I was raised in Jayhawk Country, in southern Johnson County. The last member of my family to attend KSU was my great-grandfather. My uncles and aunts all went to ku, and my closet was full of Jayhawk garb. Each year in March, I’d be crestfallen when Syracuse, or Illinois, or Arizona, or Virginia, or UTEP, or Rhode Island, or some other team would end the season for the Jayhawks. I was excited when June Henley ran all over KSU. I was the lone Jayhawk fan among my fellow 4-H’ers, and I’d wear my Jayhawk garb when I attended an event at KSU.
When it came time to choose a college, I had plenty of options. I had thoughts of going to ku, obviously, but then two things happened. First, I decided I was interested in studying agriculture. Second, I ran into Pat Bosco at the KSU booth at the state fair my junior year in high school. He saw some Jayhawk material in my hand, and offered me a KSU t-shirt if I’d throw the ku stuff away. I complied, but didn’t expect to ever see a t-shirt. Next week, a t-shirt arrived in the mail. The next spring, KSU sent me reams of material and scholarship offers, along with most of the other Big XII schools, while ku didn’t send me a thing. Late in the fall of my senior year, I decided on KSU, and the first KSU football game I watched as a KSU fan was the Fiesta Bowl.
The next fall, I got into KSU football big time. I camped out in the ICAT line in Bramlage a few days into my first semester to make sure I got tickets. I painted my face and wore a purple wig and welcomed Channel 9’s viewers to the Big XII championship in St. Louis, hours before my heart was ripped out. After that, I went down to San Antonio for the encore performance.
Basketball season rolled around, and although my introduction to KSU basketball was Tan Tom’s descent, watching Manny Dies and Shawn Rhodes was still fun and got me hooked on Cat hoops.
As college progressed, I went on football road trips to every Big XII North school, and to the Holiday Bowl and Insight.com bowl. The most memorable ones include hanging on at Mizzou in 1998, the pasting of Colorado in Boulder in 2000, freezing my kibbles and bits off in Ames in 2003, and watching the Cats blow out NU in Lincoln a week later.
I had front row tickets to the beginning of the Wooly era his first two years, and beat everyone else to the ticket line his second year by three hours…seriously overestimated the demand for student season tickets that time around.
I’ve seen the Cats play football in Manhattan, Lawrence, Columbia, Lincoln, Boulder, Ames, Norman, St. Louis, Kansas City, San Antonio, Phoenix, Tempe, and San Diego. I’ve seen the basketball team lose two games in Allen Fieldhouse and win one. I’ve been on ABC and local stations a couple of times and the jumbotron a lot more.
And, in a final twist of fate, I played the hapless Jayhawk in a Willie skit and got slammed into the basketball goal.
