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By RICK PETERSON
TopSports.news
The game of golf came a lot tougher for Washburn Rural and Washburn University product Hayden Beck on Sunday than it had on Saturday when Beck set a Lake Shawnee course record with a sizzling 62 en route to opening up a four-stroke lead in the Topeka Golf Association City Stroke Play tournament.
Former Washburn Rural and Washburn University golfer Hayden Beck rolled in a birdie putt on the first playoff hole Sunday at Shawnee Country Club to win his first TGA City Stroke Play championship. [Photo by Rick Peterson/TSN]
But Beck, who will take over as Washburn Rural girls head coach this fall after serving as a Junior Blue boys assistant this past spring, battled through an up and down day to get the job done at Shawnee Country Club, draining a long birdie putt on the first playoff hole to top former Santa Fe Trail standout and Washburn Ichabod Blake Buessing to earn his first city championship.
Hayden Beck reacts after sinking his tournament-winning putt in Sunday's TGA City Stroke Play tournament at Shawnee Country Club. [Photo by Rick Peterson/TSN]
"Being a coach now and getting to help out with the team this spring, I was always telling the guys, 'You're not always going to play perfect every single time. Even on your best rounds you could do some things better,' '' Beck said.
"I look back on yesterday and maybe I missed a couple of putts and got lucky a couple of times and it all kind of evens itself out. You've just got to stick in there.''
Beck carded a final-round 73 while Buessing shot a 69 Sunday and rallied from his four-stroke deficit at the start of the round to briefly take a one-shot lead.
Beck battled back to regain a one-stroke lead before Buessing pulled even on hole No. 17 and both players remained even on the final hole with a 54-hole total of 209 to force sudden death.
Buessing narrowly missed a birdie putt before Beck came through with his biggest shot of the day to end the tournament.
"I would have liked to win it in regulation, but rolling in the putt on the playoff hole was pretty sweet,'' Beck said. "It was nice to finally get one there at the end when it counts the most.''
TGA City Stroke Play champion Hayden Beck (left) exchanges congratulations with runnerup Blake Buessing Sunday at Shawnee Country Club. [Photo by Rick Peterson/TSN]
Although he came up just short of the title, Buessing was pleased with his overall performance.
"It was fun, I wouldn't have wanted it any other way,'' Buessing said. "It was back and forth all day.''
Beck said that a highlight of the tournament for him was having his high school coach, Jared Goehring, serve as his caddie. Goehring is turning over the Rural girls coaching reins to his former standout while Beck will continue to serve as a boys assistant under Goehring.
"It was awesome to have coach on the bag,'' Beck said. "That was so cool just to have him out here and do that again. It kind of took me back to high school, just having him there keeping me level-headed. That was a huge help.''
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By TODD FERTIG
TopSports.news
CJ Hamilton is being given one of the highest honors a Kansas high school coach can receive. But rather than take credit for the accomplishment, he quickly deflects recognition to the community he represents.
Silver Lake coaching legend CJ Hamilton will be inducted into the Kansas Sports Hall of Fame on July 25. [Photo by Brent Maycock/KSHSAA Covered]
Hamilton coached the Silver Lake football team to unmatched success, and for his 47 years on the Eagle sideline, Hamilton has been voted into the Kansas Sports Hall of Fame. But, as he puts it, he represents all the athletes, parents, coaches, administrators and community members who supported him.
“I’m just so appreciative of all the people who helped to make this possible,” Hamilton said. “It was a great honor to represent the community of Silver Lake and I wouldn’t have done what I did without all the people along the way. Silver Lake is a community that understands what it takes to have great accomplishments and is invested in helping their students do their very best.”
At a ceremony at the Kansas Star Casino on July 25, Hamilton will join the most decorated coaches in state history in the Kansas Sports Hall of Fame. Finding his name among the likes of Phog Allen, James Naismith, Adolph Rupp, Dean Smith, Bill Snyder, and Gene Mauch is heady stuff.
“To be put in the category with all the great coaches in the state is just a great honor,” Hamilton said.
Hamilton’s resume is unmatched. He retired in 2021 with a football coaching record of 447-98. No coach in Kansas history has approached the 400-win mark. He led the Eagles to 39 league titles, 40 playoff appearances and 18 appearances in the state championship game, winning eight – the most titles by any coach in Kansas history.
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By TODD FERTIG
TopSports.news
Judy Dyer has made a life out of overcoming obstacles. A metaphor for her life would be when she climbed over a fence to try out the hurdles assembled on the Washburn University track, even though her coach told her he didn’t want her to try the event.
Topeka High graduate and former Olympian Judy Dyer will be inducted into the Kansas Sports Hall of Fame on July 18. [File photo/TSN]
Without a track team – or any girls sports teams – in the Topeka Public Schools in the early 1960s, Dyer’s only outlet was to compete in track with a club team known as the Topeka Cosmopolitans. She did most of her training on her own and pushed herself to compete against her four brothers.
A Black girl growing up at that time might have seen too many barriers in her path to success, but Dyer didn’t see it that way.
“I still look back at it today when I come to any obstacle that I may have in my life,” Dyer said. “I tell myself, ‘If I can make it to the Olympics and jump over eight hurdles with three steps in between and make it to the highest level, I can do anything.’ It's the mindset. You know, you have to want it in life.”
Dyer applied that desire to a stellar track career that earned her a place among the greatest athletes in state history. On July 25, Dyer will be enshrined in the Kansas Sports Hall of Fame at a ceremony in Wichita.
What started out as a way to get out of the house at nine years of age turned into an outlet into which she poured her heart and soul. Dyer trained with boys sprinting in the halls of Topeka High and racing around the block under the watchful eyes of her brothers. Her club coach initially targeted her because of her coordination. With no opportunities to play team sports like basketball, softball or volleyball, Dyer gave track and field her all.
