If not for a quirk of fate combined with the courage of a high school government teacher to flunk him in a class his senior year, the under-sized, under-the-radar Frank Mason was bound for school at Towson State and on trajectory to anonymity.
Instead, the University of Kansas senior from Petersburg, Va., on Thursday was named The Associated Press national player of the year — a first to a Jayhawk for an award they began giving in 1961 ... just after the KU days of Wilt Chamberlain and, earlier, Clyde Lovellette.
So no wonder Mason’s parents were charmingly conspicuous at the accompanying news conference, cheering as he received the honor and later searching for the right words to describe an out-of-body feeling.