Weird Robert

[SkinnyBenny]

Don't remember which of the 55,000 Weird Robert threads it was, but we were debating on whether he was in Lafayette a few years ago and the answer is no.

SE: But you were always somewhat of a sports junkie.

Lipson: Yeah. When I stayed home from the Lafayette (Louisiana) football game a couple years ago, I counted 23 different games on all the channels that day. Back when I was in high school you wouldn't see 23 games on TV in one season.

So basically he skipped the La-la game and is a terrible fan because of it.

[SkinnyBenny]

INTRODUCING THE REAL ROBERT LIPSON

By Mark Janssen   

Kansas State's No. 1 sports fan is Robert J. Lipson.

Known simply as "Robert," he's a fixture at every Wildcat sporting event, home, and in the case of football in particular, away.

There have been baseball trips, women's basketball junkets, NCAA basketball tournaments, and away Big 8/12 football games that will reach 150 in a row with this week's trip to Stillwater, Okla.

That's from Oct. 13, 1973, to Nov. 5, 2011 ... with a perfect attendance record in games he's traveled to by foot, and in a trio of "jalopies" from a 1972 Subaru, to a 1979 Nissan pickup, to today's "twenty-hundred" black Nissan Frontier.

"It went from all 9's to all 0's on the way back from Texas Tech," said the 62-year-old Lipson, in reference to his odometer flipping from 199,999 to 200,000 miles.

Lipson calls Oklahoma the best hitchhiking state, and he's even traveled across the ocean for the 1992 Big 8 game played against Nebraska in Tokyo, Japan.

Friday, he'll leave his home in Manhattan's Green Valley Mobile Estates and head to Stillwater all dressed in his "road grays," which will include a new gray sweatshirt lettered in purple with the significance of the game ... the 150th consecutive Big 8/12 football road game covering portions of five decades.

Today, "Sports Extra" introduces Lipson, the person and the fan.

Sports Extra: From Liberty, N.Y., a couple hours northwest of New York City, touch on your background with your father, Irwin, and mother, Harriot.

Robert Lipson: My father was a carpenter and my mother a house wife. My father is at the tender young age of 92 years old as of Nov. 13 ... the day after we will beat A&M. He's very stringent. He would nag me a lot. My father is just like Jack Hartman was, but not into sports. But my father was old-school and stringent. Mother passed away the Thursday before the 1998 game with Missouri.

SE: Were you, or your parents, into sports when you were growing up?

Lipson: No. I ran cross country and ran track ... slowly. But I tell people I played football ... end, guard and tackle. I sat on the end of the bench, guarded the cheerleaders and tackled anyone who came close to them. I tell people I played offensive and defensive left-out.

I was a loner, but I always liked sports. My family was run of the mill Jewish people. They didn't care about sports. They were as basic as oatmeal cereal.

SE: But you were always somewhat of a sports junkie.

Lipson: Yeah. When I stayed home from the Lafayette (Louisiana) football game a couple years ago, I counted 23 different games on all the channels that day. Back when I was in high school you wouldn't see 23 games on TV in one season.

As a kid I loved all my teams from the Liberty Indians, the Farmingdale Aggies and all the New York teams - Mets, Jets, Yankees, Giants - where there were two teams in every sport. I pulled for both sides. I always had two chances to win the Super Bowl.

SE: From Liberty, N.Y., to Manhattan, Kan. How did that happen?

Lipson: I didn't have the grades to go to college out of high school, so I went to Farmingdale, but still did not have the grades to go to a big school, so had to stay an extra semester in the fall of 1971 just to pull up grades. Farmingdale was a junior college at the time ... an Ag and Tech juco. A two-year version of K-State or Texas Tech. After Farmingdale, I looked all over for schools with biology programs. I was fascinated with what life was. How can you have an amoeba over here and a grain of sand over there; one has life and the other doesn't. Why?  Kansas State had micro-biology and proto-zoology and other classes that interested me. Cal-Berkley turned me down. I could have been a Bear and not a Wildcat. K-State turned me down the first time, but not the second.