“I was a pioneer in those days because we only had a club. We didn't have a team,” Dyer said. “We didn't have all the equipment. We didn't know how to basically train, but we actually had natural talent. And that's what we thrived on was the natural talent.”
Already a nationally-ranked long-jumper and an accomplished sprinter by age 17, Dyer had to convince her club coach to allow her to compete in the hurdles. It proved a fortuitous decision. During her senior year of high school, she won the 60-yard hurdles at a meet in Kansas City and caught the eye of the coach of Texas Southern University, who offered her a full-ride scholarship.
The 1966 Topeka High graduate enjoyed a decorated college career that culminated with a trip to the 1968 Olympic Trials in California. Fortune shined upon Dyer when, despite finishing fifth in the 80-meter hurdles, she was bumped up to the Olympic team by injuries to other runners. Competing in the Mexico City games in October of 1968, Dyer made it to the semifinal round where her best time placed her in the top 15 fastest hurdlers in the world.
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By TODD FERTIG
TopSports.news
Were it not for Topekan Dink Mothell, a lot of Negro League baseball history would have been forgotten, according to historian Phil Dixon.
Topeka baseball legend Dink Mothell will be inducted into the Kansas Sports Hall of Fame on July 18. [Kansas Sports Hall of Fame]
The late Carroll Ray Mothell was one of the top players of his era, a versatile position player for 15 years when Black men were denied entry to the Major Leagues. But what he contributed to the memory of the game in terms of photos and memorabilia is as significant as what he did on the field, Dixon said.
“I can safely say there would be no (Negro Leagues baseball) museum in Kansas City if it were not for Mr. Mothell. It was his photo collection that started it,” Dixon said. “Nobody was paying attention before that.”
In 1980, Dixon was a 23-year-old sports fan with an interest in pre-integration baseball, but without access to much history of the Negro Leagues, because there just wasn’t much out there. But when Dixon moved to Topeka for a job that year, he was told that a Negro League legend was living right here in the Capital City. Dixon jumped at the chance to meet the 82-year-old Mothell. The men spent several hours talking, and Mothell showed Dixon some mementos and photos from his career.
After that initial meeting, Dixon left town for a few days. When he returned, he learned that Mothell had passed away. But Dixon was shocked to find that, prior to his death, Mothell told his caretaker to give all his photos and memorabilia to Dixon. A decade later, Dixon used much of Mothell’s items to help found the Negro Leagues Baseball Museum in Kansas City. Mothell’s photos also made up much of Dixon’s award-winning 1992 book, The Negro Baseball Leagues, a Photographic History.
“(Mothell) was a photo guy. He would bring all his photos back and kept them together in Topeka,” Dixon said. “Since then, I’ve interviewed other guys who had photos, but nothing like his. His were the beginning. You need images to show people’s faces. So having those photos brought the history to life.”
Mothell didn’t gain the fame and fortune during his playing days that a star baseball player would today. But since his passing in 1980, he has finally been accorded some of the recognition he failed to receive in his lifetime. He was ranked No. 50 on the Topeka Capital-Journal’s Top 100 Athletes from Shawnee County in 2011. And in 2012, he was inducted into the Kansas Baseball Hall of Fame.
Mothell will add another honor on July 18 when he is enshrined in the Kansas Sports Hall of Fame. He and five other Negro Leaguers from Kansas will be inducted in conjunction with a modern-day Kansas City Monarchs game at Legends Field in Kansas City, Kan.
“I’m so thankful that Mr. Mothell continues to get recognition because of how easily he could have been forgotten,” Dixon said of the Topeka native’s many posthumous honors.
Born in Topeka on Aug. 13, 1897, Mothell was schooled through the eighth grade, then cut his teeth with the Topeka Giants before moving on to the newly-established Negro National League in 1920. He spent the majority of his career with the first iteration of the Kansas City Monarchs, one of the most successful teams of the era.
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By RICK PETERSON
TopSports.news
International basketball players like Slovenians Martin Vimos and Vid Jeric will obviously get the opportunity to see some of the sights the United States has to offer during their month-long stint with College Star International under the Darting Basketball Academy umbrella.
But the trip is probably one percent about sightseeing and 99 percent basketball as the 80 players (72 boys, eight girls) that will take part in this summer's program are looking to get accustomed to American basketball while also hoping to earn an opportunity to eventually play at the college or prep school level in the U.S.
The international boys teams took took part in a showcase event on Tuesday at Shawnee Heights, facing off against area stars representing Spradling Skills Academy, including Washburn Rural's Cooper Schmidt and Highland Park's JoJo Kingcannon.
The international teams got a stern test from the local players, which Vimos said was a good thing.
"The program they have here is very good,'' Vimos said. "We played a warmup tournament last weekend in which the competition wasn't really strong. That was kind of to get the team going and right now we played a stronger match with better competition.
"My experience here in the U.S. is that the game is more physical and more fast. In Europe the game is much more slower and I would say it's more tactical. In Europe we run the plays a lot more and here it's more transition. I like it.''
Jeric agreed.
"I'm liking it,'' he said. "It will improve my game. I play point guard, so I move the ball and I like to involve all the five players. That's what I do here, so I appreciate the opportunity.
"I just turned 17 and I have two more years in high school and then I want to play college. Mostly this will help me to get my rhythm down and get my vision, my dribbling and court awareness all ready for next season.''
The DBA/CSI international program has brought in athletes from Australia, Italy, Spain, Lithuania, Serbia, Croatia, Slovenia, Norway, Turkey, Germany and Sweden since it launched in 2024.
Up next for the international contingent is tournaments in Omaha, Kansas City and Chicago.
