere else.
("Kevin) Pritchard, (Mark) Randall, Bud Stallworth, some of the greats, he gets to know them," Mulinazzi said. "He's one of them. Not like you or I. We are outsiders to that group. That's a close-knit group, a family of basketball players."
"Here is a kid from Arkansas who is rubbing elbows with Danny Manning, knows him on a first-name basis," Mulinazzi said.
"I felt like I could jump 12 feet high," Whatley said. "Oh man, it was unreal. I watched it all my life, and now that I'm there. I want it as loud as they can get it."
Because Whatley came to Kansas to play in a big venue like the fieldhouse, he doesn't mind the raucous crowd at all.
Team Role Player
Whatley fondly recalled his first experience at Late Night with Roy Williams, which marks the first official practice each year.
"I welcome that noise, I want to be out there. I want that crowd beating down on me. The louder, the better," Whatley said.
Whatley had to sell himself to Williams.
Whatley came to Kansas the summer after he graduated from high school in 1992 and began working out with the team on his own. He was not at all sure he had a chance. He knew his tryout would be during the first two weeks of practice. But three, then four weeks went by with no word of his status as he continued to practice and suit up for games.
"It turned out to be about four or five weeks of tryouts, because he never really told me I was on the team until just before the Indiana game," Whatley said. "He called me
in his office and told me I was on the traveling team, and I flew out of there and went and called my folkis first thing. By that night, pretty much everyone in Glen Rose knew about it."
While Whatley's playing time has been limited, 118 minutes in 59 games, his fan support, especially from the student section of Allen Field House, has been loud, long and heartfelt.
"To this day, it's still hard to believe that many people know my name," Whatley said. "I'm trying to represent the common man out there, and I know everybody wants me to do well. I know they like to see我 score, so every time I go in there I'll take a shot as soon as I'm open."
Williams said he was impressed with Whatley's work ethic.
After a summer of lifting weights, playing pick-up games, running and doing presineason conditioning with the team, Whatley had built a relationship with the Jayhawks who were on athletic scholarships.
"I didn't see him play until tryouts," Williams said. "By that time, he'd already established himself with the players. They helped me know what he could do."
Senior guard Calvin Rayford has seen Whatley's entire career as a Jayhawk and knows as well as anyone what Whatley can do.
"T.J. has real talent," Rayford said. "He helps in practice, sometimes by playing like he's on the next team coming in. When Oklahoma's up next, he goes to play Ryan Minor, and we'll run a box and one on him. He plays a pretty good Ryan Minor, and he loves that because he gets to shoot a lot."
"T.J.'s a great guy He keeps things fun," said Ransom, Mission Viejo, Calif., junior. "That's what I like
Steve Ransom is new to the walkon role at KU this year and has his own take on the his teammate.
about him. When I first made the team I tried to hang around him a lot because I knew I could watch him and learn how to react to things."
"He's pretty calm about the fans chanting for him, but I know he's got to be getting excited," Ransom said. "Sometimes when we have a big lead, they'll start chanting early in the game, and sometimes coach will get mad because he's not ready to put us in yet."
Down on the end of the bench,
Ransom has had a ringside seat to
Whatley's reactions to the student
chants.
Williams said he understood why the fans holler for Whatley, but there have been times when his patience has been tested.
Whatley said that he tries to stifle a laugh when the student section calls his number before Williams is ready.
"I have no problem with their cheering for T.J., but I still want to make that call." Williams said.
"I get a crack out of it," Whatley said. "Coach tries to ignore the chants, but after awhile he says , 'Get on in there.'"
The Future
After this season, Whatley will spend one more year on Mount Oread finishing his engineering degree. He plans to be an engineer, working somewhere within a six-hour drive of his parents home off U.S. 67 near Glen Rose. His mom would prefer that he stay within a 30-mile radius.
Odds are good he'll still play in some of this summer's pickup games at Robinson Center, mixing it up with the best of the best. After all, he has earned permanent membership in one of the most exclusive clubs in collegiate sports, an alumni of Allen Field House.
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