KANSAS ALUMNI MAGAZINE (ISSN 0745-3345) Is Published by the Women’S Cross Country Logs Best-Ever NCAA Run
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No 1, 2016 I $5 First Final Four All-American Ainise Havili helps lift 30-3 ’Hawks to volleyball’s biggest stage n POET LAUREATE n LANDSCAPE BEAUTY Contents | Issue 1, 2016 28 20 34 28 20 34 Dream Big At First Light Poetry for the People Ambitious goals and clutch Photographer Michael Tod Marshall’s journey to play—including a comeback Strickland’s approach to becoming the next poet for the ages—powered KU capturing fresh landscape laureate of Washington state volleyball’s historic run to the portraits relies on an old- started with a book-lled Final Four. fashioned formula— Wichita childhood. a large-format camera, By Chris Lazzarino lm and patience. By Steven Hill Cover photograph By Chris Lazzarino by Steve Puppe Established in 1902 as e Graduate Magazine Volume 114, No. 1, 2016 ISSUE 1, 2016 | 1 Lift the Chorus STEVE PUPPE STEVE enamoured of it—always afraid of the performance standards of I’d tumble down 20 concrete college marching bands over a steps. number of years.” A history of the Marching Jayhawks compiled by In Chris Lazzarino’s article, the KU School of Music credits he states that the Sudler Trophy Robert Foster, who became honors “the country’s best director of bands in 1971, with Finnigan band.” I spent some time this introducing the pregame march year chastising K-State alumni down the Hill, but it does not famous “dive” back then. ose for saying the same thing about pinpoint the origins of the iconic of us who know Mike musi- their band’s 2015 Sudler win. pregame run down the Memorial cally know he is a real treasure e Sousa Foundation website Stadium steps. If anyone out there and talent. Even Mike’s father clearly states the Sudler Trophy remembers encountering the said, “God doesn’t care whom Strike up is not an award for the best daring dash before 1966, we’d he gives talent to—and you’re a the memories band in any particular year; it love to hear from you. good example.” is an award for sustained I lived in Lawrence in the W excellence in band. It has never ’90s and, knowing of Mike’s about the Marching Jayhawks been awarded to any school vocal gi, I begged the director [“Suit Up the Band,” issue No. more than once. of bands to have Mike sing the 6]. I was a member of this great I rst saw KU as a high national anthem, as Mike has organization from 1963 to ’65, school student participating in done for many a sporting event and your story brought back a Band Day, in either 1966 or in the Los Angeles area. KU lot of memories. ’67, and I remember the KU basketball was honoring an Whenever we attend a pregame run-in at that game. anniversary of some sort, and football game, we always get I also remember unloading Mike and other basketball into the stadium in time to see our bus east of Allen Field Calendar kudos alumni were coming back. I the band charge out of the House and looking in awe at thought it would be great to stands for the pregame. I must the line of Daisy Hill dorms. I K pro- “get Finnigan,” one of KU’s say there were a couple of thought they resembled a brick duced the 2016 KU Alumni basketball alumni, to sing. times when that was a chore armada sailing across the hill, Association calendar! What a Unfortunately, a student had because of the lively Friday with the McCollum agship at wonderful look back to 150 already been chosen, and it nights in Lawrence. the fore. I’m today feeling years of KU history. Four would break the student’s heart Tim Weeks, d’68 nostalgic for the loss of that generations of my KU family to be told they could not sing. Kansas City visual. [See On the Boulevard, loved scrolling through the I understood all of that, but p. 6] Memories of that rst trip years. ank you! here is my advice: If you really I N to Lawrence were a big reason Laurie Forst Russell, d’73 want to hear the walls come issue of Kansas Alumni, but why I chose KU. Wheaton, Illinois tumbling down at Allen, get there are a couple of errors. Larry Tenopir, d’72, Finnigan to come back and In “First Word,” I think g’78, l’82 Oh say can you sing “e Star-Spangled you’re saying that the marching Lawrence Banner” while the seniors band’s pregame run-in was please enjoy their last game at home. Editor’s Note: According to developed in 1968, but it must Mike Levand, c’76 the John Philip Sousa Foundation, Wichita substantially predate that. The Sudler Trophy (which the I Although I didn’t join the Marching Jayhawks received in Mike Finnigan [“Get Finni- Marching Jayhawks, I was in 1989) is