Mayer: Where are you, Wildcatman?
Ted Owens denies he had a hand in the Crafty Cat Curtain Caper of 1965. But he knows who did it and how, even if nobody seems to know the inventive rascal’s name.
Unofficially, the perpetrator was dubbed Wildcatman. Is he still prowling somewhere among us?
The ultra-clever prank was relived just prior to Ted’s return for the nostalgic “Ted Owens and Friends” testimonial Thursday at the Holidome. It was a warm and lively occasion with laughs galore, even if a lot of the guffaw-producing yarns were more spin than fact.
It was Owens’ first year as KU’s head basketball man. He’d spent the previous four years as Dick Harp’s assistant. Kansas State downed Kansas, 71-63, on Jan. 20 in Manhattan and came here heavily favored, having won eight straight from the Jayhawks.
With 8:02 left in the first half and Kansas leading 23-9, a pair of 6-by-12-foot banners rolled down over the scoreboard, one on the east, the other on the west. The message was, “Go Cats … Kill Snob Hill … Again!” The commanding KU lead wasn’t what the overconfident perpetrator had in mind.
Rather than halt the game for repairs, KU officials like Skinny Replogle opted to wait until halftime. Most, however, couldn’t see the board because of the drapes. The incomparable Ed Elbel delighted in announcing the score after each bucket, savoring it to the hilt since favored K-State was en route to an 86-66 defeat. It was 42-26 at the half. Key men for KU that year were Walt Wesley, Al Lopes, Del Lewis, Riney Lochmann, Ron Franz and Capt. David Schichtle.
Oklahoma State won the league title so KU, 17-8, saw no NCAA Tournament action. No 65-team field then; runners-up stayed home.
With every point-total announcement on that freaky Feb. 20 night, Kansas fans chanted, each time a little louder, “What’s the score, K-State? What’s the score?” Jayhawks jubilated, Cats cringed.
Reflecting on the incident with chuckles, Ted says it was pretty well documented that a K-State engineering graduate doing advance work at KU carried it off.
“Apparently he went in with a group of cheerleaders practicing the night before, hid out until after they’d closed the doors and got up on the catwalk and scoreboard to work it out,” Ted explains. “Sure had a lot guts. You’d never get me up there that high, working atop a scoreboard suspended by cables.”
