Jan. 10, 2003

JUDY AKERS
On coaching during the rise of women's athletics... "I think it's fair to say that there were a lot of things taking place on campuses. It was a time of unrest for the Vietnam war and what we were doing there. It was also a time of civil rights. It was also a time where equal opportunity for women had been passed, but people were struggling everywhere with the idea of how do we deal with this and make changes, which nobody likes to do. It sort of presented itself as one of those problems in the sense of how do we incorporate this in any university or any institution. I think all those early growing pains were evident on any campus."
On the size of crowds at the games... "I think our largest crowd was around five or 6,000 and that was usually at a KU game or some other... there were several national champions that came in to play us from Texas or out east and sometimes those teams would draw that. We had Phil, the old band director, and he had his band there and the cheerleaders and we had fairly loyal, small crowd. For the time, everybody thought it was a lot of people, but I always thought it could be filled, even then."
On the memories from her time at K-State... "There were a lot of great memories. You don't coach anywhere without your best memories being that of your student athletes that you coached. Of course, you have a lot of colleagues and a lot of different friends at that time, but I probably have to reflect back on the players as being the most gratifying."
On what set her teams apart... "Conditioning was always a top priority and not knowing as much as I wanted to when I started coaching, I figured, if all else fails, that we'd be around at the end of the game and maybe pull something off. Not all women's teams, at that team, were probably in as good of shape as we were but we prided ourselves in that. We played pretty aggressive defense where a lot of schools came out of what used to be the three-on three-basketball and had a lot of zoning. We were pretty dedicated to player-on-player defense. We had some styles that were probably more aggressive than some of them."
On what she's doing now... "I live on a ranch out west of Brookfield, Kan., and I have an eight-room bed and breakfast that I run 365 days a year, except for this weekend. It's called Castle Rock Bed and Breakfast."

JACQUE STRUCKHOFF
On what she enjoyed about her time at K-State... "It was a great experience, but it was a lot of hard work. We had some good teams while I was here and went to nationals several times. Just my teammates, everything about it."
On the track and field program... "Track and field, in general, I don't think got the attention that basketball did. While I was here, basketball was one of the best sports and football was in a low period. But the basketball, track and cross country teams did well. I don't know how well-known we were in the community."
On coming to Kansas State... "I came from a small high school where you played volleyball, basketball and track. Probably about my junior year, my coach had me try some distance running and I kind of found my niche. I probably could have played basketball or volleyball at a small college but my best sport was track. The coaches here came out and invited me to come and I wanted to go to K-State for the education."

CLARENCE SCOTT
On playing for Cleveland... "I remember receiving a call from Cleveland in the dormitory. At that time, Vince Gibson had an athletic dorm where all the ballplayers stayed. The call came from Cleveland that I was their first choice and I couldn't believe it because I had followed them, even though I was in Atlanta, I followed Cleveland. After my first year there, he came up to me and said 'you're going to be here for a long time.' At the end of my rookie year, he came up to me in the locker room. I didn't really know because you could be injured or if you don't do well, they could trade you because they have the right to do that. I was glad to hear him say that, but it just made me work harder to make sure that it did happen, that I did stay in Cleveland."
On how he chose K-State... "Vince Gibson told us recruits that it wouldn't be a big deal if we went to a school where they won and were already established. He said if you come to Kansas State and we can turn this program around. The people here would just go crazy. It made sense to me. It was a sales line and I bought it. I came here and never regretted a minute of it. It was the way Vince presented it. He was a salesman. He was a talker."
On starting a wave of success... "That purple pride at that time was just overwhelming. To see the turnaround, the people really caught on to it. The town bought into it. We started some success, but not like they've got now. I'm really proud of what's been done the last 10 years. I've followed K-State ever since I left here. There have been ups and downs, but the last six or seven years have really made me proud."
On his life now... "I've always been a positive person. My outlook has always been good. I've always taken care of myself. And as a result, I'm 54, and I worked out this morning. I'm committed."

DICK KNOSTMAN
On his feelings about going into the Hall of Fame... "I'm hard-put for words, but it is certainly an honor and a privilege to be back here and to be honored for something you did so long ago. But, it was something I had a great time doing."
On being recruited and choosing K-State... "There was never much doubt as to where I was going to school, even though I was looking at KU pretty heavily. I talked with Phog Allen quite a few times, and he made quite a few trips to Wamego. But, Tex (Winter) came a number of times to visit my mother and say that he was such a nice young man that maybe I should go to Kansas State and play for him. Of course, my dad played here and my mother was graduate of Kansas State, so I really didn't have much a chance to go anywhere else."
On his first few years at K-State... "Of course we all talk about our 1950-51 team when we opened Ahearn Field House, and then we played LIU up here in front of 14,000 people. And coming from Wamego, that is quite a few people. We won the Big Seven Christmas Tournament, we won the Big Seven Conference, the Western NCAA, and then we got beat in the finals by Kentucky. That always hurts, but it was a great year. The great part was that we played with so many good ball players who were great guys as well. That was the fun part of it."
On being a great scorer... "The way Jack Gardner had his offense designed, it was designed around the postman. I was a great scorer, but I had the ball a lot. Sometimes the outside guys thought that it didn't come back outside from the post very often, but I tried to explain to them that the standards of a good outside player, was someone who could hit the post from the outside, and then be in the position to rebound. They didn't always necessarily agree with that, but we had a lot of good ball players, and it just happened the offense was designed around me shooting."