Editor’s note: Kellis Robinett began covering Kansas State sports for The Eagle last Saturday.
By Kellis Robinett
Getting started on a newspaper sports beat usually means meeting many new people and getting immersed in an athletics program in a short amount of time.
This week, my first as The Eagle’s Kansas State beat writer, has been no different. I’ve met with a lot of K-State athletic officials and coaches as I get ready for the fall sports seasons.
And yet it has been different, mostly because of a blog I used to write for on occasion.
For a five-month period ending in May, I contributed to a blog called “The Jayhawk Lounge” because I thought it would be a good way to stay in touch with some old acquaintances and write about a common interest.
At the time, I was employed by the Idaho State Journal and spent my days covering Idaho State athletics, writing columns about the local sports scene and maintaining my own personal blog on the newspaper’s Web site.
My work for the Journal was well read and I enjoyed the experience, but few outside the region were interested in reading about Idaho sports. My roots are in the Midwest, and when a half-dozen people I knew from college asked me to help them write about Kansas, I figured why not?
I considered myself a fan and watched most of the Jayhawks games in my free time anyway, so occasionally writing about them as well didn’t sound too bad.
I can’t recall how many entries I made on the blog, but I did not make all of them. I created the site’s domain name, but other than that it was a group effort. In its lifespan, it received approximately 6,000 page views.
By the time May rolled around, I was living in Nebraska and writing for the Omaha World-Herald on a freelance basis. I had intended to keep writing for the blog and even linked to it in my farewell column at the Journal. But after the move I didn’t have time to do it anymore. So I stopped.
The other authors on the blog seemed to lose their passion for the project at about the same time and the site became dormant.
The blog remained online without updates through August and was taken down shortly after I was hired by The Eagle and The Star.
My editors repeatedly asked questions about the blog during the interview process. Could I stay objective while covering the Kansas State beat? Could I give up being a fan of the University of Kansas? Would I put in the extra effort to gain the trust of my new readers?
Yes, yes and yes.
My ties to KU and my brief time writing for a fan blog will have no effect on my coverage of Kansas State.
My goal is to cover the Wildcats to the best of my ability and do so fairly. It is what our readers deserve and it is what I will give them.
To read a blog post about this from deputy editor for news Tom Shine, visit The Editor’s Desk.
42 Comments
Jeff Martin, you are back, thank God! Man, I had this horrible dream where some KU blogger took over your role at the Eagle. It was a sick dream! I mean can you imagine? His name is Kellis and he wrote things in the past like the Powercat logo was generic, that our coaches LIED when they said they heard KU players use racial slander against Denis Clemente. He forced his wife to hustle KU cookies. He even predicted KState to lose to a div 1aa team!! (We won by over 9 touchdowns by the way). I mean, can you imagine that the Eagle would be THAT out of touch with their readers?? Insane. Good thin g it was just a dream, eh, Jeff???
Kellis, I am hopeful that through the coming weeks you will meet much more classy and respectful K-Staters. I am a K-State grad and purple through & through and I initially took some of these stories of your past as a bit of a surprise. But I will choose not hold that against you. Predicting a score? How can you hold a grudge about that. Some of the other stuff…OK, its pretty rough.
I am sure it will be quite awkward at first hearing wabash cannonball & K…S…U….Wildcats! But I have no doubt it will grow on you at least a little bit. If Bill & John let you ‘in the building’ that’s enough for me. I hope you do a great job covering the ‘Cats for us. I’m actually impressed that you are willing to take on this job. You obviously have demonstrated the potential ability to perform this job from your past achievements. I’m also willing to bet what little is left in the 401k that these “posters” are not K-State grads. Maybe a few…and maybe I am wrong. I may be delusional, but I would like to think the majority of K-State alum will be loyal and show class. Amazing what happens when people hide behind a screenname.
One question I have to ask…what’s with the hawks always knocking on K-State for being an aggie school and yet taking pride in waving the wheat? The aggie school insult is one that I have never understood because it is a great source of pride for the state of Kansas. I am confident you will also find there’s so much more to Manhappiness and K-State in general.
