Friday, August 29, 2008
It doesn’t seem like Kansas’ exhibition basketball game against McGill University at 11 a.m. Saturday in Ottawa, Canada, carries any special significance.
After all, it’s a college basketball game in August between two teams from different countries. But closer inspection reveals that the Jayhawks and the Redmen share a linked history.
They share the history of a man named James Naismith. The inventor of basketball, who coached at Kansas for nine years, graduated from McGill in 1887.
Naismith famously created basketball four years later in Massachusetts before coming to Lawrence and starting the Kansas basketball program in 1898.
Kansas and McGill have, not surprisingly, never played against each other in basketball. Although Kansas will be a heavy favorite in the game, McGill played well against American college teams last season. The Illinois Fighting Illini traveled north to Canada to face McGill and escaped by only four points in double-overtime. Alabama beat McGill 97-88 in an exhibition match last season.
The McGill Redmen’s basketball Web site, however, reports the last time they beat a Division-I college team was 1985 against Maine. But you can’t trust everything on their Web site — just read the description of the Jayhawks for proof.
“Kansas, a Big 12 school from Lawrenceville, Kan.,” it reads.
I’m not familiar with a Lawrenceville in Kansas — although I have traveled through the northeastern Atlanta suburb of the same name.
Naismith certainly wouldn’t have appreciated the McGill Athletic Department’s hiccup with the town’s name. But who would he root for in tomorrow’s game? His alma mater or the school with its court named after him?
It’s hard to tell. The only thing that’s certain is, in some weird way, a historical basketball match-up will take place in Canada Saturday morning. Call it the “Naismith Bowl.”
FLORIDA INTERNATIONAL — I MEAN FIU
FIU, Kansas’ first football opponent of the season, doesn’t want to be referred to as Florida International or Florida International University.
The Golden Panther game notes indicate that they are not to be called anything other than FIU by the media. But that’s not all FIU would like to change about its football program. The Golden Panthers are also still trying to shed their football team’s reputation.
FIU football is known primarily for two things — both of them negative. Until the Golden Panthers’ final game of last season against North Texas, they held the nation’s longest losing streak. It reached 23 straight games before FIU beat North Texas, 38-19.
FIU also garnered negative publicity in 2005 when a bench-clearing brawl broke out during a game against Miami. The Golden Panthers suspended 16 players and dismissed two following the fracas.
But one of the most infamous figures of the fight, running back A’mod Ned, is still on the team. Ned, a senior this season, got in the middle of the fight despite being injured and on crutches. He has since become an Internet sensation.
Videos of the brawl are still available on YouTube.
— — Edited by Arthur Hur
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