Oh, how they slip through the cracks so you lose track of them – former Kansas University athletes, famous and not-so-famous. You mention Carl Ellis to even diehard KU sports fans, and it takes an ex-teammate like Floyd Temple, a veteran coach like Don Fambrough or a deep-dyed loyalist like Jerry Waugh to recall him.

Modern life and times and their scattergun tendencies make it terribly hard to stay current on folks. Ask anyone who has tried to get in touch with high-schoolmates for reunions of 50 or more years.

But here’s an intriguing update on Carl Ellis. He may be the only Jayhawk who served in military combat before a two-sport career here, then put in a batch of time, and more combat, with another branch of service. Once he even stunt-doubled for movie icon John Wayne. Now 81, Carl lives in Waco, Texas, home of the Baylor Bears.

Long story short, Ellis fell into minor trouble at age 16 in his home state of Texas and got off the hook by enlisting in the World War II Marines in 1942, when they weren’t too insistent about a guy’s age. He trained in San Diego, then saw two years in the war-torn South Pacific.

Discharged, Ellis played football at Kilgore (Texas) Junior College and was lured to KU by coach J.V. Sikes as a tackle for 1948 and 1949. He was a good one; KU went 7-3 in ’48 and a 5-5 in ’49. Carl also was a top-flight baseball shortstop with the ’49 KU team, the last one before this year to win a conference title. He played again in ’50 en route to graduation.

Ellis coached briefly at Ellis, Kan., High, at a Texas high school and at Kilgore Juco from 1960 to 1963, also working in public relations. Decided he could make the same money in the Army, enlisted in 1964 and saw two tours of duty in Vietnam before retiring as a full colonel in 1986. He frowns when recalling the casualties he saw serving in two wars. He’s also quick to remember the rewarding times in uniform, athletic and military, with “more great guys than you could ever imagine.”

Typical Army. After his Vietnam tours as a vital pathfinder, Carl was asked where he wanted to serve: “Anywhere but Alaska.” He wound up a post commander and operations officer in Anchorage. “If I’d asked for Alaska, they might have sent me to Puerto Rico,” he chuckles.

Then the John Wayne bit. Carl was based at Fort Benning, Ga., where part of the 1968 film “The Green Berets” was being shot. The Duke got about anything he asked for. In a long shot of Wayne and his men parachuting into danger, Ellis can be seen as the Wayne double. The Duke told them that as Army men they could perform free, or they could ask for a day’s leave and get $600 each as “civilians.” Guess what! The brass nixed it.

Later, the chain-smoking Duke passed out Zippo lighters with “The Green Berets” on one side and “Stolen from John Wayne” on the other.

In later civilian life, Ellis has been a high school teacher in Waco and follows his Jayhawks as closely as he can. There’s one new piece of bad news, however, about that ’49 KU baseball team, where Charlie Moffett was a pitcher. I learn that Charlie, also a football and basketball letterman, is lost the same as Red Hogan, Bud French and Ken Morrow from the ’49ers.

Few Jayhawks have had as unusual pre-college and post-

college careers as Carl Ellis, or even have been starters in two major sports.