Good piece on Willie Jeffries in the Topeka paper

[ABC]

Kudos to the Capital-Journal and Kevin Haskin.

http://cjonline.com/sports/2011-09-30/kevin-haskin-pressure-hit-jeffries-after-wsu-hire

Very interesting to say the least.

[1972Shocker]

Nice find ABC. :good:

[pogo]

He was always a really great guy. He used to call every spring to see if the business I worked for could hire a few of the boys during the summer. One year one of them was "Jumpy" Geathers. He worked in the warehouse loading trucks and the drivers used to say "He doesn't even need a fork lift". One of the nicest people you could every meet. I still have the autographed football coach Jeffries gave me in appreciation for being able to hire some of his guys.

[shox1989]

Thanks for posting the link. That is a very nice article.

That 1982 team of his was very special.

[MadDog]

So I was at the KSU-Baylor game yesterday and during one of the timeouts they introduced their inductees, but at a separate time out they introduced Willie Jeffries. They had his picture up on the scoreboard decked out in a WSU coaching shirt, and I think he was at the game on the field with the KSU athletic director (although I didn't see that because I was watching the video board). It was cool.

However, one thing bothered me. I wish I had been paying closer attention, but I think they said the KSU athletic director was going to introduce him or sponsor him or something for the Kansas sports hall of fame. I was in shock that KSU had some claim on him. If anyone else was there, maybe than can explain what that was about. I would really like to understand how our guy now seems to have this tie to KSU.

[SB Shock]

So I was at the KSU-Baylor game yesterday and during one of the timeouts they introduced their inductees, but at a separate time out they introduced Willie Jeffries. They had his picture up on the scoreboard decked out in a WSU coaching shirt, and I think he was at the game on the field with the KSU athletic director (although I didn't see that because I was watching the video board). It was cool.

However, one thing bothered me. I wish I had been paying closer attention, but I think they said the KSU athletic director was going to introduce him or sponsor him or something for the Kansas sports hall of fame. I was in shock that KSU had some claim on him. If anyone else was there, maybe than can explain what that was about. I would really like to understand how our guy now seems to have this tie to KSU.

KSU doesn't have any ties to Coach Jefferies - I believe they were just honoring him because he was being inducted into he Kansas Sports Hall of Fame in Wichita. It was a classy move by the KSU administration seeing the big picture.

[WuDrWu]

Kudos to Chris Allison for running this on 1410 this morning, and even going over the bottom of the hour break (never happens in radio) but it was more than worth it.

These are just the last couple of minutes of his speech and as usual with Coach, it's not so much about football:

http://www.kwch.com/videobeta/b3b514ce-14e2-4965-af47-f2d776facd04/Sports/Former-Wichita-State-football-coach-Willie-Jeffries-Kansas-Sports-Hall-of-Fame-Induction-Speech

I can still hear Coach telling us on his coaches show about how the natives told him it was a beautiful day in Wyoming on that last Saturday in '82 or how Rueben Eckels was Johnny on the spot and saving us a little embarrassment by recovering a fumble in the KU game that same year.

I was lucky enough to meet Coach one time while he was WSU's coach but I wasn't smart enough (by any stretch of the imagination) to know how lucky. I also ran into him a few months ago on a visit to Wichita.

He has always been so gracious and complimentary of WSU and the staff and fans. You never heard a bad word from him. I wish he would have been a part of Wichita State for many more years.

[shox1989]

Kudos to Chris Allison for running this on 1410 this morning, and even going over the bottom of the hour break (never happens in radio) but it was more than worth it.

These are just the last couple of minutes of his speech and as usual with Coach, it's not so much about football:

http://www.kwch.com/videobeta/b3b514ce-14e2-4965-af47-f2d776facd04/Sports/Former-Wichita-State-football-coach-Willie-Jeffries-Kansas-Sports-Hall-of-Fame-Induction-Speech

I can still hear Coach telling us on his coaches show about how the natives told him it was a beautiful day in Wyoming on that last Saturday in '82 or how Rueben Eckels was Johnny on the spot and saving us a little embarrassment by recovering a fumble in the KU game that same year.

I was lucky enough to meet Coach one time while he was WSU's coach but I wasn't smart enough (by any stretch of the imagination) to know how lucky. I also ran into him a few months ago on a visit to Wichita.

He has always been so gracious and complimentary of WSU and the staff and fans. You never heard a bad word from him. I wish he would have been a part of Wichita State for many more years.

I have always believed that Lew Perkins fired Coach Jeffries way too fast.
I think if he hadn't fired Jeffries, he would have turned things around and WSU would have been much better. WSU was going through a rebuilding year in 1983 after losing players like Prince McJunkins.

In fact, It is my opinion that WSU would NOT have dropped football after the 1986 season if Jeffries had NOT been fired.

Ron Chismar started from scratch and the team was terrible again.

[shocky]

I believe that there was a lot more to Coach Jeffries stepping down than just win and loses. The NCAA has ordered Armstrong and Perkins to, in their words, clean up WSU athletics. I think the football program was caught up in this house cleaning and Jeffries was one who paid the price for it. I think his staff only committed minor violations, but in that climate it was deadly. He did interview at Army and it went well, but when we went on probation Army went a different direction.

As for WSU dropping football if Coach Jeffries had not stepped down, who really knows. Coach was rebuilding, but that 83 season was a disaster to say the least. We got pounding by KU and lost to non-D1 Southern Missouri with a final record of 3-8. The Missouri Valley was made up with a bunch of FCS schools that we should have been dominating. With all that said, I think Coach Jeffries was all class and a great coach. We are lucky to have him associated with our university.

The problem in my opinion was never the coach's at WSU per say. It was that we never made any commitment to football in any meaningful way. Coach Jeffries said that he was fighting with a toothpick and the other guys had two-by-fours. I think that says it all. I hate the fact that we dropped football, but we could not continue the same course. as for Coach Ron Chismar, he was just screwed from the start. That is how bad it was.

[shocker3]

I believe that there was a lot more to Coach Jeffries stepping down than just win and loses. The NCAA has ordered Armstrong and Perkins to, in their words, clean up WSU athletics. I think the football program was caught up in this house cleaning and Jeffries was one who paid the price for it. I think his staff only committed minor violations, but in that climate it was deadly. He did interview at Army and it went well, but when we went on probation Army went a different direction.

As for WSU dropping football if Coach Jeffries had not stepped down, who really knows. Coach was rebuilding, but that 83 season was a disaster to say the least. We got pounding by KU and lost to non-D1 Southern Missouri with a final record of 3-8. The Missouri Valley was made up with a bunch of FCS schools that we should have been dominating. With all that said, I think Coach Jeffries was all class and a great coach. We are lucky to have him associated with our university.

The problem in my opinion was never the coach's at WSU per say. It was that we never made any commitment to football in any meaningful way. Coach Jeffries said that he was fighting with a toothpick and the other guys had two-by-fours. I think that says it all. I hate the fact that we dropped football, but we could not continue the same course. as for Coach Ron Chismar, he was just screwed from the start. That is how bad it was.

I agree with your assessment. Lew Perkins was basically brought in to clean up the image of WSU and to clean house. Which he did.

I also believe that Jeffries should not have been fired for those minor infractions. And that had he stayed WSU would have had a winning record in 1984.

Who knows if he could have done enough to save football. I do think there would have been a good chance football would have still been around in 1987 if Jeffries had still been coach.

And as bad as we were under Ron Chismar we still beat Kstate in Manhattan the last time we played them (1985).

Kstate was actually worse than WSU in football back then.