COACH MANGINO'S TJC DEBUT SET FOR FEBRUARY 28

New KU football head coach Mark Mangino will be the featured guest at a wine and cheese reception to be held at the Topeka Holidome, Fairlawn & I-70, on Thursday, February 28, 2002, 5-7 pm. There is no charge. Members, guests and the public are welcome to meet the guy who's gonna bring winning football back to KU.

JOHN RIGGINS ON, WELL...OFF BROADWAY

In a limited January-February run, former KU and NFL great John Riggins is making his New York Off-Broadway acting debut in "Gillette" in which he plays an "ultimate good old boy" who, in his late 40's, decides to become his own boss, move to Alaska and buy a fishing boat. The play follows his trip with a hitchhiker to the lucrative oil-rigs in Gillette, Wisconsin. (Editor's note, just when you think there's nothing left in this world that could surprise you.....)

PICK UP YOUR CHECKBOOK COVERS AT FAIRLAWN MALL

The TJC membership gift this year is a very cool navy leather checkbook with a crimson Jayhawk on the cover. If you have not already renewed or if you have not yet picked up your checkbook cover, please drop by the Fairlawn Plaza Mall (21st & Fairlawn) and pick it up. Other TJC paraphernalia will also be available. Volunteers will staff our table in the mall on the following dates and times in February: Wednesday, 2/13, 5-7:30pm; Saturday, 2/16, 10-12Noon; Wednesday, 2/20, 5-7:30pm; Saturday, 2/23,10-12Noon. Checkbook covers will only be mailed to members who live out of county, so please try to stop by one of these events or pick it up at the February 28 reception for Coach Mangino.

FOOTBALL RECRUITING NEWS

In response to a request for more football news in February, we provide the following excerpt from Coach Mangino's recruiting press conference as taken from the kuaa website: On the recruiting process: "Basically, we started the process from scratch. We came in and identified all of the top players in Kansas, Kansas City, Missouri, Texas, Oklahoma, California, Florida and so on and so forth. We watched video tape the first week we had our staff together from about 8 a.m. to 11 or 12 at night. Our staff did a great job of sitting down and evaluating talent, of getting tapes to me for approval or to nix. Some guys came in from different programs and had relationships some kids. They knew about some kids that that staff was recruiting. I took that into consideration and we approached some of those kids as well. We honored every commitment that the University made while there was not a head coach. One of those commitments decided to stay with us and the other two were mutual partings. We tried to do it the best we could and they handled it properly." --On whether quarterback Bill Whittemore will have a quick impact:"We're hoping he will be a quick impact guy. We don't know. The thing I like about him is his gutsy play, his pocket presence, his competitive spirit. I talked to every head coach in the Jayhawk Conference about Bill Whittemore. Every one of them said that he's a difference maker. They all said that their defensive game plan was based on stopping Bill Whittemore. He pulled a couple of upsets almost single-handedly. I just think he's a gritty, gutty, smart tough guy and that's the kind of guy we're looking for to lead our offense."--On whether any other members of the recruiting class will come in and play right away:I don't care if a young man is a freshman or a fifth-year senior. If a guy is ready to play and compete at this school and this level, we're gonna play them. We're not going to worry about seniority and all that stuff. We're going to go with the best players and put them on the field as soon as their ready to play."

JAYHAWKS, JAYHAWKS, EVERYWHERE

Your editor had the opportunity to watch the North Dakota game with KU fans at Kinkead's in Chicago and the OU game in Alexandria, VA. I originally went to the DC location for KU games, The Park Bench Pub, which was located a half mile up the street from my meeting. Heavy snow blacked out the satellite receiver just after I'd ordered my lunch. Other KU fans began arriving and promptly leaving when told the game wouldn't be on. A DC fan showed up with his sister and four kids, together with a half-dozen large suitcases. They'd come straight from the airport via the Metro to the pub to watch the game. I negotiated the half-hour drive in a blizzard to Alexandria to catch the second half and found over 50 KU fans raucously cheering the Hawks at Ramparts Sports Bar. If you're out of town during basketball season, call the Kansas Alumni Office at 864-4760 to find out if there's a sports bar showing KU games. Sometimes, you'll even find a special party.

BEAKS & TAILS

--TJC finished 2001 with 1703 paid members.--Special thanks again to the Wiksten family for the land on which our proud new billboard sits on I-70 west of town.--Two TJC board members were featured in a recent Dick Snider Capital-Journal article: Charlie Hoag, quoted as hugging Roy Williams at the 1952 Championship reunion with, "We want you to be just like us--national champs." Also, Mary Lou Kiene who was so engrossed in the telecast of a KU basketball game that she missed the meeting of her club that was to be devoted to naming her Woman of the Year.--The way your editor reads the new NCAA basketball tournament siting rules, if KU can end up a top seed, we should end up playing in the nearest sites which would be St. Louis on March 14 & 16 and Madison, WI, on March 22 & 24. Madison is already sold out, but St. Louis tickets are available online at the ncaa (www.finalfour.net) Keep in mind that your editor may not be correct in his reading of rules and/or the seeding may not end up the way he hopes it will. --Your editor made his first trip to Bramlage, not wanting to be there for the first time when we lost. I finally trusted this year's team enough to chance it and saw my first game in Manhattan since Ahearn days. Bramlage is like a deep, rectangular mixing bowl with lots of purple seats and white aisles (I don't think Martha Stewart would approve of the color combination). It was great fun toward the end when lots of purple-clad, very quiet fans started streaming up those steep, white aisles, looking a lot like rats walking a ship cable. But the oddest thing was the leader of the exodus was their coach. Waving the wheat for Woolridge brought back memories of former Nebraska coach Joe Cipriano who could almost always be counted on for a technical or two in Allen Field House.--The Bramlage video scoreboard takes internal shots of the KSU crowd but somehow turns their purple clothes blue. Course, by the end of the night, the team made them all even more blue.--In front of Allen Field House stands a statue of coaching great Phog Allen. In front of Bramlage Coliseum stands a statue of Fred Bramlage who helped pay for the building. I wonder whose statue will be in front of the soon-to-be-constructed Mizzou arena, the historic MU coach or the guy who's paying for the building but can't stand the historic coach. Hmmmmm.--Just think, almost all K-State freshmen and some K-State sophomores weren't alive the last time K-State beat KU in basketball in Manhattan. Let's target making the same true of all K-State students.--Writing this and looking forward to Bobby Knight's visit to Allen Field House, I'm tempted to urge everyone to yell, "Sit down, Bobby." Course if we did, he might not have a chair left to sit in.....

--AL BOHL TAKE NOTE: Allen Field House needs one improvement: rigging up some kind of apparatus which, during introductions and welcoming to "Allen Field House, Home of the Jayhawks", would emit some fog out from under the bottom of the "Beware of the Phog" banner. --Who would have thought when we started that the TJC would now be discussing a $25,000 annual budget, all devoted to supporting KU teams and providing services for our members. And that sum doesn't include the approximate $20,000.00 we raise annually through our TJC golf tournament.--When your editor ran his computer program spellchecker on this edition, he discovered some interesting suggested corrections--for Bramlage--rampage (descriptive of the recent Jayhawk performance), for Bohl--boil (descriptive of the energetic level of activity--at any sporting event, you see him everywhere--talking to the players, coaches, fans, cheerleaders--this editor is a major AL BOHL fan.) and saving the best suggested correction for last--for MU--MUD. That spellchecker knows its stuff!

MEMBERSHIP RENEWAL

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Topeka Jayhawk Club

Box 67694

Topeka, KS 66667

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Questions: Otto Schnellbacher, 271-1224