University of Kansas - Jayhawker Yearbook (Lawrence, KS)

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THE JAYHAWKER Sullivant goe over, head down, for the first touchdown of K.U. ' s Big Six chedule, while the man in the striped shirt looks nonchalantly on. (Photo by Ed Garich I ... Dick Amerinc is finally caught up with ' after twiMing and turning for 18 yards during the first quarter of the Jay- hawker-Cyclone game. ... A diving tackle hy Frank Bukaty sends the Iowa State ball carrier sprawling to the ground. (Photos by Hal Branine.) IF GWINN HENRY ever de- cides to quit coaching foot- hall, he will have no trouhle locating a joh. Tomorrow morn- ing he could walk into the office of any telephone executive or hooking agent in the country and he hired on the spot as a trouhle shooter or a magician. From the time Henry started coaching hack in ' 11 until he was hrought to Mt. Oread to put some oomph in Jayhawker ath- letics and later the athletes themselves, the mastermind of the gridiron has heen continu- ally patching up hroken-down systems or, to coin a phrase, pulling rahhits out of hats. When the Kansas athletic de- partment was in the process of reorganization in 1937, those in charge hunted a long time to locate a man whom they thought capahle of huilding up a sports program of which the students and the alumni of the Univer- sity could be proud. Henry was finally chosen and he immedi- ately began to put the depart- ment on a sound footing. Last winter when it was de- cided to make a change in the football coaching staff Henry seemed to be the logical choice. But before the task could be placed on the capable shoulders of this man, two things had to be accomplished. First, Henry himself had to be persuaded to come out of his self-imposed shell of retirement from active coaching, and second, the Board of Regents had to be induced to rescind its ruling that the direc- tor of athletics at the University could not coach. Sentiment was Thin Yvnr ' s Future May Still Look Doubttut But the 1 iiinn Henry Record Hints at Surprises to Come

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OCTOBER 1939 19 Self Supporting Students Take the Bull by the Horns And Establish Their Own Co-Op Thirty-three cents a day for food. That ' s not the beginning of a background story of slum conditions at K.U. Quite the contrary. It describes the start of a student war against those very slum conditions. The girls have been doing it for a dozen years cooking and buying their own food, cleaning their own rooms, governing themselves at Wat- kins and later at Miller Hall. But it wasn ' t the University ' s fault. It was Mrs. Elizabeth Watkins that gave them the start and the support. Be it noted, too, that the Endowment Association sponsored some cooperative houses for girls even before Mrs. Watkins ' first dormitory gift in 1926. Independent men students on the Hill have always had a sneaking feeling that the University was never going to help them out on the housing que stion. Not that the University was deaf to their needs. It was the controllers of state funds that seemed to be indifferent to facts, figures, embarrassing comparisons with other state schools, and factual descriptions of boys living in six-foot, dirt-floor rooms. And so, finally, it happened. The right men got together with the right sort of determination and decided to do the job themselves. A group of Methodist students under Dr. Edwin F. Price made the first definite plans. The movement soon enlarged, however, and the de- nominational idea was dropped. They studied estimates of expenditures and budgets until they were weary, and came to the conclusion that there was nothing very visionary about it: by doing their own work they could furnish housing and board plus that intangible thing called fellowship for $17 a month. Why not? Other universities were doing it the University of Washington to the tune of half the student-body. They elected officers. Gerald Fiedler was chosen president, Stafford Ruhlen vice-president, Don DeFord secretary, and Kermit Franks treas- urer-buyer-manager. They prevailed upon John J. O. Moore, Y.M.C.A. secretary, and Mrs. Moore to stay at the house and act as sponsors. And then they rented the house at 1614 Kentucky Street decided to call it the Jayhawk Co-op. Each member agreed to deposit $20 for the purchase of furniture and equipment. By some miracle of marketing (and a few small gifts of cash and furniture from interested townspeople ) (Continued on Page 80) HOUSING FOR MEN The local authorities have heen shaking their heads over the housing problem for some years now in fact, housing for men has been a good, solemn discussion-subject for a couple of decades. Yet the first sign of a serious project in this direc- tion came only last year. Dean Olin Templin, secre- tary of the Endowment Association, decided some- tiling had to be done. He announced the beginning of an actual drive for funds to refurbish the old Acacia House, rechristen it Alumni Place, and give it to the University as a home for self-supporting men students. There has never been any doubt about the need for such a house. There has never been any doubt that it could be successful. At present there is some doubt about the outcome of the search for funds. But the project must surely go through. The question is when? It is interesting to note that at the same time the Alumni Place idea was coming to a head, individual students were taking things into their own hands fumblingly, but practically thinking in terms of dollars and cents thinking in terms of immediate action. This fall that project turned into a reality. You ' ll find it at 1614 Kentucky, under the name of the Jayhawk Co-op. Again, it is interesting to note that in the field of moderate-priced housing, also, students have had to show the University how. This is the eighth year of existence of the semi-organized house, a system of living inaugurated on the K.U. campus at 1011 Indiana by a group of Summerfield Scholars. These two healthy experiments are described in detail on these two pages. We hope that Mr. Templin brings them to the attention of Mr. Paul Endacott, the Alumni Association ' s president. And we hope Mr. Malott shows them to Mr. J. C. Denious and Mr. Buell Scott of the Kansas Senate and House respec- tively. For these are proofs on a small scale of what the University can do far better on a large scale. These serve 40 men. Non-fraternity men on the Hill number 2,000. you say about a lousing problem!