As Robert says, you are either a Jayhawk, or a Wildcat….you can’t be both. Welcome. You have at least one K-State supporter here.
No one cares that you went to KU. We care that you wrote a bunch of bad stuff about K-State, and that you suck at writing so far.
When you wrote your first post I poked a little fun at the KU thing. I wasn’t thrilled with a KU grad taking over the beat, but I thought I’d give it time to see how you did. I had no knowledge of all the other stuff, and I’m still staying fairly ignorant of it. Mostly by choice now.
Here’s the thing… It sounds like you may have written the sorts of things that we would write about KU. I hate KU as much as anyone. I go to the Final Four every year and was there when they beat Memphis. I haven’t cheered so hard for a team other than K-State as I did Memphis that night. But man, cheering against a team isn’t the same as hating a person and being flat out hateful towards them. I came back to your first post and read the comments and felt horrible for you. Even a KU grad who was only being a fan of his team and taking shot at his rivals doesn’t deserve that. It went from playful fun to pure hatred very fast.
Part of it is also missing JMart. You’ve got some big shoes to fill. He wasn’t one of us, and I don’t think he ever even really became a fan, but he had respect for us, and for the programs. He learned to. I’m hoping you can do the same.
In my first post I wished you “good luck” tongue in cheek. In this post I mean it very genuinely. K-State fans don’t have to be hateful. We don’t have to go out of our way to attempt to destroy you because of some words on a stupid blog.
I can’t speak for everyone, but I hope that many of us can give you a chance. That’s the choice I’m making. I trust I won’t be the only fan who does.
Good luck as we continue. I hope to run into you at a game or event soon.
Kellis,
When I first heard of you and your past I was very skeptical. After a few days to think about it I think you deserve a fair chance. I DID enjoy your story today on the KSU volleyball team.
You also need to know that many, but not all, of the nasty comments are coming from posters at ksufans.com. What’s funny is they are more hateful about KSU,it’s players and coaches almost daily than you have ever shown.
I look forward to your coverage leading up to the family weekend and the game itself.
Kellis, I have to admit that I was pretty mad when I first read some of your earlier writings. I cooled off during the week and have liked your work so far, articles and blogs as well. Im actually happy you are living in Manhattan, as I think you will have better access than if you were living in Wichita or KC.
I hope this post of yours will calm some of the folks that have been more vocal in their displeasure with you. I have been embarrassed by some of the uncalled for, inappropriate things I have read or seen posted. In general, KSU people are some of the nicest people you will ever meet. That is what draws so many students to our campus, the down to earth, friendly people.
Im not looking for a “fan” in a beat writer, Im looking for information. OK, a slight positive slant might be appreciated. Its going to be an “interesting” football season and a very exciting basketball season, not to mention volleyball. Keep us posted, good news or bad.
I like pizza…and ice cream…but not mixed together.
Tuffy & kanman, thank you for proving to me that I wasn’t delusional. True die hard K-State alum/fans, are awesome. They are above some of the crap that has been posted over the past week in the comments section. Some of which is probably posted by twelve year olds.
One more week & Kellis will be sporting a purple EMAW shirt & pants. OK, ditch the purple pants. Had the Nebraska game turned out differently, I probably would not dislike them as much.
Oh, and if for some reason Bill & John decide later to not let you “in”….then I’ll have to retract my above statement. But I still wish you the best of luck.
Kellis,
I had some trouble with this blog post. I keep clicking on the text but it does not link me to Meek or Manbeck’s actual work. Is there a broken link?
Hey crazycatfan…yeah, I’m a K-State grad…both undergrad and masters. In fact, I was born and raised in Manhattan. I was there in 2003 when we beat KU 10-9, and I was a ball boy in 1998. The fact is that Kellis is not a K-Stater…he is a towel wiper for Fatgino. Enough said.
Smelly, you are a liar and a cheat. Only a cheat because you know how things operate at KU, and they cheat a lot, yet you never talk about it on your blog. But a liar with this sentence, “I can’t recall how many entries I made on the blog,” You know exactly what you wrote or didn’t write. So, since you are lying about it, I am assumming the worst.
