Return to Cornell Aim of Paralyzed Gridder
by Jim Hanchett
Sunday News, 07/04/1971

While most collegians are hardly into their vacations, most of Ken Kunken’s waking thoughts – and dreams – concern plans to return to school.
Ken, of Oceanside, was forced to quit Cornell last Oct. 31 when he broke the third and fourth cervical vertebrae of his neck making a tackle in a lightweight division football game against Columbia at Ithaca. From that day till this he has been almost completely paralyzed from the neck down.
Paralyzed, but not helpless. In the eight months in which he has been hospitalized, Ken has recovered some use of his left arm – enough to learn, with braces, splints and other tools, to type 1o words per minute; to feed himself to a certain extent; to operate an electric wheelchair.
Now he dreams of getting back to that hilly Cornell campus in the fall and continuing his education. /full article/