I had an illusion of grandeur. I was going to work in Brookhaven National Laboratory as a lab technician in Long Island. It's what I was trained for out of Farmingdale ... biological technology.

SE: Today you're employed by the Brown and Bigelow advertising company. What exactly do you do to make a living, which allows you to go to all these games?

Lipson:  I try to work on sales visits to make my trips business trips and can write-off some of the expenses. I sell anything you can print advertising on ... anything. I go from Concordia, to Salina, to Emporia, to Lawrence. This year I might make $13,500 before taxes; last year it was $17,000. I get paid only by commission. I don't have a computer, so I fax all my orders in.

Brown and Bigelow has been around since 1895 ... one of the old direct houses. They're one of the dinosaurs in the business.

At one time I tried to do advertising specialties on my own, but I didn't have a clue. I just had illusions of grandeur. My father gave me thousands of dollars to get started, but I had no idea what I was doing for 31 months.

I sell to a lot of great Kansas State people, and there are some class act Thunderhawk (Kansas Jayhawk) people. You find some here and there.

SE: Outside of K-State athletics and work, what else do you enjoy?

Lipson: (Long pause) I don't know. I watch the History channel ... Discovery and National Geographic. The rest (channels) are foolish.

SE: Robert, how did the streak all begin ...38 seasons ago and 150 consecutive games ago?

Lipson: I decided to see what the other Big 8 venues looked like, so I went to Kansas, Missouri, Oklahoma State and Colorado in 1973, and in 1974 I went to Iowa State, Oklahoma and Nebraska in 1974 (listing the games in their correct order by memory) ... then I just thought I would keep it going. I'm not sure if it was for foolish reasons back then, or just loyalty to the school. I was just young and excited and just kept going. I honestly thought I was making a difference.

In 1975 I just decided to make another cycle of trips and then tried to see how long it could go and now here I am.

It's been a difficult time for me lately with Nebraska and Colorado leaving the league, and Texas A&M leaving because I've become very devoted to the conference with this special project of mine over the last four decades. It's been very unpleasant for me, for sure.

SE: Do even you find it a bit unusual to keep such a streak going for what was such a lousy football team in the 1970s and 1980s. I mean, of your first 34 trips, you cheered a victory only twice!

Lipson: I know that (about the losses), and yes I do find it strange today. But I was so excited in the 1970s and `80s because I knew I was helping. I know now I could have spent my life doing better things, and lived a more normal life had I stuck with sales, but I owed it to Kansas State. If I had to do it over again, I would have put my livelihood first, but at the time the streak was most important to me, and now I just can't give it up. It wouldn't be fair to Kansas State.

SE: But why not say 150 road games is enough?

Lipson: (A look of disbelief at the question.) Can you imagine what a God-awful shame that would be to K-Staters everywhere? I don't know how I could that. This is something you cannot do again. It wouldn't be good; it would be unthinkable to stop the streak.

SE: Did you ever come close to not going to a game?

Lipson: Never. But in 1975 I missed the entire first half at Colorado, but at least I got there for the second half and saw Joe Hatcher throw a touchdown pass for the first time in about four games. I think we went 17 consecutive quarters without a touchdown. We lost too, but at least I saw us score.

Remember, Ellis Rainsberger went 0-fer during his three years here. (Rainsberger was 0-21 in all Big 8 games during his three-year stay.)

SE: Have you been to every bowl game?

Lipson: Yeah, including the Coca Cola Bowl in Tokyo in 1972 against Nebraska. I did that with the Alumni Association. I had a couple thousand dollars available.

SE: The Aloha Bowl?

Lipson: Yeah, the team charter had empty seats.

SE: Was the 2003 Big 12 title win your high?

Lipson: Sure. That's the high for any K-State fan.

SE: And I'm guessing your low was the loss to A&M in St. Louis at another title game?

Lipson: Yes. I didn't handle that well. I wasn't sure I would make it. None of us can get over that. Today I have a tough time with it. That night I slept in my Nissan at a rest stop. It was terrible.

I had got comfortable in winning and just didn't see it coming. We knew we would win. All we cared about was Miami beating UCLA. That happened, but then we collapsed. Michael Bishop was holding the ball wrong and an Aggie hit his elbow, another Aggie jumped on it, and then there was no stopping the Aggies.

