Get ready to laugh Missouri football fans, this one’s for you.
A highlight of my collegiate career, and my life, was serving on the equipment staff for the University of Kansas football team during the 1979-82 seasons. I got paid a monthly stipend that topped at $110 a month my final season, could eat dinner with athletes on the training table, paid in-state tuition and received a per diem when we traveled. While players received a full-ride scholarship, in many ways I had a better deal.
Like now, the Jayhawks were in yet another “rebuilding” mode when I became a manager. Unlike now, the team turned things around quickly and qualified for the 1981 Hall of Fame Bowl in Birmingham, Alabama. We lost to Mississippi State 10-0, but I still have my bowl watch and a lot of great memories.
Bobby Johnson, a wide receiver out of Assumption High School in East St. Louis, came to KU after a two-year stop at Independence Junior College. We were friends his two years at KU and later when he played for the New York Giants. He was a member of the 1987 Super Bowl team.
In fact, KU football has given the world John Hadl, Gale Sayers and John Riggins. Current star defensive backs Chris Harris and Aqib Talib of Denver and Darrell Stuckey of the San Diego Chargers are former Jayhawks. Former NFL All-Pro defensive lineman Gilbert Brown and Dana Stubblefield also played at Kansas.
Fast forward to 2015, and KU has one of the – in not the – worst teams in FBS college football. Several ESPN writers lampooned last Saturday’s KU at Rutgers game as one of the worst matchups of the last half-century. Pathetic KU has just 65 players on scholarship out of a possible 85. We can thank former coach Charlie Weis for that nonsense. More on that later.
Rutgers coach Kyle Flood is in the midst of a three-game suspension for contacting a professor in regard to a player’s grade. That’s a no-no. In addition, the Scarlet Knights have also seen seven players arrested this season – and three former players – on charges including assault, home invasion and armed robbery. Both teams are ranked in a weekly column called The Bottom 10. KU is second and Rutgers was seventh before last Saturday.
Rutgers prevailed 27-14 and probably ended KU’s chances of winning a game this season. There is a chance that the Jayhawks could beat a lousy Iowa State team next week, but the Jayhawks have lost 34 consecutive road games. Coach David Beaty, Texas A&M’s former offensive coordinator, inherited this grease fire from Weis who took over for Turner Gill.
Gill had done an outstanding job at Buffalo before getting in over his head with KU. Kudos to KU for hiring its first black coach in 2010, but Gill was a disaster. He had stupid policies like no cell phones for players, but didn’t seem to care if they ever attended class, broke the law or refused to do required weight training.
He got the heave-ho after compiling a 5-19 record and leaving the cupboard bare for Weis.
I bought Weis’ line of garbage hook, line and sinker. I thought he was the answer. He is a blowhard who failed as Notre Dame head coach, failed as offensive coordinator at Florida and failed miserably at KU. His first order of business was to chase off scholarship players and sign a crop of worthless JUCO transfers.
After a 1-11 season in 2012, when asked about his recruiting pitch, Weis said, “Have you looked at that pile of crap out there? If you can’t play here where can you play?”
Weis was 6-22 at KU and was fired during his third year at the helm. He is the reason that KU is down 20 scholarship players and that is the reason the team is historically bad.
What is crazy about the meltdown at KU is that it comes after one of the most successful eras in the school’s football history. Coach Mark Mangino took over a losing program in 2002 and during his seven years at the helm turned the Jayhawks into a Top 10 program. It went to four bowl games and won three.
Everyone remembers the showdown between Missouri and Kansas in November 2007 at Arrowhead Stadium. The winner would be No. 1 in the nation – and it was Mizzou, 36-28.
The Tigers would fall to Oklahoma in the Big 12 Championship game and KU would be invited to the Orange Bowl, where the Jayhawks prevailed over Virginia Tech. This irritates Missouri fans to this day and will forever. BCS Bowl appearances? KU 1, Mizzou 0. BCS Bowl wins? KU 1, Mizzou 0.
But I digress.
Mangino’s downfall started with an investigation of verbal and physical abuse of players. An incident involving a young man from St. Louis showed Mangino’s true character.
Former KU receiver Raymond Brown told ESPN that Mangino said “personal, hurtful and embarrassing things in front of people.”
After his younger brother had been shot in the arm in St. Louis, this incident occurred during the following week’s game.
“I dropped a pass and he was mad. I said, ‘Yes sir, yes sir.’ Then he yelled, ‘Shut up. If you don’t shut up I’m going to send you back to St. Louis so you can get shot with your homies,’” Brown said.
Mangino is now an Iowa State offensive coordinator and would like nothing more than to pin a major whooping on his former employer.
It’s not all gloom and doom at KU. For one, Chancellor Bernadette Gray-Little is the only African American to hold the top leadership position at a Power 5 school (ACC, Big Ten, Big 12, PAC 12 and SEC). Also, it’s almost basketball season and KU is ranked in the Top 5 of almost every preseason publication.
Go Jayhawks!
Alvin A. Reid is a panelist on KETC channel 9’s most-popular show “Donnybrook,” radio commentator and author.
