Mayer: Tangerine Bowl in Orlando worthy fruit of Jayhawks’ labor

There never was much doubt which football bowl game Kansas would choose if it had a choice between one in Fort Worth, Texas, or one in Orlando, Fla. The Tangerine Bowl locale is regarded as the entertainment capital of the world; if visitors can’t find entertainment delight there, they’re ready for last rites.

Please, don’t sell Fort Worth short. Anyone who in recent years has been to its Kimbell, Amon Carter and modern art museums, taken part in any of the old stockyard festivities and wandered around the rejuvenated downtown region readily will attest that Cowtown is nifty. When Texans throw a party, especially involving the state religion of football, they do it up beautifully. Even the home-standing TCU team will have a ball because of the offerings of the Fort Worth Bowl crews.

However, it stands to reason a gang of 18- to 23-year-olds would prefer the weather and the general ambiance of Orlando to Fort Worth, for all its charms. Think back when you were that age. Would you have been more interested in Texas’s Remingtons, Russells, impressionists, hats and boots and yippie-ki-yi-ay than Disney World and all the satellite attractions there? Plus the likelihood of favorable weather that parades sparsely clad young women at the hotel pools. Lots of guys could leave there humming “With a Thong in My Heart.”

So KU (I don’t think coach Mark Mangino ever entertained anything else) will be taking part in the Tangerine hospitalities and will savor countless delights and niceties.

First time anyone around here realized you didn’t have to go to the Rose, Sugar, Orange or Cotton bowl games to have a blast was in 1961 when Kansas beat Rice in Houston’s Bluebonnet Bowl. Boy, did that apparent pig’s ear turn out to be a silk purse!

The Jayhawks began the ’61 season with skyrocketing hopes. Never has local football enthusiasm been higher. With three seniors — quarterback John Hadl, halfback Curtis McClinton and tackle Stan Kirshman — as tri-captains, nothing seemed out of reach … until Jack Mitchell’s Jayhawks started 0-2-1 with losses by a total of three points to TCU and Colorado and a 6-6 tie with Bob Devaney’s Wyoming Cowboys.

But then came a 6-0 stretch and the chance to finish the season by whipping Missouri, whose front office figured in KU’s forfeiting the 1960 league title. More heartbreak.

MU scraped out a 10-7 win before about 41,000 here and everyone was sick, including the Jayhawks who just wanted to pack up and look to ’62. KU alum Bud Adams of the pro football Houston Oilers was a close friend of Mitchell and finagled a Bluebonnet invitation, provided KU would accept.

The KU players figured that was almost an insult and were prepared to (perhaps even did) vote down the trip. Mitchell, however, made sure a “yes” vote resulted to get the chance to close the year with a victory in place of that Missouri stunner.

Kansas romped past Rice, 33-7, in a driving rain but that wasn’t the only reason the Jayhawk squad loved the trip. The Houstonites turned heaven and earth, with wrist watches, banquets, good entertainment acts and all sorts of special events. All the guys came back brimming with the kind of happiness KU will know again if it can upset North Carolina State Dec. 22.

But this year’s squad already has two legs up on that ’61 gang: KU 2003 whipped Missouri soundly and closed the season with a victory at home over Iowa State. It certainly has earned the right to have a tremendous holiday trip to Orlando.

Good as KU quarterback Bill Whittemore is, the talented Phillip Rivers of NCS is just as deadly. He was voted Atlantic Coast player of the year. Kansas faces a tall order, but imagine the wondrous enjoyment of coming home with a win.

If nobody else believes KU can do it, Mangino surely does. His squad feels the confidence. What a tremendous upsurge KU football will get by coming back from Orlando with a 7-6 record for the 2003 season.

  • You needn’t look any further than Kansas basketeers active in the NBA to recognize how tough it must be to leave a winning climate and then struggle for victories in the NBA.

Nick Collison is out all season at Seattle due to shoulder surgery. Drew Gooden is suffering because there is little Magic in Orlando. Kirk Hinrich is ensnared in the many personnel changes, including the coach, at Chicago. Paul Pierce and Raef LaFrentz are with Boston, but the Celtics aren’t setting the world afire. This is Raef’s third team after stints with Denver and Dallas. At least Dallas won a lot. Scot Pollard’s trying to meld with the Indianapolis crew and Greg Ostertag continues to be in and out at Utah.

They have to pine now and then for the oft-winning days at Kansas. They knew pro ball was a business and would throw tremendous challenges at them. They probably didn’t bargain for this kind of ego-downsizing. But when you’re making a million bucks or so, maybe it’s not as painful as we might think.

  • I always admired Grambling football coach Eddie Robinson for tutoring his guys in English, table manners and general social graces. Wonder why more coaches don’t notice the horrid grammar so many of their kids use in TV interviews and make efforts to do away with such junk as “we was,” “we have went” and “they have ran” or “it’s never gonna get no better.” Aren’t they there for an education?

Then there still are those never-ending barrages of “ya know.” Few ever topped KU’s bashful Kirk Hinrich in this category, wonderful kid as he is. It’s like that leaky faucet which has you sitting on edge waiting for the next drip … ya know?