Johnny’s Tavern owner discusses Les Miles’ Hawk Talk appearance after COVID diagnosis
Rick Renfro, the owner of Johnny’s Tavern West, wasn’t in his Lawrence restaurant/bar to greet University of Kansas football coach Les Miles before the start of Wednesday night’s weekly Hawk Talk show.
“I left at 6:30. He usually gets there at 5 ‘til 7,” Renfro explained Thursday in a phone interview with The Star.
Renfro’s establishment, the location for the hour-long Hawk Talk radio and TV program, was in the news Thursday after second-year KU coach Miles revealed he had tested positive Thursday for COVID-19 coronavirus.
Patrons in the audience at Hawk Talk naturally might be wondering if they need to be concerned about possible exposure to the virus.
“I called them as soon as I found out what was going on,” Renfro said of contacting Lawrence-Douglas County Public Health officials. “They called back. I told them all the protocol we’ve been doing (including requiring customers to wear masks and sit 6 feet apart), which they already knew. They just wanted to make sure we did it (protocol) last night and make sure he was not walking around shaking hands without a mask on and all that.”
Renfro said Miles was seated with Hawk Talk host Brian Hanni more than 6 feet from any patrons.
“He wasn’t (walking around),” Renfro said. “They (health officials) wanted to make sure that didn’t happen. They contacted our two wait staff that waited on him (Miles). They were not in close contact. They had masks on. He had his mask on. The only time he took his mask off is when doing his interview with Brian. We had plexiglass in front of (the interview table, with dividers separating Miles and Hanni).”
A source who has attended each of Miles’ Hawk Talk shows this year told The Star that Wednesday’s show “was not crowded at all. It was the worst attendance of the year.”
Renfro, who played rugby at KU in the 1970s, said county health officials told him, “they think it’s a low threshold risk (of anybody getting COVID from contact with Miles at Johnny’s).”
Lawrence-Douglas County Public Health communications officer George Diepenbrock said this to The Star in an email: “At this point, after communication with KU and the owner of Johnny’s Tavern West, we would not consider those in general attendance at Wednesday night’s airing of Hawk Talk to be at high risk for exposure. This is based on the protocols they had in place and implemented for the show, including social distancing, mask wearing during restaurant movement and use of plexiglass barriers.”
Diepenbrock added: “With all positive COVID-19 cases in Douglas County, Lawrence-Douglas County Public Health’s disease investigators work to identify close contacts — individuals who spent more than 10 minutes within 6 feet of the person who tested positive all the way back to 48 hours before the patient’s onset of symptoms. When close contacts are identified, a public health contact tracer will make contact and notify them they’ve potentially been exposed and that they need to quarantine for 14 days since their last exposure. Because risk of COVID-19 transmission is present in the community right now, we encourage anyone who feels symptomatic right now to self-quarantine and contact their healthcare provider.”
Renfro learned on Thursday that Miles, when asked by Hanni whether he had any additional health news on the KU team to report, indicated he had a “cold.”
Miles added jokingly, “I’m definitely probable (for KU’s next game a week from Saturday at West Virginia). ... (I’m) definitely going to be there.”
The exchange on the show begged the question: If Miles believed he had a cold, why did he attend Hawk Talk in person Wednesday amid the pandemic? A request by The Star for KU coach Miles to comment was not immediately answered.
Renfro said: “You know, I just heard about that today. I didn’t take his temperature, nor did I hear him sniffling or any of that; so I don’t know about that.
“I’m not mad,” Renfro added. “We are all trying to live our lives. I think the health and safety of our customers and staff is of the utmost importance. That’s why we’ve gotten definite information from the health department — local officials — ‘What are all the best practices (to run a restaurant during pandemic)?’
“I am confident Les got it from somewhere else. We are going to show because we are making everyone wear masks and be 6 feet apart … it’s not going to contaminate the whole place.”
Renfro continued: “I hope he gets well, hope he has one of the symptom-less deals, and all he has is a sniffle or whatever. How can you get mad at people? ...
“I think it’s a good opportunity to prove to everybody we can go about our lives. We have to socialize. We, in the restaurant business, are good at educating people. First, we told them (patrons) they couldn’t drink too much, don’t drive (after drinking over legal limit). Then we told them they couldn’t smoke indoors.
“Now we are telling them they’ve got to wear a mask and have got to stay 6 feet apart. It’s part of the process. It’s like football and everything else. You have that many people in your organization, somebody is going to get it (virus). You just have to work around it.”
This story was originally published October 8, 2020 at 11:54 PM with the headline "Johnny’s Tavern owner discusses Les Miles’ Hawk Talk appearance after COVID diagnosis."
