Shockers everywhere, at events long ago to happenings just the other day, always have something interesting to say. Take this sampling as a Shock Talk example:
"You were awesome!"
WSU Director of Athletics Jim Schaus in a letter published in the Sunflower to students who attended the first men’s basketball exhibition game at Charles Koch Arena.
"We’re going to start getting out of our police cars and start building relationships."
Paul Dotson '81/02 about his new role as chief of the WSU Police Department. Dotson, who served with the Wichita Police Department for more than 25 years, continues to teach at the university as well.
"Mark’s a bit on the anal side. He's put his toothbrush four inches to the left of the sink since the first day we were married. And I’m about as far from that as you can possibly get. At least I used to be. It's kind of rubbed off on me."
Ann Turgeon about her husband, WSU men's basketball coach Mark Turgeon, in a Wichita Eagle article that focused on Turgeon’s infectious drive for perfection.
"His coaching abilities perhaps match or exceed his playing abilities. He’s just had an unbelievable year and an unbelievable career as a bowler."
Head bowling coach Gordon Vadakin '82 on assistant coach Mark Lewis fs '01, who was recently inducted into the Bowling Hall of Fame by the American Bowling Congress. Lewis said, simply, "It's a very special feeling."
In the last issue of The Shocker, we decided to bet our readers that the only Shocker (excluding WuShock) to have an action figure made in his likeness was pro wrestler Paul Wight fs '92. Well, we were wrong. Joshua Yearout '98 has set us straight — and taken home a little Shocker gift on us.
Paul "Big Show" Wight may well be the largest WSU alum to have his likeness cast in plastic, but as Joshua Yearout politely points out, Wight's not the only Shocker to have his own action figure.
Yearout, an archivist in WSU Libraries Special Collections, relied on a childhood hobby to prove us wrong. Future Baseball Hall of Famer Joe Carter fs '81 was part of toymaker Kenner's Starting Lineup series of collectible action figures produced in the late 1980s through the 1990s.
"I'm a baseball fan and as a kid collected quite a bit of stuff," Yearout says. "I was 13 when the figures first came out, and I bought a few of them, including the one of Joe Carter."
And thanks to E-Bay, we here at The Shocker offices now proudly display our own Joe Carter action figure — right next to Wight's.
