No. 5 ■ 2008 Phase One Drug’s trial signals hope for cancer patients, new era for KU Cancer Center ■ Olympian’s images ■ Ice-cream entrepreneur The stuff of legends The glory and tradition of championship This book is the story of three KU teams and their national championships, told by players and basketball in Allen Fieldhouse is legendary, sports journalists including Sports Illustrated’s but when Kansas teams advance to Grant Wahl. the Final Four—and win the national The photographs capture KU’s special moments. Photographer Rich Clarkson, j’55, covered all three championship—magic happens. of the championships—the first as a KU freshman in 1952. Now a publisher of fine commemorative books, Clarkson presents this special portfolio of KU’s shining moments, beautifully presented in 112 pages and capped by the iconic image of the 2008 title game—Mario Chalmers’ jumper with 3.7 seconds remaining. Published by the KU Alumni Association in an exclusive collaboration with Rich Clarkson and Associates. $40 Association Member | $45 Non Member (plus shipping) Order now to reserve your copy. Shipping will begin Dec. 1 in the order of reservations processed. www.kualumni.org | 800-584-2957 30 Contents Established in 1902 as The Graduate Magazine FEATURES One Athlete’s Olympics 30 Javelin thrower Scott Russell was hardly the only athlete to bring a camera to Beijing, but he wasn’t interested in point-and-shoot snapshots. Instead, Russell captured images worthy of the Olympics themselves: memorable. BY CHRIS LAZZARINO The Emperor of Ice Cream Bill Braum makes the ice cream that made his Braum’s 36 Ice Cream & Dairy Stores beloved in five Midwestern states. His family business also tends its own dairy herd, grows feed grains, bakes cones and even produces its stores’ cleaning supplies and construction materials. “Vertigal integration” is how Braum assures the high quality that keeps loyal customers coming back for more. COVER BY STEVEN HILL For the Home Team 24 A cancer drug entering clinical trials could prove a lifesaver in the treatment of ovarian cancer. It also promises to boost KU Cancer Center’s collaborative efforts to achieve a national designation that would help cancer research and treatment flourish. BY JULIE METTENBURG Volume 106, No. 5, 2008 36 September 2008 Publisher Kevin J. Corbett, c’88 68 Editor Jennifer Jackson Sanner, j’81 Creative Director Susan Younger, f’91 DEPARTMENTS Associate Editors Chris Lazzarino, j’86 LIFT THE CHORUS Steven Hill 4 Letters from readers Staff Writer Katie Moyer, j’06 FIRST WORD Editorial Assistants 7 The editor’s turn Karen Goodell Erika Bentson, j’07 ON THE BOULEVARD Photographer 8 Steve Puppe, j’98 KU & Alumni Association events Graphic Designer Valerie Spicher, j’94 10 JAYHAWK WALK KANU’s “Little Red Radio,” a birthday with Advertising Sales Representative Whitney Eriksen, c’08, j’08 Baby Jay, a movie menace and more Editorial and Advertising Office 12 HILLTOPICS KU Alumni Association News and notes: New leader for minority 1266 Oread Ave., Lawrence, KS 66045-3169 retention program, text-message a librarian 785-864-4760 • 800-584-2957 www.kualumni.org e-mail: [email protected] 18 SPORTS Tough-guy linebackers among the country’s KANSAS ALUMNI MAGAZINE (ISSN 0745-3345) is published by best, soccer’s fabulous freshmen and more the KU Alumni Association six times a year in January, March, May, July, September and November. $55 annual subscription includes membership in the Alumni Association. Office of 40 ASSOCIATION NEWS Publication: 1266 Oread Avenue, Lawrence, KS 66045-3169. The 2008 Ellworth Medallion honorees Periodicals postage paid at Lawrence, KS. POSTMASTER: Send address changes to Kansas 46 CLASS NOTES Alumni Magazine, 1266 Oread Avenue, Lawrence, KS Profiles of a fire chief, sailing captain, global 66045-3169 © 2008 by Kansas Alumni Magazine. Non- peacemaker and cityscape photographer member issue price: $10 66 IN MEMORY A thank-you gift for writing! Deaths in the KU family If we publish your letter, we’ll send you a KU cap ($15 value). ROCK CHALK REVIEW Kansas Alumni welcomes letters to 68 the editor—let us know what you think! Our Ancient textiles techniques, global-warming address is Kansas Alumni magazine, 1266 Oread Avenue, comedy, moonshine lore and more Lawrence, KS 66045-3169. E-mail responses may be sent to [email protected] may be edited OREAD ENCORE for space and clarity. 