indeed awarded gan,” Rock Chalk Review, issue my high school marching biannually “to a college or No. 6] since I was a ninth- band. We had a KU alumnus as university marching band which grader in Wichita in 1966. director in 1966, and he had us has demonstrated the highest of In the ’80s I was fortunate to musical standards and innovative run down our stadium steps live in Los Angeles, where Your opinion counts: Please marching routines and ideas, and because he thought it was so Mike played in many studio- email us a note at kualumni@ which has made important cool at KU. As a clumsy musician bands around town, kualumni.org to tell us what you contributions to the advancement 16-year-old, I wasn’t nearly as and I saw him in many a think of your alumni magazine. 2 | KANSAS ALUMNI January 2016 68 Publisher Heath Peterson, d’04, g’09 2 Lift the Chorus Editor Jennifer Jackson Sanner, j’81 Letters from our readers Creative Director Susan Younger, f’91 Associate Editors Chris Lazzarino, j’86 5 First Word Steven Hill e editor’s turn Photographers Steve Puppe, j’98 Dan Storey 6 On the Boulevard Graphic Designer Valerie Spicher, j’94 KU & Alumni Association events Sta Writer Heather Biele 8 Jayhawk Walk Advertising Sales Representative Drac’s draw, twin talents, the poop on pigeons David Johnston, j’94, g’06 and more Editorial and Advertising Oce KU Alumni Association 1266 Oread Avenue 10 Hilltopics Lawrence, KS 66045-3169 News and notes: Director targets campus racial 785-864-4760 climate; nine-year campaign frees innocent man. 800-584-2957 www.kualumni.org [email protected] 16 Sports Triple-overtime OU classic sets up epic rematch; KANSAS ALUMNI MAGAZINE (ISSN 0745-3345) is published by the women’s cross country logs best-ever NCAA run. KU Alumni Association six times a year in January, March, May, July, September and November. $55 annual subscription includes member- ship in the Alumni Association. Oce of Publication: 1266 Oread 38 Association News Avenue, Lawrence, KS 66045-3169. Periodicals postage paid at Lawrence, KS. Rock Chalk Ball embraces Oz theme; new leader touts Association history, plans for growth. POSTMASTER: Send address changes to Kansas Alumni Magazine, 1266 Oread Avenue, Lawrence, KS 66045-3169 © 2016 by Kansas Alumni Magazine. Non-member issue price: $7 42 Class Notes Proles of a Hollywood writer, a civic-minded lawyer, a third-generation pastor and more 60 In Memory Letters to the Editor: Deaths in the KU family Kansas Alumni welcomes letters to the editor. Our 64 Rock Chalk Review address is Kansas Alumni magazine, 1266 Oread Avenue, Writer Robert Day, pianist Kai Ono and lmmak- Lawrence, KS 66045-3169. Email responses may be sent to ers Nicholas Ward and Amber Hansen the Alumni Association, [email protected]. Letters appearing in the magazine may be edited for space and clarity. For letters published, we’ll send a free gift of KU 68 KU 150 Campus Playing Cards, a $5 value. Scenes from the sesquicentennial ISSUE 1, 2016 | 3 by Jennifer Jackson Sanner First Word roughout his career, Marshall, PhD’95, has worked to dispel the STEVE PUPPE STEVE notion of poetry as an exalted art for a favored few. He has shared poetry with diverse audiences, and he vows to continue his mission on a more public stage as laureate, promoting poetry as a way for anyone and everyone to cope in an era of fear and distrust. “I think poetry forces us to dwell on uncer- tainty and to inhabit places with unanswerable questions—and try to be OK with that,” he says. Marshall’s words echoed as we reviewed the dicult nal weeks of the fall semester, when KU became part of a national conversation on f KU’s volleyball players have their way, December Delirium racism and discrimination in higher Imight someday rival March Madness as a certiable season education. During a Nov. 11 town hall (or syndrome). PUPPE STEVE discussion in the Kansas Union, In the waning hours of Dec. 12, when coach Ray Bechard and students, faculty and sta members his gritty team toppled the University of Southern California to cited painful personal examples of earn a Final Four berth, I was among the ecstatic fans glued to the unfair treatment and bigotry. One TV, reveling in the unexpected holiday cheer and historic group of students known as Rock achievement. As I nally settled down to sleep, visions of a cover Chalk Invisible Hawk interrupted story danced in my head. Chancellor Bernadette Gray-Little to Even though KU’s ascent stopped short of the pinnacle, the present 15 demands in the rst of Strickland story of a principled, persistent coach and his determined players several campus protests.