SE: Basketball road games ... do you go to many?

Lipson: I don't go to many. I will go to A&M this year because they are leaving our conference. I try to go to four or five each season.  I've missed my share of NCAA Tournaments, but did go to Salt Lake City, and others.

SE: You had many years when you would hitch hike.

Lipson: Yes, I would hold up a sign in the school colors saying the destination. Going to Oklahoma once I held up my sign and a Texas fan gave me the middle index finger back. I had good luck with hitch hiking, but I don't do it anymore. There are too many crazies out there. It's not safe.

SE: Where do you stay on your road trips?

Lipson: I just know how to survive on the road. I bring road game rations with me for 10 days. I know how to survive up to a week if they would close the roads. I bring a shovel, a crow bar and ice pick to hack me out of ice storm.

SE: What do you normally eat?

Lipson: At times. I eat mostly vegetarian.

I'm a vegetarian, but I do take hotdogs or hamburgers home and put them in the freezer and eat them later. I like junk food only in moderation and on special occasions. Mainly I eat watermelon, grapes ... stuff like that.

SE: Do you feel like coaches appreciate your efforts?

Lipson: Yes, I'm sure they do. I got in "William the Conqueror's" (LHC Bill Snyder) doghouse one year for giving an injury report on a radio show, but he got over that. I've been reprimanded by LHC Bill Snyder before. It's not fun. In the 20-hundred season LHC Bill Snyder told me that we were going to play Iowa and I put that on the radio before the media knew. (Pause) He didn't like that.

SE: You say, '20-hundred' instead of 2000. Why?

Lipson: Well, it's 19-hundred, and 1910, so it's 20-hundred and 20-ten. Two thousand is the number of pounds in a ton, not a calendar year. The calendar year is 20-hundred, and not 2,000.

SE: Let me toss some names at you and let you respond. LHC Bill Snyder.

Lipson: "William the Conqueror." He's the best coach to ever coach the game at any level. He's unbelievable. I've seen different winning coaches and losing coaches, and here are the things that separate him.  He's intelligent, pure and honest. It always starts with intelligence. He's a very kind person who cares about K-State. It wasn't going to be a stepping stone to go to Tommy Trojan (USC), or another big time program.

SE: Frank Martin.

Lipson: "Francisco." He's a big-time recruiter.

SE: Jack Hartman.

Lipson: `Captain Jack' had tremendous confidence, tremendous mental toughness, tremendous intelligence and well organized ... those are the big-four that every successful person has.

SE:  Do you have one remaining goal for the Wildcats as their No. 1 fan?

Lipson: To win the big cup in football, men's basketball or any other sport.

A FEW ROBERT-ISMS:
On a thick stack of 5x7 notecards, Lipson once delivered football coach Jim Dickey a new offensive system called the "Sledgehammer." Privately, Dickey marveled at how detailed the plays were X-and-O'ed.

On the hiring of LHC Bill Snyder in 1989, Lipson had his doubts: "I thought he was a soft, easy, gentle guy. I thought, `This guy won't ever get it done.' This guy was soft and easy ... just like an Uncle Larry."

Lipson once approached coach Jack Hartman after a game in Columbia, Mo., and asked to ride the team bus back to Manhattan because his car had broken down. "Captain Jack told me to get in the back of the bus and not cause any trouble."  Part way home, Hartman asked Lipson where his car had broken down.  "In Manhattan," Lipson said.

Another Columbia story had Lipson waving good-bye to the team as it left Ahearn Field House for the Missouri game. As the team bus pulled into the team hotel in Columbia, Lipson was there waving hello to the team. He had hitch-hiked, and beat the team to Columbia. "I don't remember that story, but it could have happened," said Lipson.

[Rage Against the McKee]

Don't remember which of the 55,000 Weird Robert threads it was, but we were debating on whether he was in Lafayette a few years ago and the answer is no.

SE: But you were always somewhat of a sports junkie.

Lipson: Yeah. When I stayed home from the Lafayette (Louisiana) football game a couple years ago, I counted 23 different games on all the channels that day. Back when I was in high school you wouldn't see 23 games on TV in one season.