72 Anniversary cheers for KUMC’s corner pub ISSUE 5, 2008 | 3 awkward. But in an instant, I became great friends with about 20 Jayhawks Lift the Chorus from all over the country who also were looking for crimson-and-blue cama- raderie. We hooped and we hollered—oh, what a time we had! Studio 804 has Wright stuff carrying on a noble tradition started by To all my Orlando national champi- one of America’s greatest architects. onship watch-party buddies: Rock Chalk, I am inspired by the fine story that Jayhawks! And “KUdos” to the Alumni Steven Hill wrote about Professor Dan Michael S. McGill, b’65 Association for continuing to promote Rockhill and his Studio 804 students Washington, D.C. watch sites in more than 65 U.S. cities. undertaking so ambitious a project for Michon Lickteig Quick, f’85 Greensburg [“Platinum Green,” issue No. Home is where the Hawks are Shawnee 4]. I work for the U.S. General Services Administration, the federal government’s As the Jayhawks inched closer to the One great year primary real estate agency, and I can NCAA Final Four, I realized (one dark attest that achieving a Platinum LEED night) that I’d scheduled an out-of-town Kansas Alumni [issue No. 4] hit my rating is no mean feat. It requires careful business trip the first Monday of April! mailbox right on time to provide a good documentation from the very beginning My husband and I, both KU alumni, fix of KU news and stories. Who would of a project, and applicants undergo a lived in Lawrence when Kansas won the have thought the University’s ad on page rigorous examination and scoring 1988 national basketball title. We eventu- four would be the most awesome part of process. GSA has required all new con- ally settled our family in the Kansas City the magazine: Academics claiming 11 No. struction and major modernization to area, as have about one-quarter of all Jay- 1 national rankings—no wonder we love seek the Silver LEED rating at a mini- hawks. Our four children are avid fans, the University. Chancellor Hemenway is mum since 2003. We have about a dozen with our oldest two now attending or correct, “It has been a great year to be a Gold LEED rated buildings but no Plat- just graduated from KU. Jayhawk.” Rock Chalk! inum ones. For Studio 804 to achieve so As the days led up to this year’s Big high a rating in so short a time is truly Dance, I imagined what fun it would be Patrick J. Slattery, j’78 unprecedented. to celebrate a win with friends and family Lenexa The citizens of Greensburg are lucky in Kansas City or with tens of thousands Good news travels to have KU ready to help, but their com- on Mass Street. Early Sunday morning mitment to building green is very impres- before leaving for the airport (following a I am now living back in Thailand, after sive as well. They not only will restore great Kansas vs. North Carolina celebra- spending 43 years in California and their community, but they also will put it tion at Johnny’s Tavern in Olathe), I Kansas. I am still a Jayhawk at heart. on the map in a way that it has not been located the Orlando Chapter watch party It’s wonderful to read many interest- before, and give it a focus that should address on the Alumni Association’s ing articles in the Kansas Alumni maga- energize its ongoing renewal. Web site. zine sent to me. I truly enjoyed reading I have only one quibble about the That Monday evening, walking into an “Platinum Green.” Thank you, Steven story. The concept of architecture stu- unfamiliar place (armed with Jayhawk Hill, for a story well written. dents not having “any hands on experi- stickers and table décor) felt, well, fairly ence whatsoever” is a lament that has Vallapa Shaisiri Herzog, c’76, MSW’80 been addressed in the past, most notably Cha-am, Thailand by the great Frank Lloyd Wright. Making a virtue out of necessity during the Great Strength in a name CINDY HARMON CINDY Depression, he managed to survive as an architect by founding two working cam- If Jennifer Widerstrom of “American puses for his own school of architecture, Gladiators” [“One tough Jayhawk,” Jay- in Wisconsin and Arizona, to which he hawk Walk, issue No. 4] is going to per- attracted students who not only learned form under the name of a mythical bird architecture in a classroom setting, but (Phoenix), why not the name of the also built their own shelter, campus mythical bird of her alma mater? buildings and the infrastructure required. ■ Jayhawks celebrated KU’s championship David B. Pittaway, c’72 New York, N.Y. Professor Rockhill and Studio 804 are victory at JB’s Sports Restaurant in Orlando. 4 | KANSAS ALUMNI BY JENNIFER JACKSON SANNER First Word removed early-stage jobs that a growing industry would cancer other doc- bring. KU has looked to the west, part- tors had missed, she nering with hospitals in Goodland, Hays, would be OK. Wichita, Hutchinson, Topeka and Pitts- Happy Birthday, burg, and it has looked east to medical indeed.