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By Tom Keegan: tkeegan@ljworld.com Listening to former Kansas Uni versity baseball coach Floyd Tem ple talk about the old days recalls listening to Tommy Lasorda joke about training rooms of a bygone era. “There was one trainer, and all he had in there was one bottle of rubbing alcohol,” Lasorda is fond of saying. “By the sixth inning, the bottle was half empty. The trainer drank half of it.” Temple coached KU baseball for 28 seasons and proudly shares that he never had a full-time assis tant coach and was ejected by an umpire only twice. In today’s world, a Big 12 baseball coach would choose among numerous assistants to take over for him. Temple had only one option: bus driver George Thomas, who was behind the wheel for 26 of Tem ple’s 28 years. “We're playing Baylor down there, and in those days there was a lot of home cooking with umpires,” Temple said during a recent interview at a Lawrence coffee house. “We were getting homered pretty good, and I was getting a little testy. The guy thumbed me. So I walked by the bench, told George I needed the keys to the bus, and headed to the bus parked out by left field. I told George to take care of things for me. One inning goes by, and here comes George. He comes onto the bus, and I said, ‘George, you’re supposed to be looking after things.’ He said, ‘He thumbed me, too.’ I said, ‘What'd you say to him?’ He said, ‘Pretty much what you said.’ George Thomas was the only bus driver in the history of the world ever ejected from a college baseball game.” Like son, like father Temple’s other ejection came on the heels of one of his players getting tossed. It just so happened to be his favorite player of all-time. “My son Biff played for me,” Temple said. “Good player. We’re playing in Colorado. Fifth or sixth inning, and there’s a play at first base. Biff was safe, and he got called out. He gave the umpire a little static, and the ump ran him. He told me the umpire said, ‘Hey, you (stink), and so does your old man.’ I told the ump, “You rotten S.O.B. I can’t believe you'd tell a player that.’ So he thumbed me. I believed that was the first time in the history of college baseball a son got thrown out and so did his dad.” Temple was full of stories and laughs, but he'll be a little on the tense side this morning, along with everyone else emotionally invested in the fortunes of Kansas Please see TEMPLE, page 3B THE rae page Geena Journal-World File Photo FLOYD TEMPLE (13) hangs out with the Jayhawks in this Journal-World file photo. Temple coached KU from 1954-1981.
Newspaper Details
Lawrence Journal World
Lawrence, Kansas, US
Mon, May 25, 2009
Page 35
Full Page
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USA 05 Jun 2026
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