by Doug Tucker

LAWRENCE, Kan. (AP)—Kansas hopes that Turner Gill can do for the Jayhawks what he did for Nebraska.

As a smooth option quarterback in the early 1980s, Gill was the difference-maker for the Cornhuskers, helping free them from Oklahoma’s long domination and propelling Tom Osborne’s program to the top of the Big Eight.

TURNER GILL

Later as an assistant coach, he helped develop a Heisman-winning quarterback and was a key member of the staff that led Nebraska to the 1994 national championship.

Kansas made the hiring official on Sunday and formally introduced Gill as successor to Mark Mangino on Monday morning.

NEW YORK (AP)—Super Bowl-winning coach Tony Dungy called the dearth of minority head coaches in major college football “disgraceful.”

Dungy became the first Black coach to win a Super Bowl in 2007 with the Indianapolis Colts. Now an analyst with NBC’s pregame show, Dungy said on the program Sunday night that minority coaches believe they have more opportunity for advancement in the pros than in college. Seven of the 32 coaches in the NFL are Black, including Bills interim coach Perry Fewell.

LEADS HURRICANES— Miami head coach Randy Shannon, right, shakes hands with South Florida head coach Jim Leavitt after Miami defeated South Florida 31-10 Nov. 28, in Tampa, Fla.

In Shakespeare’s words, “There is nothing either good or bad, but thinking makes it so.”

It was a thought that first created the cellular telephone, made airplanes and created this ink. But it was the thinking of the Creator who designed a man like the late Chuck Cooper.

Cooper, a Pittsburgh native who attended Westinghouse High School, attended West Virginia State prior to enrolling at Duquesne University following World War II. While at Duquesne, Cooper captained the 1949-50 squad to a No. 6 national ranking on his way to earning All-American honors.

PROUD WIFE AND SON—Mrs. Irva L. Cooper and Charles Cooper lll admire a portrait of the late Chuck Cooper, the first African-American drafted into the NBA that was unveiled at halftime of the inaugural Chuck Cooper Classic Dec. 5 at the A.J. Palumbo Center.

“He was such a great player, so athletic and so smooth that we called him Silk,” said John “Long-John” Barry, who was a teammate of Cooper’s and is also in the Duquesne Basketball Hall of Fame. “His roommate was Ed Dohler and he had nothing but great things to say about Chuck. What a gentleman.”

by Hank Kurz Jr.

CHARLOTTESVILLE, Va. (AP)—Mike London said all the right things in accepting the job to rebuild Virginia’s football program, talking of how high academic standards shouldn’t rule out success on the field and the importance of building deep and personal relationships.

The latter will be especially true as it relates to high schools and recruiting.

KEY HIRING—New University of Virginia head football coach, Mike London, left, speaks during a news conference with athletic director, Craig Littlepage, right, in Charlottesville, Va., Dec. 7.

“I think we have to recapture the state of Virginia,” the former Richmond coach said Monday. He succeeds his former boss, Al Groh, who was fired last Sunday after nine seasons and a 1-8 record against Virginia Tech, the dominant team in the Atlantic Coast Conference.