So basically he skipped the La-la game and is a terrible fan because of it.

That doesn't make him a terrible fan, but it does make him a Jayhawk.

[wabash909]

Awesome.

SE: Where do you stay on your road trips?

Lipson: I just know how to survive on the road. I bring road game rations with me for 10 days. I know how to survive up to a week if they would close the roads. I bring a shovel, a crow bar and ice pick to hack me out of ice storm.

[8manpick]

Known simply as "Robert,"

[kso_FAN]

SE: You say, '20-hundred' instead of 2000. Why?

Lipson: Well, it's 19-hundred, and 1910, so it's 20-hundred and 20-ten. Two thousand is the number of pounds in a ton, not a calendar year. The calendar year is 20-hundred, and not 2,000.

Robert is amazing.

[SkinnyBenny]

Guys, we're only 10 days away. What do you think  has in store for us this season? Any curve balls that he's getting ready to throw? Place your bets now. Or just tell me a funny Weird Robert story.

[Ich.Gewinne]

Guys, we're only 10 days away. What do you think  has in store for us this season? Any curve balls that he's getting ready to throw? Place your bets now. Or just tell me a funny Weird Robert story.

But.. "Double Play Cats!!", with no one on the bases.. that's all I have experienced.. Sad - I know 

[Sandstone Outcropping]

Does he use the internet? I think he would be an entertaining poster.

[Frankenklein]

sometime around 76 or 77 I worked with Robert and he kept all his Cat ticket stubs in an old army coat he wore

[SkinnyBenny]

Forgot until now that he called Frank "Fransisco Martin." 


Also this.

But selling out the opener won't be nearly enough. You have to do more. You must attend & sell out every home game then sell out our allotment to all of the road games in conference play including I-State in Arrowhead Stadium. Please do not wait until the team goes 13-1 in 2011 before selling out the stadium. If you do then you are really a Jayhawk. Now is the time to decide are you either a Wildcat or a Jayhawk. You cannot be both. I promised John Currie that I would have all the home games, plus our allotment for all the road games in conference play completely sold out by publishing this letter to you. Please do not make me look foolish.

http://kansasstate.rivals.com/content.asp?CID=980737

[Shacks]

Does he use the internet? I think he would be an entertaining poster.

He'd be similar to elwood

[Big Sam]

Friend I now work with was in the same dorm with Robert.  The one thing that stood out most about Robert was watching him hang out with some cat (as in feline) and eat tuna with it.  A forkful for Robert.  A forkful for the cat.  A forkful for Robert.  And so on.

[Winters]

Friend I now work with was in the same dorm with Robert.  The one thing that stood out most about Robert was watching him hang out with some cat (as in feline) and eat tuna with it.  A forkful for Robert.  A forkful for the cat.  A forkful for Robert.  And so on.

[ksupamplemousse]

Friend I now work with was in the same dorm with Robert.  The one thing that stood out most about Robert was watching him hang out with some cat (as in feline) and eat tuna with it.  A forkful for Robert.  A forkful for the cat.  A forkful for Robert.  And so on.

Best Robert story so far.

[SkinnyBenny]

Heart of gold.

[Bqqkie Pimp]

 


 

[Dugout DickStone]

 

[puniraptor]

wow!

[RickRampus]

he came by the farmer's market the other day, sampled our summer sausage and called it "fascinating". 
I've never had it described that way. 

[TaqMan]

Doppelganger?

[SkinnyBenny]

Great bump. Clearly Bookie Pimp is not a Jayhawk.

[MadCat]

Now we know what WR does on bye weeks.

[detch23]

Doppelganger?

Kats sweater -- Check
Kats sweater at a game where the Kats are not playing -- Check
Nobody around him that seems to know him -- Check

The only thing that's missing is his radio. It's gotta be him right?

[slobber]

Doppelganger?

Kats sweater -- Check
Kats sweater at a game where the Kats are not playing -- Check
Nobody around him that seems to know him -- Check

The only thing that's missing is his radio. It's gotta be him right?

Foam finger?