You will never get a fair shake at KSU. Would any KSU coach or official trust you with sensitive information? Or trust you calling their recruits? If you write something negative, your head will be on a platter whether your writing was fair or not. Your positive pieces, like the v-ball, story will be considered fluff pieces designed to kiss KStaters rear ends.
If Meek will take the reigns, the only thing that you will do in your short time is make him “the man” which I guess is OK, its just as easy to click on his blog and articles.
Robinette, I gave you a week longer than I should have. Your blogging, to put it lightly, sucks. Anyone with a sixth grade education can post a bunch of links with no insight or opinion included.
It’s a shame Jeffrey Martin’s beat was awarded to such a hack.
You’ve been caught in a lie. Rather than trying to blog your way out of it, head over to the new elite MHK HyVee, get the needed supplies, and put the woman to work on some POWERCAT cookies. As sys properly pointed out, quit whining about being hated and do something about it. A blog post of her holding up a tray of EMAWy sugar would be a good start*. And shaping the cookies should be easier than the jayhawk ones were with the powercat being all generic and everything.
*Just to be clear, I’ll always hate you. But the powertards might appreciate the cookies.
What’s the big deal about answering questions with a “yes”? I can do that too. “Catzacker, Do you smell like cinnamon and eliteness? Would you like some Powercat cookies? Will you probably always hate Kellis?” Yes, yes and yes. See how easy that is? Kellis, you’re a dying star. A white dwarf headed for a black hole. That’s physics. It’s inevitable.
What a whiny ass post. You are terrible.
and LMFAO! at all of your college buddies giving you props.
Kellis,
Get the hell out.
Did you already move to Manhattan? If not, put a hold on that effort. If so, start negotiating with the Eagle to reimburse you to move back.
Nothing good is going to come of this.
Kill the situation now while you still can.
A majority of us will never take you seriously, and we question your ability to do your job.
Wouldn’t you be better satisfied in a position where you are not constantly degraded by your readers? I think that would be good for you.
Again, get the hell out.
Ok, I’ve stayed out of this, but I don’t think I can anymore. We’ve got sys suggesting that the KSU fandom didn’t like J-Mart because he was black. I don’t know who these people are, but they are not representative of KSU fans or anybody in this country who has completed a college degree. Of course everything is negatively accentuated on an anonymous response board like this, but it always embarrasses me quite a bit. Look, you were a dunce for using your name to post negative stuff about a school that you’re now hoping to get paid for covering. The Eagle/Star people are bigger dunces for hiring you. That said, I’m going to stick around, see what you’re capable of. I enjoyed this blog immensely, and I hope you carry on some of the good things J-Mart was doing. Frankly, posting links to KSU articles probably isn’t one of them. If people are smart enough to find this blog, they’ve probably also seen those things. My advice, get in good with the DC Assault folks. Send a bottle of your finest to Shaky Rodriguez in Miami. Finally, learn to enjoy watching the cats, and don’t let some of the idiots here cloud your already cloudy perspective of KSU.
You are an IDIOT Kellis. Why would you want to take a job covering the biggest jerk who ever coached college football? When Snyder finds out you once blogged for the other school in Lawrence, you’re finished. Snyder will treat you worse than AIDS.
It won’t matter. You suck anyway.
A thrill to meet coach Snyder? I would rather have a root canal without anesthesia. Snyder is a classless jerk who treats the media like rotting garbage. Get ready Kellis. You’ll be next in line to feel the wrath of Mount Snyder’s eruptions.
This whole situation is just idiotic. The hire, him accepting the job, and the papers expecting KSU fans to ignore the fact that he (Kellis) was the editor of a blog that posted MANY negative thoughts about KSU. So Kellis didn’t write every single negative comment about KSU on that blog…what difference does that make? He did make comments…and KSU fans will never accept him.
He may very well be a good journalist, but he will never be a good journalist covering KSU athletics. There are some jobs that just aren’t a good fit, no matter what level of talent you bring to the table. This is one such case.
