Trot out the beefsteak, Mabel, Kansas University’s athletic department has suffered another black eye.

First, it was KU athletic director Al Bohl linked to the improper transfer of funds at Fresno State. Then there was the NCAA official letter of investigation of alleged violations during Bohl’s watch at FSU.

And now the Mark Mangino brouhaha has drawn negative attention to the university.

In case you haven’t heard and the whole town was buzzing about it Wednesday after the story broke Mangino, the Jayhawks’ first-year football coach, was chastised by Lawrence High officials for his temperamental outburst against game officials following last Friday’s LHS-Olathe East game.

Mangino was livid after his son, Tommy, the Lions’ starting quarterback, was hit hard by Olathe East defenders and forced to go to the sidelines. As it turned out, the younger Mangino was fine, but the damage had been done because his father had burned the officiating crew’s ears as they left Haskell Stadium.

And if all that yelling and finger-pointing weren’t enough, Mangino compounded the embarrassing tirade by refusing to apologize. Mangino issued a statement saying it was his duty to do what is right for his children. That was it.

Why didn’t he apologize? Or at least say he went about venting his feelings the wrong way? Didn’t he realize that because he’s a major college head football coach everything he does is magnified?

Gosh knows every parent will stand up for their children, but Mangino’s outburst was misguided at best. If he pulled a similar stunt on Big 12 Conference officials, he would find himself sitting out the Jayhawks’ next game.

¢ Mangino punished

If Mangino thought he could act with impunity because his inappropriate actions occurred after a game he wasn’t coaching, he was wrong. Lawrence High officials, forced to act under auspices of the Kansas State High School Activities Assn. sportsmanship rule, took action. What it was we don’t know, but reportedly Mangino escaped with just a warning when he could have been banned from watching the Lions’ next home game or worse, all remaining home games.

How the offended officials feel about Mangino losing his head, we’ll probably never know. I called Jim Knight, the referee that evening, and he said he couldn’t comment about the incident.

Knight is a retired GM engineer who lives in Overland Park and has officiated high school games for 39 years. The other members of Knight’s crew, also from Kansas City suburbs, have more than 100 years of officiating experience combined.

“He and his crew,” a veteran high school official told me, “are as good as they come.”

Although Knight declined to talk about Mangino’s verbal attack, he and his crew reportedly returned home with a tape of the game that had been given them by Sunflower Broadband and viewed the replay of the tackle of Tommy Mangino to determine if they had indeed erred and should have thrown a flag.

At least one other official who saw the tape said young Mangino was rolling to his left, then pivoted and started to go to his right when he was creamed by Olathe East defenders who were going full bore chasing him.

“It wasn’t close to being a late hit,” the official told me.

Ramifications of Mangino’s inability to control his temper are incalculable. Will it help, for instance, or hurt him in recruiting as he tries to rebuild the moribund Kansas football program? And what effect will the negative publicity have on his family? Too, in this day and age of intense rmcrutiny, doesn’t this qualify as unwanted baggage?

It would be nice to say Mangino’s outburst last Friday night was an anomaly, but he has been seen too many times screaming at his players and his assistant coaches. He clearly has a temper, but so do other coaches and they manage their anger.

In all fairness, however, Mangino is normally passive when watching his son perform. For instance, when Tommy was playing third base and catcher last summer for the Lawrence Raiders, Mangino attended several games and reportedly never uttered a peep.

Bottom line, though, is Mangino shouldn’t have ripped those officials and, in retrospect, he should have been contrite that he did.