New KU stadium: There’s no place like home

By Darrell Laurant  |   Wednesday, February 08, 2006  |  Comments( 0 )

Kansas Jayhawks
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The heyday of Kansas football came in the 1960s, when John Hadl, Curtis McClinton and Gale Sayers galloped across the plains. Since then, the Jayhawks have mainly served as regular prey for conference carnivores like Oklahoma, Nebraska, and Texas.

Now, though, athletic director Lew Perkins and football coach Mark Mangino can list 31 million reasons why their football team is going to get better -- a proposed $31 million stadium announced on Sunday.

The new facility is designed to make visiting teams stop and exclaim: "We're not in Kansas any more!" And to make in-state recruits click their heels and shout: "There's no place like home!"

Like the legendary Dorothy, Kansas wants to get to the next level.

"This has been overdue for a long time," athletic director Lew Perkins said at a news conference. "We've had some wonderful people who came up and wanted to be a part of this project."

Wonderful people with lots of money. Funding for the new stadium, which is projected to be ready for the 2008 season, came entirely from private donations, including more than half from two KU-connected families.

And there's no question that it's overdue. At present, the football program shares office and training facilities with other sports. Players have to dress in one place, then take a bus to the practice site. It's a setup that the blue-chip recruits can't help but compare with the far better setup at schools like Texas and Nebraska.

This was reflected in the team's list of recruits on Signing Day, a group devoid of any four or five-star signees. Such ranking are often deceptive, of course, and the coaching staff is high on newcomers like Texas products Xavier Rambo (a wide receiver, and probably the best name among all the signees) and QB Todd Reesling. Only Tulsa also offered Rambo a scholarship, however, and although Reesling carved up the district around Austin with a completion ratio of over 65 percent, he's only 5-11. Similarly, home state RB Jake Sharp is fast (4.4), but small.

In other words, Kansas will be a good football team. The problem is, so many others in the Big 12 are better. The new stadium may help -- as long as it doesn't interfere with Campanie Hill, a hallowed spot south of the current stadium where graduation exercises have been held almost forever.

Chancellor Robert Hemenway has tried to allay fears from traditionalists.

"I've told people the only way we would impair the view coming from the Campanile into the stadium is if there's a gravestone that says Bob Hemenway on it," he said.

"It's going to be a great facility for the university."

During his turn at the press conference microphone, Mangino -- considered one of the more innovative offensive coaches in the country -- addressed his remarks directly to the donors.

"I don't take anything for granted," he said. "You are successful people. You work hard for your money. To make that investment in our football program, on behalf of all of all our coaches and players, I want to thank you very, very much. You're giving us a chance to take our football program to the next level."
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