Contact: Jennifer Jackson Sanner, KU Alumni Association, (785) 864-4760.
LAWRENCE--Former KU football player Gil M. Reich and longtime track coach Robert L. Timmons will be honored Sept. 22 as recipients of the Fred Ellsworth Medallion.
Awarded since 1975, the Ellsworth Medallion is given to those who follow the example of service to KU set by former executive secretary of the Alumni Association Fred Ellsworth, who retired in 1963 after 39 years at KU. Winners are selected by representatives from the Chancellor's office and the Alumni, Athletics and Endowment associations.
Reich, who graduated with an engineering degree in 1954, worked for 35 years with the Equitable Life Assurance Society of the United States. After retiring in 1988, he began volunteering for the KU Endowment Association as a member of the national council and steering committee for Campaign Kansas. Through the campaign, Reich earned a major gift for the KU Libraries. He was appointed to the Board of Directors of the Alumni Association in 1994 and also has served as vice president, executive vice president and president. He will continue working on the executive committee through 2001.
As a student athlete at KU, Reich earned All-America honors as quarterback and halfback and had an unlikely entrance to the basketball team. Sitting on the sidelines with a broken hand sustained in a football game, he was approached by coach Forrest C. "Phog" Allen, who asked if he could play that night. Reich became the only KU athlete to play in a varsity basketball game without one day of practice.
Timmons, who graduated in 1950 with a master's degree in education, also has a long affiliation with the university. He retired as head track coach in 1988 after a 24-year tenure. His coaching career included four NCAA championships as well as numerous indoor, outdoor and cross-country championships.
In the 1970s, Timmons began building a cross-country course on his family's Rim Rock Farm north of Lawrence, which has served as KU's home course since 1980. Timmons hosted the 1998 NCAA Division I and II cross country championships, the first time KU hosted an NCAA meet since 1966.