LAWRENCE, Kansas – During the time that I’ve been preoccupied with other projects to devote my full energies to keeping up with IPW, I’ve made the first major effort of my life to get into better shape. I’ve lost two grandfathers, a great uncle and others to heart disease, so sooner or later I was either going to need to do something about it or suffer irreversible consequences

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Opinion/Editorial by Scott A. Winer

LAWRENCE, Kan. – On a cold January night in Eastern Kansas, the heated rivalry between the Kansas Jayhawks and Missouri Tigers was reignited inside Allen Fieldhouse. The gates opened and the students poured in, decked out in their crimson and blue, filling the highly-sought-after student sections to the brim.

Meanwhile, outside the venue in the 53-foot-long high definition production truck for ESPN’s first night of “Student Spirit Week,” temperatures were also rising beneath the collars of some of the telecast’s key production personnel. As has become the custom at KU, countless students donned their royal blue “Muck Fizzou” t-shirts, displaying the now-trite spoonerism reflecting the student body’s hatred for the Tigers. And, while ESPN may be on cable, it still has standards for what it will and won’t allow on the air. The t-shirts did not make the cut.

Often the case – as with the Fieldhouse’s TV-unfriendly layout – since the school won’t change, the network must. The result: director Ken Dennis and his team of camera operators must be constantly vigilant to keep the shirts off the air. So, no matter how brilliant the paint job is on your face, if your torso is covered in a “Muck Fizzou” shirt, don’t count on getting any air time. To complicate matters further, since the game is in high definition, Dennis must be aware of the wider frame that HD allows, ruling out even more shots.

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College, Opinion/Editorial, Sports TV, Television by Scott A. Winer