Not long after Mark Mangino was hired to be Kansas' football coach I was at Allen Fieldhouse for another one of those horribly ugly games Kelvin Sampson and Roy Williams used to play every year.

Before the tip, I walked up to the newly hired Mangino, stuck out my hand and congratulated him. He greeted me by name, I said something like "Don't change," or "Be yourself," and he said something like, "How could I be anybody else?"

Because when he coached for Bob Stoops, Mangino was the prince of the media. He enjoyed the questions, did his best to answer them, was constantly gregarious and clearly thrilled to be coaching in Norman.

Like he'd just gotten out of prison or something, and perhaps he had, plucked from Bill Snyder's Kansas State staff along with Mike Stoops and Brent Venables, soon after Bob Stoops began assembling his original Sooner staff.

I liked him. Everybody liked him. And as every media member who knows anything knows well, a great way to buy time, patience and goodwill from people whose time, patience and goodwill any football coach should want is to get along with the media.

I wished that for him.

But it wasn't long before stories of a Mangino nobody here knew began tumbling out. It wasn't that he wanted an attitude adjustment from the players in the program, but the secretaries and janitors, too. There were tales of media manipulation, the kinds of things you couldn't even level at the school paper.

There have been public embarrassments since. He was banned from the sideline after challenging officials at one of his son's football games. He berated a KU police officer who had ticketed his vehicle for parking in a loading zone.

Again, not the guy any of us knew here.

Now, every public misstep Mangino has ever made is being trumped by his ... poking a player in the chest?

It sounds ridiculous, but that's the storyline coming out of Lawrence, where Tuesday KU began an internal investigation into the coach's behavior and methods as a response to linebacker Arist Wright's being, yes, poked in the chest.

It sounds outrageous and it would be if that's what it's about. But that's not what it's about. Instead, it's about Mangino's history, bridges he may have burned; maybe, though we never saw that side of him here -- so much so that a tear in the space-time continuum might seem a better explanation -- he's just worn everybody slick in the land of the Jayhawks.

Thursday a story under the headline "Not-so-gentle reign" appeared on the Web site of the Lawrence Journal World. Half of it was devoted to those inclined to defend Mangino, but the other half wasn't.

KU's hometown paper confirmed a story first reported by rivals.com Mangino once told wide receiver Raymond Brown, in practice, "Don't yes sir me or I will send you back to St. Louis so you can get shot with your homies."

Brown's brother had recently been hospitalized, the result of a gunshot wound.

In a story appearing on ESPN.com, Brown told of another incident in which Mangino berated a player who had confided in the coach his father's alcoholism.

"One day, (Mangino) said in front of the entire team, 'Are you going to be a lawyer or do you want to become an alcoholic like your dad?" Brown was quoted.

It's ugly stuff.

Thursday, the consensus opinion on ESPN's "Outside The Lines" was Mangino's toast, his days numbered.

Earlier this week he said he still had the support of his players, but may have lost the support of "some people around here."

Thursday on the radio, Mangino said, "There are people who want to embarrass the program for their 15 minutes of fame."

Sad, but hardly a denial.

Joe Mortensen, a captain and linebacker on last year's team told ESPN, "What goes around, comes around. We were afraid if we said something he would hurt us with the (pro) scouts. But these incidents were day after day after day for years. And now it's finally coming out."

Sad, that's a captain talking.

Disgruntled players? Sure.

Doesn't make them liars.

Yes, football's a tough, violent and emotional sport. Yet Bob Stoops seems tough enough, is far more media-tolerant than friendly, but he's never had a problem like this.

Mike Gundy's most famous tirade was delivered at a media member and it wasn't slanderous so much as hilarious.

You want to believe in Mangino. You want to believe he's only a fine football coach, not a bully, tyrant or jerk. Not Bob Knight, size XXXXXL.

You remember him so happy here and see him so miserable there. You remember telling him to be himself.

You wonder who that is.

Clay Horning 366-3526 cfhorning@normantranscript.com