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OCTOBER 1939 21 so overwhelmingly in favor of Mr. Henry that both obstacles were soon removed. The new Jayhawker mentor fell heir to the remnants of a club that finished in the cellar of the Big Six conference last year. Only a few sophomores possessing varsity potentialities are lending a hand in the process of reconstruction. The toughest opponents in the league have improved consid- erably over last season. Yet Henry has set himself to the task with a right good will and is fashioning a football machine that is catching the fancy of the fans. It is a team capable of reeling off long and thrilling touchdown maneuvers from any spot on the field. All Henry lacked in winning his first contest as a Kansas coach was a pass that slipped through the fingers of a lone (Photo by Art Wall) Football Gray-Matter: Reading from left to right are Vic Hurt, Harry Lansing, and Gwinn Henry, the guiding hands of this year ' s Jayhawker grid machine. And it ' s certainly true that when Gwinn speaks the staff listens. lill ' E HIM TIME by JAY SIMON figure standing in the end zone. Then came his first home game and his first Big Six start at K.U. His Crimson and Blue club did itself proud in smash, ing over two quick touchdowns against Iowa State and otherwise outplaying the Cyclones throughout the game. But be- fore saying more about Henry ' s doings on Mt. Oread, let us gaze back over the past and consider some of the things that have led sports writers and observers to tag him as one of the craftiest mentors in the business. Gwinn started his coaching career in 1911 at Oklahoma Baptist University and after staying there two years returned to his alma mater, Howard Payne college, to coach during 1913-14-15. The school year of 1916-17 found Henry at the Georgia Military school as track coach, then he returned to Howard Payne to finish work on his degree. This set the stage for his first step up the ladder of coaching greatness. College of Emporia brought him to this sector in 1918 and from the very start he began producing sensational teams. In five years at Emporia, his Presbyterian elevens drop- ped only three games. C. of E., during the Henry administra- tion, was one of the most feared of all the smaller colleges. This marvelous record gave Gwinn Henry his chance in the big time coaching racket when Missouri lured him to Columbia in 1923 to begin tutoring its sons of the gridiron. After a medi- ocre season in which he built foundations for great teams, Henry got his Tigers rolling in high gear. In 1924 and the next three years Missouri stacked up 25 victories, lost only 6 games, and tied 3. The Bengals won the Big Six championship three times out of four in this span and outside the loop chalked up triumphs over Northwestern,