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Tag: Topeka

K-State Football

It’s the Big 12 championship football game in Arlington, Texas. The offensive starters take the field. The big offensive linemen get in position for the first snap. A look at the roster reveals that this is homegrown talent: Three of K-State’s five starting offensive linemen come from the state of Kansas.

K-State football coach on awards stand holding the Big 12 championship trophy
Big 12 football championship trophy presentation

Cooper Beebe, Hadley Panzer, and Hayden Gillum are the Sunflower State starting linemen who help anchor Kansas State’s offensive line. Beebe is from Kansas City, Kansas and attended Piper High School. Panzer is from the rural community of Lakin, population 2,205, and Gillum is from the rural community of Plainville, population 1,746 people. Now, that’s rural.

Cooper Beebe became a starter at K-State in 2020 – the same year he first earned All-Big 12 Academic honors. In 2021, he earned First Team All-Big 12 honors from both the league’s coaches and Associated Press — the youngest offensive lineman to be named to the first team by either organization.

Beebe also was the first Wildcat freshman or sophomore offensive lineman to be named a First Team All-Big 12 performer since Dalton Risner in 2016. Beebe entered the 2022 season with lots of accolades: Pre-season All Big 12, pre-season All-American, and named to the Outland Trophy watch list.

At 6-foot-4 and 322 pounds, Beebe’s 2022 season has been outstanding. He was named a First Team All-Big 12 performer by the Associated Press for a second-consecutive season and First Team All-American by The Sporting News.

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Ron Evans, astronaut

From open plains to outer space, Ron Evans experienced a remarkable journey. He was a Kansan who played a record-setting role in the United States’ final mission to the moon.

Portrait, astronaut Ron Evans
Ron Evans

The year was 1972. NASA had planned for a series of moon missions but budget limitations cancelled additional lunar flights. Instead, NASA changed the focus of future flights to the space shuttle and lower earth orbital flights.

Meanwhile, NASA moved forward with what would be the final deep space manned mission to date. It was named Apollo 17. The person selected to serve as command module pilot on Apollo 17 was a Kansan, Ron Evans.

Evans was born in the rural northwest Kansas community of St. Francis, population 1,329 people. Now, that’s rural.

Evans had two younger brothers, Larry and Jay. When Larry came down with liver cancer, the family relocated to Topeka to be closer to treatment. Unfortunately, Larry passed away in 1951.

Brother Jay played football for K-State. By his senior year, he was team captain and was second in the Big 8 in yards receiving. Jay went on to play in the NFL for the Denver Broncos.

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Laurie Pieper and Karl Klein, BRITE Center

By Ron Wilson, director of the Huck Boyd National Institute for Rural Development at Kansas State University.

With all of the challenges around us, would you like to hear about a bright spot for a change? Today we’ll learn about a new initiative which is indeed a bright spot – in fact, it is even named the BRITE Center. It is an innovative effort to help businesses grow, including exporting to international markets.

Karl Klein and Laurie Pieper
Karl Klein and Laurie Pieper

Under the direction of Laurie Pieper and Karl Klein, Washburn University has launched a new initiative called the BRITE Center. BRITE is an acronym for Business Resources for Innovation, Technology, and Exporting. Karl and Laurie are also director and assistant director, respectively, of the Washburn University Small Business Development Center or SBDC. Karl is based in Topeka, and Laurie is based in Manhattan. Both had extensive small-business ownership experience before assuming their current roles.

The BRITE Center began in January 2021. “We’re seeking to address specific needs such as those of innovation and technology companies,” Laurie said. “We also want to deliver higher value services to businesses with the potential to export,” Karl added. Continue reading “Laurie Pieper and Karl Klein, BRITE Center”

Kansas Profile – Now That’s Rural: Charles Curtis

Who is the only native Kansan ever to be elected President or Vice President? (If you guessed Dwight D. Eisenhower, you would be wrong. Although Eisenhower claimed Abilene, Kansas as his home, he was born during his family’s brief stay in Texas.) Who is the first Native American Indian ever to be elected President or Vice President? The answer to that question is the same as the correct answer to the first one: Charles Curtis is the first native Kansan and first Native American Indian to be elected to the nation’s second-highest office. His life is an amazing example of how education and hard work created a rags-to-riches success story. Thanks to the Kansas Historical Society and the U.S. Senate website for this information.

Charles Curtis

Charles Curtis was born in north Topeka. His father was Orren Curtis and his mother was Ellen Pappan who was one-quarter Kaw Indian. Charles was the great-grandson of White Plume, a Kansa-Kaw chief who had offered assistance to the Lewis and Clark expedition. White Plume’s daughter married a French-Canadian trader, so Charles grew up speaking French and Kansa before he learned English.

His mother died in 1863 at about the time his father left to fight in the Civil War. Charles was raised by his grandparents at the Kaw Reservation near the rural community of Council Grove, population 2,051 people. Now, that’s rural.

Young Charley learned to ride Indian ponies bareback. He became a successful jockey.  He was also the hero of a cross-country run to warn Topeka about upcoming Cheyenne Indian raids.

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Kansas Profile – Now That’s Rural: John and Jina Kugler, Bug Hounds LLC

Let’s go to a retirement home in Illinois where a contractor is using a highly sensitive bed bug detection system. This system is self-propelled, 100% natural, highly accurate in detecting bed bugs, and when it’s done, it just might climb up on your lap and lick your face. This detection system is a dog. Today we’ll learn about an innovative Kansas couple that is building a business using canines for locating bed bugs.

John and Jina Kugler are the founders of this business known as Bug Hounds LLC.  John grew up at Lebanon, Kansas, where

Left to right: John, Jina and Jayson Kugler, with Finndy, Beddy, and Cocoa

he enjoyed hunting dogs. He met Jina in school and they later married. K-State drew John and Jina to Manhattan. She studied education and became a teacher and is now a school counselor in Wamego. John is a manager of a public facility in Topeka.

One day a bed bug surfaced in his facility, so he arranged for a pest control company to come clean out the problem. The company brought in a dog as a locator.

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