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Red Dog Days: A Lawrence tradition

Journal-World staff reports

Saturday, July 19, 2003

Don "Red Dog" Gardner, a retired Lawrence police office, has run the popular summer conditioning program for the last 21 years.

Journal-World File Photo Don "Red Dog" Gardner will begin his 20th year of Red Dog's Dog Days this week. Red Dog Days, as the annual community conditioning program is more affectionately known, begins Tuesday at Kansas University's Memorial Stadium.

During June, the sessions are at 6 a.m. and 6:15 p.m. on Tuesdays and Thursdays at Kansas University's Memorial Stadium. Beginning July 5 and running until early August, the program expands to workouts at 6 a.m., noon and 6:15 p.m. Mondays through Thursdays.

Also, run-walk sessions are scheduled at 6:30 a.m. and 8 a.m. on Saturdays in June and July, starting at the Lied Center parking lot.

Gardner originally started the program with fellow police officer Jim "Punkin'" O'Connell as a summer conditioning program for Lawrence's high school football players. The program was expanded over the years to include all high school and junior high athletes.

They also began allowing anyone in the community to come to the workouts, as long as they followed certain rules, such as no cell phones or portable stereos during the workouts, which last 30 to 45 minutes. People from all walks of life, including KU professors, local attorneys, doctors, firefighters, police officers, artists, musicians, computer programmers, newspaper and television reporters, coaches and parents attend the workouts.

Journal-World File Photo Isabella Hedges and her daughter, Kris, run during the last day of Red Dog's Dog Days in this file photo. The summer conditioning program, run by Don "Red Dog" Gardner, is dedicated to helping high school athletes and adults stay in shape.

Red Dog's Dog Days attracts as many as 800 to 1,000 participants a day during the late summer and Gardner has a group of volunteers who check in people each day. There is no fee, although donations are accepted and Gardner collects aluminum cans to help defray the costs of getting T-shirts for everyone who comes a designated number of times.

A smaller group continues to work out together during the fall at the stadium and in the winter at Allen Fieldhouse. You can visit the official Web site at http://www.ddays.com or http://www.RedDogsDogDays.com