I don’t blame Kellis as much as I blame the Eagle and Star. Newspapers are already a tool of the past…and they (Eagle and Star) were already extremely lacking in ‘breaking’ KSU news. Jeffrey Martin did his best…and he did a good job…but websites like http://www.gopowercat.com and others are still far and away the best source for KSU news.
Sorry Wichita Eagle, you can try to spin this whatever way you want, but it won’t work. Tons of KSU fans know the background of this story…and KSU fans tend to talk to other KSU fans. The fans that don’t know the story…soon will.
“I had intended to keep writing for the blog and even linked to it in my farewell column at the Journal. But after the move I didn’t have time to do it anymore. So I stopped.”
-kellis robinett (August 27 2009)
great. so not only are you a standoffish ku superfan who has already rubbed some people the wrong way at the eagle, you’re also either incredibly lazy or very poor at time management. either way, kstate fans are totally screwed for the forseeable future.
“sorry guys, was totally gonna call that new ksu bball recruit but i just didn’t have the time to do it :frowny face:”
-kellis robinett (May 10 2010)
Kellis, you seem to be a nice enough DB. The Eagle has put you in an awful situation which they recognized and you did not appreciate. Seminoff and Shine should be ashamed. I wish you well.
I remember that in your Montana State will beat KSU article, you made all sorts of BS claims about KSU’s susceptability to FCS teams. I wrote from my work email account and pointed exactly how fabricated your drivel was. Remember that?
Quit, Kellis. You suck. You don’t even understand football, which typical of a KU fan.
“Would I put in the extra effort to gain the trust of my new readers?”
It took you a week to address this issue? You can’t spare 20 minutes for a radio interview to speak to your new readers? You tried to make your blog disappear and now you want us to believe that it wasn’t really your blog? This is laughable.
I know, Cocky KU, you thought K-State had no fans, and that nobody in KS read that refuse you shoveled about Montana State, but guess what KU-tard?
You’re the idiot who wrote that hateful scat, so reap:
You are obviously biased against K-State, and WE HATE (K)U!
I’m curious if there is any precedence to this at the Eagle. When has the hire of a sports journalist been so controversial, that the public outcry justifies a response from the publication? And why do you continue to refuse to listen to your readers? We are your clients – treat us as such! I don’t buy the “wait and see how he does” argument. The fact that the newspaper is now the news story makes this is huge failure on the Eagle’s part. The Arrogance of the powers that be is preventing the Eagle from doing the right thing and hiring someone else.
“My ties to KU and my brief time writing for a fan blog will have no effect on my coverage of Kansas State.
My goal is to cover the Wildcats to the best of my ability and do so fairly. It is what our readers deserve and it is what I will give them.”
Kellis, you have proven record of seeing the K-State that exists only in the self-aggrandizing fantasies of KU fans. For example, when you wrote of K-State, “the women’s basketball team is a bigger attraction than the men’s team, and the Power Cat is the most generic logo in the country,” you failed to mention that attendance to KSU WBB is among the best in the nation every year (that would have been fair), and you failed to acknowledge that the Power Cat might seem generic to a biased guy like yourself because it has been riffed-on or copied by everyone from the Carolina Panthers to high schools in Ohio (that would have been fair too). Instead of being fair and reporting all of it, you accentuated the negative and ignored the positive. You reported the K-State that exists only in the self-aggrandizing fantasies of KU fans. The K-State that only has tailgating, a sea of RVs, to offer visitors, along with its ersatz basketball and its bland logo.
Two facts you need to absorb to break-up your ridiculous, self-aggrandizing perceptual orientation:
1.The Powercat kicks ass — that’s why everyone copies it.
2. Manhattan kicks ass — especially because it’s not full of a bunch of self-absorbed, mom’s-credit-card-carrying Bohemia-wanna-be’s who think that going to KU somehow vests them as better people than just about anyone.
All I need to know is can we play a round at Alvamar as buds? I’ll bring the Dr. Pepper!
You no longer consider yourself a fan. Uh… right. This will be the last visit I make to your website. Please think better of your decision and look for another job.
