Shocks of Fame
Three Shocker luminaries will be inducted into the Kansas Sports Hall of Fame May 22: men’s basketball coach Gene Johnson, Ed Kriwiel ’51 and Daryl Spencer ’50.
Johnson, who died in 1989, coached at Wichita University from 1928-33. He is called the “father of modern basketball” because of his invention of the full-court pressure defense. Later the coach of the McPherson Globe Refiners and Wichita Henrys, he also led the first U.S. Olympic basketball team to a gold medal in 1936.
Quarterback Kriwiel set numerous Shocker records, was ranked third in the nation in total offense and played in two bowl games.
He later coached at Kapaun Mt. Carmel, leading the football team to nine state championships and the golf team to 24 state titles.
Spencer rounds out the powerhouse trio. A major-league shortstop with the Giants, Dodgers, Cardinals and Reds, he hit the first MLB home run on the West Coast off pitcher Don Drysdale in 1958, and he teamed with legend Willie Mays to set a major league record by hitting two homers in consecutive games.
— Jedd Beaudoin ’01
Record Breaker
Wichita State senior Koya Webb placed ninth in the pentathlon at the 2004 NCAA Indoor Track and Field Indoor Championships March 12-13.
Webb scored 3,968 points, breaking her previous school record of 3,878. Webb jumped a season best in the long jump with a distance of 18 feet, 4 1/2 inches and earned 914 points in the 60-meter hurdles with a time of 8.98 seconds. Webb, who is the MVC high jump champion, tied for fourth in that portion of the event and placed sixth in the shot put. The University of Arkansas hosted the championships.
One for the Memory Book
A sold-out Koch Arena crowd turned out March 17 for the Shockers’ first home postseason men’s basketball game since 1988-89 and their first game against an Atlantic Coast Conference team since 1984-85.
The Florida State Seminoles may have come to Wichita, as Wichita Eagle sports writer Bob Lutz put it, “with a puffed-up ACC chest but left gasping for breath.” The Seminoles (18-13) needed two overtimes to finally defeat the Shockers (21-10) by a score of 91-84 in opening-round NIT play.
“What a night,” Shocker coach Mark Turgeon said after the game. “That’s probably the most proud I’ve been and the most fun I’ve ever had in a loss.”
Striking It Big
WSU bowling head coach Gordon Vadakin ’82, in yellow shirt at left, is nominated for induction into the charter class of the Wichita Sports Hall of Fame.
He’s one of 18 other Wichita sports figures — including Barry Sanders, WSU’s Gene Stephenson, Antoine Carr fs ’83 and Lynette Woodard — up for the honor. The nomination process began last fall when the public nominated an athlete or coach who has made an impact on athletics in Wichita.
The 18 individuals or teams with the most nominations were then placed on the final ballot. The public can now vote for finalists at www.wichitahof.com through May 21.
The first class of inductees will be announced the last week of May. The top 14 finalists voted by the public will be joined by six individuals chosen by a committee to be inducted during a summer ceremony.
The announcement came as a surprise to Vadakin, who expressed appreciation to all Shocker bowling supporters as well as to Bill Smith, director of the Rhatigan Student Center; Roger Lowe, vice president of administration and finance; and university president Don Beggs. “If it wasn’t for them,” Vadakin says, “this would not have happened.”