Hey Kellis, remember before when I said you were a loser, bafoon and didnt deserve to live? Well while that all may be true, I am just a contributor to the Koppe22 identity,you see a few of my friends and I all write under the same name so you cant hold me responsible even though its all under my name.
Hope this makes sense to you, sure it does,
Oh FWIW, your a terrible writer and a hack and your chickensh@t lies about you not being the guy writing that blog all the time is as pathetic as your attempt to hold on to what little hair hasnt ran screaming from your head.
Have a good one.
I like the 181 friends from KU on your facebook and the 4 from KSU. Sounds about right.
Your support staff at the Eagle says, “…I did not find it hateful or mean-spirited as some K-State fans did.”
Well this K-State fan did and I think K-State fans’ opinions matters more, don’t you?
[I posted this on another thread a few days ago. Because the few loud, ruthless and hateful fans are getting louder and more desperate as they see more of the reasonable fans voicing their willingness to give Kellis a shot, I am reposting this.]
Dear Kellis,
As you undoubtedly knew (but may now be starting to question, given the tenor of these blog comments), most K-State fans are good, reasonable people. Most of us are not mean-spirited, and the (very vocal) minority of rancorous fans who post horrible things on your blog is not representative of the rest of us. While those people are fans too, and have the right to their opinions, most of us do not pre-judge, and would instead prefer to let you actually have a chance to cover KSU sports before we determine that you are somehow irredeemably unfit for the job, despite your talent that obviously impressed the Eagle staff. Please do not think that all the rest of your future readers will be haters. Welcome to Wildcat Land.
-Everyone else
RobertLipson….my wife was born and raised in Manhattan and is a K-State grad as well. Her family still lives there, she loves it & we spend a lot of time there. Did you feel as though I questioned your loyalty? Or the loyalty of K-State fans? Loyalty is obviously NOT lacking in the comments here.
There has not been much class displayed. But as stated above by Silent Majority – this is the minority posting garbage.
I’m not defending what Kellis wrote before, or his association with a crap blog. If he’s a d-bag, he’s a d-bag. And it’s OK to dislike KU & other rival schools. But keep things in perspective and maybe show a little class. Are you worried he’s going to steal some secrets or something? No writer, no matter how reputable, is going to steal anything useful for Mangino & KU. Maybe under Prince’s watch, I don’t know, but sure as hell not in the fortress that is there now.
I have no idea who Kellis is other than what has shown up here over the past week. I have responded like a few other people here b/c I read the articles & was lurking. I didn’t like what I saw from people stating they are “K-Staters”.
Again, didn’t say you have to like the guy. But the constant posting putting the guy down is getting old.
Kellis – maybe you should drop the links for lunch thing, it’s not getting such great reviews.
Some of you need some other stuff going on in your life. If your glasses have that much of a purple tint in them what are doing this far off the reservation?
I like the Links for Lunch, and I’ll wait to read some actual reports from the beat before making a decision.
Make a tee time!
Two things:
It won’t be awkward hearing the Wabash or KSU chants. Heard them both many times and like them. Hard to dislike anything so original.
And I don’t know why anyone would knock a college because it is an “aggie school.” But it seems to happen everywhere. Growing up in Austin, I heard aggie jokes referring to Texas A&M every five minutes.
Grow up children. You’re a disgrace to K-State.
Having worked with Kellis on his previous beat covering my school, you guys are getting a great writer … he may have went to Kansas, but he will cover the K-State beat thoroughly, and he will get you folks the stories you want.
He’s a pretty good poker player too.
ISUSID
Wow, your ties to KU seem pretty strong. You still act like a KU fan.
Meek=The new king on the hill. The rest are leftovers.
Kellis, thanks for responding to my post.
And apologies for the language in the follow up to Rob. Was trying to make a point, I think. May have contradicted myself. I’m sure to a KU or non K-State fan your prior blog was good & obviously the work before that has been well received.
You could prove you are not a liar,(to me at least) by naming the others on your blog and telling specifically what articles you wrote and what articles others wrote. Your vague admission is very Clinton-like.
Don’t start out your job by telling lies to our fan base.